HCDA must reflect on windows rule

Developer Marshall Hung got a shiny bit of good news last week: The Hawaii Community Development Authority won’t fine his company, Downtown Capital LLC, for violating a rule to restrict reflectivity of windows in his Kakaako high-rise project.

That seems reasonable, given that the rule itself is basically ineffective.

Glass was required to have 50 percent “visible light transmission” — letting half the light from outside shine in. But it’s possible to meet that rule and still have highly reflective glass, so what would be the point?

Hung’s work may be done on this score — but HCDA still has to figure out how it’s going to avoid this excessive visual annoyance in future buildings going up.

Former students ride to the rescue

The retired Franciscan nuns whose administrators want to relocate their residence from Manoa to Pearl City would say they have a friend in high — even heavenly — places. It seems they also have backers here on Earth — their former students.

Alumni of St. Francis School say they’re launching a petition drive to try to prevent the forced relocation of the 24 retired sisters who live in a convent adjacent to the campus. That move to Pearl City was deemed a more economical means of housing the elders.

However, the St. Francis Alumni Association members argue this is mean, and hope to persuade officials of the religious order in New York to reconsider.

Surely there’s a way to share space in Manoa more economically, too. The Franciscans believe in peace, so compromise should be possible.