In Hawaii's popular Waikiki neighborhood

In Hawaii's popular Waikiki neighborhood — a renowned destination for surfing and mai tais — people were lying down near the entrance to Macy's, human waste was on the sidewalk, and parents had to explain to their children why people were begging for money. It's not exactly the paradise tourists envisioned when they saved up for their vacations. Those were the complaints of tourism industry officials who pushed for a ban on sitting and lying down on sidewalks in Hawaii's most popular tourist destination. "There's an expectation for Waikiki, for Hawaii. It's a dream," said Helene "Sam" Shenkus, marketing director of the Royal Hawaiian Center. "And because they're families and it's their money, they don't have to come here."

 The Honolulu City Council approved several measures Wednesday aimed at moving homeless people out of tourist hotspots in Hawaii, including one that bans sitting and lying down on sidewalks in the Waikiki area. But a separate proposal to prevent homeless people from resting on sidewalks throughout the island failed. City officials are planning to set up a temporary encampment on a remote, mostly industrial island far from resorts. Some of Oahu's estimated 4,700 homeless people would be allowed to camp on Sand Island, which was used during World War II as an internment camp for Japanese-Americans and is home to a wastewater treatment plant and former dump. The city has been under pressure from the tourism industry to act, with hotel representatives saying visitors complain often about safety and human waste.

The council responded, in part, by passing a measure that prohibits people using sidewalks as open-air restrooms on the island of Oahu. Alan Naito, general manager of Ohana Waikiki East Hotel, said he regularly sends his employees to clean up the waste in a nearby park where he recently saw someone preparing to go near a coconut tree in broad daylight.