Don’t lie down if you’re homeless

The first hearing of Bill 59 won’t be until Wednesday’s regular City Council meeting, so it may be too soon to shoot it down. Still, it’s hard to see how this one will pass muster.

The bill seeks to prohibit lying down on sidewalks, with several exceptions made. If being prostrate is an "expressive activity," or if it’s part of government maintenance or construction work, or if it’s a child, or if the person was turned down by a homeless shelter, it’s all OK.

But the city has been conscious of avoiding the appearance of "targeting" the homeless, to avoid legal challenges on that front. If the bill seems to ban only the form of lying down that a homeless person would do — ostensibly to sleep — how can that not be targeting the homeless?

Besides, if the idea is to keep the sidewalk clear, wouldn’t a sitting or standing ban be necessary, too?

Keeping visitors happy, or at least on time

Keeping visitors happy should be Job No. 1 for those engaged in the tourist trade. So it’s distressing to learn that the inability of go! airlines to maintain a reasonable on-time flight schedule has left many travelers stranded and angry — hardly what one expects when visiting the Aloha State. The U.S. Department of Transportation reported that go! had 32 flights that were chronically late between January and June.

Of course, airfares are a big part of the considerable investment visitors make to come to Hawaii. Surely all the airlines that serve the interisland market can cooperate to ensure that visitors will get where they need to go, when they need to go, in the event of trouble.

Go! could start by getting its house in order.