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As the tow truck driver flipped me the 'You're #1' middle finger, he drove off along with my guest's truck despite said guest standing next to the truck. The introduction of Diamond Parking for the harbor's parking lot management has brought about a lot of changes. Sure, there's less cars in the lot, but there's more disgruntled car owners. The last free parking in Waikiki had died. Offering free parking is not profitable. No corporation can directly benefit their shareholder's bank account from offering free parking. If you can't afford to pay a premium for parking, then you have no business operating a car. However, the parking fiasco is merely indicative of a greater corruption harming the public's best interest.

In August 2008, the DLNR granted a permit to Diamond Parking to take over management of the Ala Wai harbor's parking stalls. Upon reading in the DLNR proposal that Diamond Parking had been confirmed in "good standing," I couldn't support a snort, wondering what the state had in mind. Sure, in the Better Business Bureau rates Diamond Parking's Honolulu office with a "satisfactory" performance. However, the main office for Diamond Parking in Seattle, WA received an abysmal F rating. Since I presume that the main office sets policy and behavioral precedent for the satellite offices, I feel that their dubious reputation is germane.

According to that proposal, Diamond Parking receives a flat $13,500 per month for overhead costs. This would in theory pay in part for the two guys that are supposed to monitor the parking lots during the day. Can't find them? They're probably relaxing in the shade over by the Ilikai again if they're even there. I don't blame them, their company expects them do stand around in the hot sun with no protection and deal with angry motorists. In addition to that flat fee, Diamond Parking receives 15% of the gross revenue, with the remaining 85% going into the coffers of corrupt politicians under the guise of the 'special fund' for boaters. The state projects that they'd make $500,000 from the parking plan.

The surfing community, who had organized well, were somewhat mollified by the assurance that there would be plenty of free parking stalls during peak surfing hours. As for the rest of the harbor users, mostly boaters, they faired much more poorly. So, the surfers and paddlers get free parking in the marina that is maintained by the funds that the boaters provide. The boaters who are footing the bill get the shaft--their cars get towed. Meanwhile, while the surfers get a few token spaces to appease them, the battlements of Diamond Parking become entrenched. Losing the privelege of free parking is forgotten and paying for parking becomes the norm. We'll see if the surfers still have free parking in the coming years when the state stabs them in the back when they're not looking.

One goal of instituting this parking regime had been to force out people living in their vehicles. However, the tow truck companies won't tow a vehicle that has someone inside it. Their liability insurance probably won't cover it. And so, while the people sleeping in their cars might get a rude awakening in the middle of the night from some tow truck driver with a flashlight, they won't get towed. This policy became readily apparent to me when I discovered one such harbor vehicle resident urinating next to my boat in the wee hours of the morning. I don't fault the people living in their vehicles. They've fallen on hard times for one reason or another. The city and state doesn't make it any better by treating them as second class human beings and shuffling them around from one closed area to another. However, all of that is matter for another discussion entirely.

Another goal included curtailing the hotel and airline workers who were allegedly filling up all the free harbor parking spaces and leaving their vehicles for a day or three. Occasionally you'd find an abandoned vehicle her or there in the harbor as well. However, the state already had laws and regulations drafted to handle such scenarios. The parking stalls were clearly marked that no parking over 24 hours would be permitted. And yet, the DLNR couldn't be bothered with actually having the rules enforced. Sure, they could have hired a couple goons to go around and keep track of vehicles that had been abandoned, but no. The state wanted to absolve itself of the responsibility of serving the best interests of the population.

A corporation has all of the rights of a human being and none of the responsibilities. Except in a few cases mandated by law, the corporations only responsibility is to ensure a profit for its shareholders. It wasn't always this way. Companies used to have to petition their communities for limited rights to operate. The company had to continually prove that its presence would be in the best interest of the community. If the company did wrong, then the actual owners and operators of the company could be found liable. Nowadays, companies can operate with open disdain for the public's best interest. Diamond Parking is one such corporation.

Being a computer geek and a live aboard boat owner, I get to see more than my fair share of the night life in the harbor. Time and time again I've witnessed people pleading with the tow truck driver to release their vehicle. More often than that, I've seen the driver merely drive off with the vehicle. To them, its just a job. They believe they are in the right to perform it. I don't really fault the drivers. They are merely the foot soldiers of an unethical corporation operating because the DLNR has betrayed the people it is supposed to support.

If I had to guess, I'd say that outside of the initial period when boat owners were being towed left and right, the current people being towed are tourists and the guests of the boat owners. Admittedly, tourists should scout around for parking signs and the boat owners bear some responsibility for informing their guests of the new parking regime. However, the guests of the harbor residents have been coming for decades. The parking regime and signs appeared overnight catching many people off guard.

Surprisingly, during the day I noticed a tow truck readying to lift a car off the ground. The owner of the car, walking his pair of golden retrievers 20 feet away was even more surprised. He ran over to the operate and pointed out that the car had a valid permit. The yellow stall he had parked in is reserved for harbor residents who paid for an annual parking permit. The state had kept issuing such annual permits, costing around $20 a year, until the parking regime switchover. At that point the annual parking permit cost went up to around $300. However, the tow truck driver was only looking for the Diamond Parking issued permit. What did it matter to him if the state's parking permit was still valid? The state didn't pay his salary. Only the presence of the registered owner stopped him from towing the car.

Over at the Sinay's boat, their guest Pete had his rental car towed when he arrived from a late flight and assumed that he could park where he'd been parking for many years. He awoke to find his car gone, disappeared off to some holding lot out at Sand Island. Since it was a rental, it meant that he had to go back to the rental company to get the paperwork that would allow him the privilege of paying $150 to have the vehicle released. Even if Pete had come out when the car was being put on the truck, the company would not have released the vehicle. Pete wasn't the registered owner, the rental company was. Consider all of the hundreds of tourists that have been towed and had to go through such grief. Yeah, just another coffin nail in our ailing tourism industry. Watch the trickle down economic effects of all the little grating policies that tell people "You're not welcome here!"

And last night, Eric and myself were entertaining a rare guest on our boat. When our friend, Jamie, stepped outside to take a phone call, he said to me, "My car's being towed!" Though I wish I'd thought better of it, my response was, "Of course it is, go get it!" I had forgotten to ask him if he had driven there. Assuming that he'd taken the bus or received a ride, I'd neglected to tell him about the new parking rules. He ran out to his vehicle and stopped the driver before he could drive off. At that point the driver would have been obligated to release the car.

Unfortunately, Jamie wasn't the registered owner of the vehicle. Being a visiting tourist from Maui, he'd borrowed the car from a friend. The tow truck driver wouldn't lower the car. Any tourists with rental cars, or youths driving their parents car would be in a similar situation. Jamie begged the driver to release the car. He had the key. Heck, Jamie could have opened the car and got in the truck if he wanted to, whether it was on the tow truck or not. In many states it is illegal for the tow truck to drive an occupied vehicle. Still, I don't know what the repercussions of such an action would be. The tow truck driver would not relent. Jamie didn't have a signed document from the registered owner authorizing him to operate the vehicle, so the tow truck driver wouldn't release the car. Heck, even in hindsight a forged letter might've gotten the tow truck driver to release the vehicle. I'm sure the actual owner of the car would've later claimed the signature was his to keep his car from being abused by the tow truck company. And so, the tow truck driver flipped me the finger and drove the wrong way down a one way street to tow another vehicle away.