WHITHER HATTIE? The idea of turning the former flagship store for the venerable Hilo Hattie tourist brand into a sprawling shelter and services site for more than 800 homeless people seemed intriguing when Honolulu City Council Chair Ernie Martin and Councilman Joey Manahan broached it in May.
Not so much for Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration, which announced last Tuesday that the property was too expensive and big to work within the city’s “scattered site” strategy for homeless shelters. The leasehold interest acquisition price of $7.6 million and $1.8 million annually in additional homeless services don’t seem outrageous for a facility of that size. But other concerns remain, chief among them whether that high-traffic bend on Nimitz Highway is the right place for a facility that would generate heavy pedestrian — and shopping cart — traffic.
Martin isn’t giving up. In a Thursday interview with Hawaii News Now, he confirmed that he is reaching out to Gov. David Ige — on whose new Governor’s Leadership Team on Homelessness he and Caldwell both serve — in an effort to convince the state to take on the location.
If Ige bites, the shelter would not only be a potential boon for Oahu’s nearly 5,000 homeless people, it would be a big win for a council chairman widely thought to be considering a run against Caldwell next year. With an announcement last Thursday that $14.2 million in new federal funding for homelessness and affordable housing is coming Hawaii’s way, the timing could be right.
UPDATE: Meanwhile, it’s encouraging that work is now moving quickly ahead on the Sand Island homeless transitional housing project. The site is now graded, and city officials will review bids this week to select a contractor for its modular housing, expected to accommodate 87 residents at any given time. (An earlier version of this editorial pegged the number at 100 residents.)
If Hawaii is to make headway on homelessness — a much larger challenge on Oahu than anywhere else in our state — it will be the result of the growing involvement of leaders noted above and creative new thinking, even if every idea doesn’t work out. The governor’s leadership team is scheduled to meet Monday for the second time, and we’re eager to hear what additional new thoughts are on the table.
THE CANDIDATES’ DEBATE. Parents of small children know that one way to get them to avoid using curse words is not to react when they blurt out a four-letter gem. Denied Dad or Mom’s attention, they often choose other means of grabbing the spotlight.
We offer this advice to our colleagues covering the 2016 presidential elections, particularly the GOP contest, as that party’s first campaign debate is now just three days away, and the competition to be among the 10 candidates included in the forum often conjures images of a roomful of 3-year-olds.
Seventeen significant Republican hopefuls have announced so far — 17! — simply too many to host in a televised debate. Fox News, which is producing the show, has determined it will include only the 10 with the most support in national polls released through Tuesday.
As blowhard Donald Trump continues his assault on American sensibilities (John McCain’s no war hero! Mexicans are rapists! Lindsey Graham is an idiot!), reporters and producers rush to give him more airtime and column inches. Our partners at Huffington Post have exhibited the most creative restraint thus far in announcing they won’t cover Trump as a candidate, but in the digital outlet’s entertainment section.
In the current environment, exotic, pro-wrestler-style gimmicks get far more attention for candidates than discussing climate change, the economy or concerns over police violence around the country.
“Trump’s campaign is a sideshow. We won’t take the bait,” wrote the editors. “If you are interested in what The Donald has to say, you’ll find it next to our stories on the Kardashians and The Bachelorette.”
Sadly, other media brands are going in exactly the opposite direction, giving Trump enormous attention. And as you are no doubt witnessing, rivals are following Trump’s example with ever-more-unseemly toddler-style gambits to grab the mic.
Here’s Rand Paul, taking chainsaw and fire to printouts of the federal tax code. Over there, Ted Cruz calling Senate President Mitch McConnell a liar on the Senate floor. And then there’s Mike Huckabee, saying that through the Iran nuclear deal, President Obama will “take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven.” Graham is all in, too, posting a video of him destroying his cell phone with a meat cleaver, golf club, blender, sword, toaster oven and fire, finally dropping it off a building (more than 2 million YouTube views — not bad, senator).
Like youngsters, the candidates engage in this sort of behavior only because in the current environment, exotic, pro-wrestler-style gimmicks get far more attention than discussing climate change, the economy or concerns over police violence around the country. With Trump now holding a composite lead of about 6 points in recent GOP polls, expect more of the same on the debate stage, as each candidate does his shocking best to get national coverage.
And we do mean his shocking best. The other significant issue for the GOP in this debate is that it appears highly unlikely that Carly Fiorina, the only significant woman candidate for that party’s nomination, will be on the stage. The former Hewlett Packard CEO is stuck at about 1.4 percent in the average of polls, around 13th place.
The optics around the absence of any women will be challenging, given that Hillary Clinton is still the clear front-runner for the Democratic nomination and that 53 percent of the electorate is female.
Republicans have suffered from a significant gender gap in the last two presidential elections, with President Obama winning among female voters by 12 points in 2012 and a similarly large margin in 2008. Democrats, in fact, have won the female vote in the last six presidential elections.
Combine that trend with ongoing Republican efforts against reproductive choice, pay equity and other actions easily framed in the “GOP War on Women” meme — efforts sometimes embodied by some of the other likely debaters on the Aug. 6 stage — and Fiorina’s absence looms larger.
On the positive side of the diversity picture, Hispanic Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are expected to be on the dais alongside neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who is African American. While those candidates don’t exactly offset perceptions of a party that is often seen as overtly hostile to Latinos and tone deaf on issues important to African Americans, image will be critical in seeking to succeed the nation’s first black president, likely by defeating the first major party female nominee. A parade of middle-aged white guys could leave America’s increasingly diverse electorate cold.
Whoever winds up on the stage, we’ll be tuning in, expecting something between “Crossfire” and “The Apprentice,” but hoping for something more befitting a forum of candidates vying to be leader of the free world.