For anyone who’s emerged from an uplifting arts experience at the Hawaii Theatre only to be brought crashing to Earth by the surroundings of a deteriorating “park,” the partnership just announced ought to be cheering news. The theater and the city will cooperate in keeping up Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park — the city installing wrought-iron fencing, the theater handling daily maintenance and security, countering its use as a homelessness haven. 

The place had become anything but a fitting memorial to the one-time Hawaii resident and founder of the Republic of China. By the time audience members exit the theater after next year’s holiday shows, it should be looking pretty spiffy.

Dave Shoji, a UH coach without peer

There are coaches who overstay their welcome, coaches whom fans resent for being overpaid but underperforming, coaches who coast on past glories. And then there is Dave Shoji. The University of Hawaii’s women’s volleyball coach, 69, has a new multiyear contract before him — reportedly, to exceed some $180,000 yearly — that should help keep the Wahine a premier, fan-favorite program for at least several more years. Shoji has been with the program for more than four decades, and is the second-winningest coach in NCAA women’s volleyball, with a stunning 1,179-198-1 UH record. And it’s not just faded glories: The just-ended season saw the Wahine making the NCAA tourney’s Elite Eight. The coach and his players seem to share a rapport that fans love to see.