The Friends of the Natatorium Web site uses the phrase "demolition by neglect" to describe what has happened to the World War I memorial salt water swimming pool in Waikiki. Erosion and decay just take more time than bulldozers and cranes. Doing nothing while awaiting a decision is a decision in itself.

Yesterday, a task force assembled by the city voted to recommend demolishing the 82-year-old memorial and relocating its famous arches. The ultimate decision, however, is up to the mayor, and he has already said he favors doing away with the pool and restoring the beach.

The pool has been closed since 1979 because of safety concerns and poor water quality. The "save or destroy" decision has been made more than once since then, but only half-measures have actually taken place. Like changing tides, each new city administration has had a different effect on the Natatorium, and the cost of dealing with it just climbs higher and higher as the years go by.

There are so many examples of "demolition by neglect" in Hawai'i, where our weather is famously gentle but salt water, sea spray, wood rot and vandalism are terribly unkind to man-made structures.

The Falls of Clyde, the four-masted ship designated a National Historic Landmark, sat in Honolulu Harbor rusting and rotting away while Bishop Museum focused on other priorities. It wasn't until the museum announced plans to sink her that a nonprofit was formed to save the ship. But even now, the restoration effort is slow-going and fundraising efforts such as the "Quarter Campaign" have stalled.

Similarly, supporters of the Natatorium are discussing ways to preserve and protect the historic structure. It would take a lot of quarters to fix that pool, but it's not impossible. Old homes can be beautifully restored. Old ships can sail anew, as the Falls of Clyde proved during its long history of surviving demolition plans. And the Natatorium can again become a beautiful place that Hawai'i residents and visitors can enjoy. But it takes money, vision and, most of all, a collective will to make it so. Where there's a will, there's a way. There just hasn't been enough will for the last three decades.

Of course, everything is framed in the context of the current economic situation. Is anyone willing to spend the money to make it happen, either way? How much will it really cost the city to build a new beach?

The Natatorium sits behind locked chain-link fencing, a monument not only to the Hawai'i men who died in World War I, but to the inaction of local government for the last 30 years.