- Kaimana Beach (also called Sans Souci Beach or Kapua Beach) is a popular, irreplaceable community resource. It is the last accessible beach on Oahu's south shore and is frequented by countless park and beach users and a wide cross section of Honolulu residents. It offers relatively easy access to the ocean and beach and has adequate street parking. It is often very crowded.
- Built in 1927 as a pro-colonial WWI war memorial under direction of the American Legion, the Natatorium is an antiquated and decrepit salt water swimming pool and 2,500 seat stadium that sits in the ocean adjacent to Kaimana Beach.
- As it stands, the Natatorium cannot be saved. It is beyond repair and must be demolished and rebuilt from the ground up if it is to be used again as a concert/sports stadium.
- The lack of maintenance of the Natatorium has caused community concern as early as 1929. Major structural problems were noticed and repaired in 1949. It was closed temporarily due to poor water quality in 1963, permanently due to disrepair in 1979, and was deemed a safety hazard in 1980. City votes and/or recommendations to demolish the Natatorium were made in 1965, 1972, and 1982. Parts of the pool deck collapsed in 2003 and have not been repaired since.
- In 2009, the City sponsored a Natatorium Task Force which met for five months and studied all aspects of the Natatorium. In the end, it voted 9 to 3 to create a $15 million Memorial Beach rather than a $60 million remake of the old Natatorium.
- In May 2012 there was a City-sponsored Environmental Impact Statement in progress and near completion that was secretly suspended, wasting $750,000 of taxpayer money. It would have proven that a beautiful beach could be built at the Natatorium site.
- In 2012 the City and State conducted a conspiracy of silence to keep the media and the public in the dark about their plans to create a show venue at the Natatorium. This secret plan would have brought in excess of 2,500 people to the area on a regular basis.
- The cost for full restoration of the Natatorium is estimated at $40-60 million. In comparison the cost for a memorial beach is estimated at $20-30 million (2017).
- If used as a venue, the Natatorium will require untold trucks, buses, trolleys, vans, taxis, and private cars to service and deliver thousands of tourists to this small and already crowded area. There will be no parking for the park or beach users and traffic will be heavily impacted for the thousands of residents in the condos and homes in the neighborhood. Access to the Outrigger and Elks clubs as well as the small hotels and the Aquarium will also be affected.
- There are already two show venues within 500 yards of the Natatorium: the Kapiolani Park Bandstand and the Waikiki Shell.
- In 2013 the University of Hawaii built three sand volleyball practice courts with 500 seats and in 2015 built two competition sand volleyball courts with 778 seats in the Ching Athletics Complex, which has ample parking.
- The Natatorium is not part of Kapiolani Park. It is state owned. It can serve liquor at sunset hula shows.
- The war memorial is not the last example of the Beaux-Arts architectural style on Oahu. Existing structures in the same style include the Advertiser building (1929), the YWCA building (1927), the Star-Bulletin building (1912), and the McCandless building (1906).
- The Natatorium can and has trapped and endangered local wildlife.
- The Natatorium is a war memorial. There is nothing natural, sacred, or respectful about a war memorial branded with commercial sponsorship.
- When built, the war memorial was fronted by two reflecting pools built on top of the original shoreline. These pools were drained and have been used as parking lots, which have absorbed vehicle oils and gasoline for decades directly into the current shoreline.
- The pool bottom is contaminated with decades of fine black sulfuric anaerobic sediment that reaches as deep as 17 feet. Any plan to revitalize the Natatorium, especially one which involves porous boundaries, must prevent this from spreading to the surrounding coastline and potentially smothering sea life including the adjacent coral reefs in the marine protected area in front of the Waikiki Aquarium.
- In 1949 a 12-year old boy drowned in the Natatorium. The court noted that “it was impossible to see the bottom of the pool because the silt of the natural bottom was stirred up by the swimmers.” Any plan to restore the pool with porous borders must incorporate legacy and long-term silt remediation for the safety of the public.
- The war memorial exaggerates Hawaii's World War I deaths. Although the memorial stone's inscription is "dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" ("it is sweet and noble to die for one’s country"), of the 101 soldiers listed, only 8 died due to enemy actions overseas during the war. The rest succumbed to flu, accidents, and natural/unknown causes in Hawaii or North America or after the war.