Are you homeless, or just selling stuff?

Honolulu merchants had better watch their p’s and q’s, now that the city has decided to crack down on property being left on city sidewalks.

That’s because the American Civil Liberties Union has indicated that a law that specifically targets the homeless will not be tolerated. Some on the City Council have said the new sidewalk ordinance is not targeting anyone but merely serves to protect public access to the safe passageway.

Bet the ACLU will be watching carefully to see that the city enforces it against any business that might stow some of its merchandise on the sidewalk outside the shop, even temporarily.

Wonder what this does to sidewalk sales?

We’re getting better at saving

How are we to interpret the sunny statistic from the credit rating agency TransUnion that Hawaii’s credit-card and mortgage delinquencies continue to fall below what’s typical nationally?

On average, the debt on Hawaii’s use of those little plastic cards has declined from a high just over $6,000 to $4,851 by mid-2011. And 60-day delinquencies on mortgages are expected to drop to 3.49 percent by the end of next year, down from 5.12 percent now.

Probably it’s that the economy is picking up — otherwise, how can folks in high-cost Hawaii be keeping pace so well? Unless it’s because we’re just better people overall. Yeah, that’s the ticket.