It’s heartening to see city leaders prepping for a hard look at Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s proposal requiring sprinklers in residential high-rise towers. The City Council on Tuesday pushed forward a plan to convene a fire safety advisory committee that will weigh prevention options and how condo owners could pay for potentially hefty installation costs.

Honolulu is dotted with an estimated 300 high-rises built before sprinklers were mandated in the mid-1970s. In the wake of the July 14 blaze at the Marco Polo tower that claimed three lives and destroyed 30 apartment units, Bill 69 calls for retrofits in buildings more than 75 feet high.

Another idea worth a look: Condos in need of retrofits could form an improvement or community facilities district that could qualify for 25- or 30-year improvement bonds with low interest rates.

Look out for ‘smishing’ text message scams

In response to the surfacing of scams in text messages, Hawaii’s AARP chapter is advising seniors — and everyone else — to refrain entirely from responding to text messages from senders you don’t recognize. Responding with “remove,” “stop” or “opt-out” could signal that your phone number is active, which could lead to more messages prying for personal and financial information. Instead, forward suspicious texts to short code 7726 (“SPAM”), which allows cellphone carriers to identify and block the so-called “smishing” or SMiShing, named after Short Message Service, the technology that enables text messaging.