Lime came to town, Mayor Kirk Caldwell got mad and stuff got handled. Quickly.
Of course, when the shared scooter-rental service pulled its motorized wheels off Honolulu sidewalks and out of the Honolulu Police Department’s impound stash last week, the last words were that Lime would be back. So Lime could be back. They might even follow the law next time.
But that sure was a fun little skirmish to watch.
We don’t get to see stuff like that too often on Oahu — a business sets up with total disregard for laws and regulations, and government becomes the fast-moving slipper that swats them like a cockroach.
What we usually see is the business-with-total-disregard part. Unpermitted vacation rentals, people hawking stuff at tourist stops, “hidden Hawaii” tours trespassing on public and private land, all those “monster” boardinghouses built unchecked for years. Rule-breakers get away with all kinds of stuff in Hawaii. Hawaii bureaucracy may be thick but it’s also hopelessly passive. The part that’s new is government swooping in with strong words and swift action.
The sheer audacity of Lime’s arrival in Honolulu — dropping 200 motorized scooters on sidewalks after being told by the city not to, got Caldwell going.
“They’re in Kapiolani Park, which is a trust, where we, even as the city, have to get special permission, and they just go in and disrespect that,” Caldwell said in a press conference last week, his incredulity showing.
“I’ve heard a lot of comments from this company. They’ve said, ‘We’re working closely with the city,’” Caldwell said. “I know the executive branch, which is comprised of 10,000 employees, has not been worked closely with on the rollout of this project.”
After several warnings and orders for the police to impound Lime scooters left on sidewalks, Caldwell announced that penalties up to $1,000 or 30 days in jail could (and, implied, would) be imposed for each violation of a state law that prohibits people from parking a vehicle on any part of a street, including sidewalks, for the purpose of selling the vehicle or a service, blocking the way and creating a nuisance. Lime finally signaled a retreat after a week of swearing it was all just a misunderstanding.
It is amazing what can be accomplished with political will.
And what is political will made of?
Many things, including the desire to appear in control, to save face, to command respect.
Also, the fact that the city had gone through all the rigmarole of throwing in with Biki — including making room in city parking spots for the bike-sharing docks — $2 million in city and state funding, and the special assistance the company got in getting the bikes on the street before they were registered. For Lime to swoop in and successfully (temporarily) bypass all that bureaucratic bluster was just too much for the mayor.
But the one thing we’ve learned from disrupters like Uber, Lyft and Airbnb is that a civic crackdown is just a brief inconvenience. They always come back.
Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.
