It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood

There is a citywide election going on right now, even as we speak — and has been, in fact, since April 27.

It’s Oahu’s Neighborhood Board elections, and if you were registered to vote in the 2012 state elections, you’re automatically eligible to vote.

If this is the first you’ve heard about it, it might be due to one or both of these reasons: Only residents living in neighborhoods with contested races received notice of balloting; and, it’s being conducted online.

The Neighborhood Commission Office mailed out online pass codes to some 180,000 eligible voters for the contested board seats; voting runs through May 17.

For voters without computers, the city is making some available at the Mission Memorial Building and at Kapolei Hale; or you can vote by phone, 1-888-907-6717.

For more details, see http://www1.honolulu.gov/nco.

Your car was hit by a what?

That stunning hard-landing of a small copter on a downtown Honolulu street on Wednesday could have been so much worse. The skills of pilot Julia Link played a part, and so did sheer luck. Link’s passenger escaped serious injury. And given that rush hour was approaching, one would have thought the craft would have encountered much more traffic.

Of course, the National Transportation Safety Board is going to lead an investigation into the engine troubles that compelled the pilot to abort the flight. The company owning the chopper has some explaining to do.

And the owner of the car into which the copter skidded to a stop has some of his own. Imagine that call to the insurance guys: "Hello, you’ll never believe it, but a chopper fell out of the sky and hit my car."

Actually, they will believe it — all the media coverage corroborates. Lucky thing, too.