Moving around Honolulu gets more expensive

Get ready for some cost-of-living belt-tightening, Honolulu. Bus fares, parking rates and motor vehicle weight taxes are bumping up under a 2018 budget package approved by the City Council on Wednesday. The Caldwell administration’s so-called “revenue enhancers” are needed to help pay for rising fixed costs and spending hikes tied to labor union collective bargaining.

Nickel-and-dime increases are irksome. Still, it could’ve been worse. Among the proposed “enhancers” dropped: a $10-a-month curbside trash pickup fee proposal, and a measure to increase the city’s share of the statewide fuel tax to 20 cents a gallon from 16.5 cents a gallon. Whew.

Don’t give up on improving Thomas Square

The City Council, fearing Thomas Square could turn into a badly run commercial center, on Wednesday blocked Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s plan to put the park under the control of the Department of Enterprise Services.

In doing so, the Council rebuffed Caldwell’s contention that the City Charter places the power to make such decisions with the executive branch, not the legislative.

While it’s unfortunate that the Council failed to see the possibilities of the plan — a way to bring new life and new appropriate attractions to the neglected square — the 6-3 vote should be respected. Caldwell will need to advance his vision for Thomas Square through the city’s Parks Department. It may have to be less ambitious, perhaps, but there’s still plenty of room to improve one of Honolulu’s historic treasures.