This was a portion of Swanzy at about 6:30 this morning.

The Kailuan was the opening round of a social issue impacting some 19,000 remaining leasehold condominium and cooperative units, according to an analysis by Mike Pang of Monarch Properties.

Now Iolani School is stepping up as the second major landowner to provide notice that it is looking at development of an area that is now home to nine cooperative apartment buildings after purchasing the leased fee interest in 5.5 acres adjacent to the school.

Homeowners–and we’re talking homeowners here, not only renters–could eventually end up being evicted as a result of the school’s future expansion, although Iolani has soft-pedaled that reality.

The Advertiser reported the area purchased by Iolani includes nine coop apartment buildings and two apartment buildings.

Included in the property is a private roadway (La’au Street), four vacant lots, two individually owned apartment buildings and nine cooperatively owned apartment buildings: Diana Apartments, Lani Home, Laau Gardens, Iolani Gardens, Princess Anne Apartments, Canal House, Hale Laau, Hale Laau II and Iolani Banyan.

I haven’t looked up data on the number of owner-occupants in these buildings, although the area offers relatively low-income housing for both renters and owners.

This is not the first time the Date-Laau area has been at the center of controversy. Date-Laau was the rallying cry for housing rights and anti-development activists 25 years ago, when the landowner proposed replacing the existing low-rise structures with high density condominiums and apartments. The protests against the plan led to a voter initiative that downzoned the area, a move that was later upheld by the State Supreme Court.

I don’t yet understand whether Iolani’s purchase of the fee interest in the Date-Laau property complies with Section 514C, which appears to require a landowner to give existing condo or coop lessees the right of first refusal before selling its fee interest.

§514C-2 Right of first refusal. When the leased fee interest in land under a condominium project or cooperative project or any part thereof is to be sold to any party other than the association of owners or the cooperative housing corporation, the seller shall first provide the board of directors of the association of owners or the cooperative housing corporation with written notice delivered or mailed by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, postage prepaid, to any two of the president, vice-president, or managing agent (if any), of its intent to sell that interest, together with a complete and correct copy of the purchaser’s written offer, which offer shall contain the full and complete terms thereof. The association of owners or cooperative housing corporation shall have a right of first refusal to purchase that leased fee interest for the same price as is contained in the written purchase offer

News reports have not indicated whether the coop buildings were offered the right to purchase the land prior to the deal with Iolani. And looking at Iolani’s own press release, it’s interesting to see how closely most news reports followed its narrative.

With several years before the current leases expire, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this mushroom into a significant political issue.

We hadn’t gotten very far yesterday morning before it started raining. Not “very far” translates into three houses to the corner of Olohu Road, a couple of houses down to the next corner (Lihimauna Road), and then maybe a couple of hundred feet towards the fire station. Then the big drops started falling. I fumbled around under my umbrella to set the camera to video and record a bit of the rain. This is the result. Just click to play the video. Nothing special. Just a wet morning in Kaaawa.

I was a little surprised to see how much it looks like “country”, narrow road, no sidewalks, lots of plants on all sides. We get so used to it that it usually doesn’t register.

And I wanted to call attention to Joan Conrow’s musings this week on blogging, prompted in part by my thoughts about the advertising issue and that “why are we doing this?” question.

She writes, in part:

I’ve learned a lot about myself, and even more about people, by blogging. Several friends have remarked on the “really weird people” who seem to read my blog, but I don’t mind, because I like quirky people, although there have been times, fortunately in the more distant past, when I was almost afraid to look at my blog because of the unruly comment section.

But that, too, taught me valuable lessons about setting appropriate boundaries and not taking things personally and letting stuff go rather than stewing.

I’ve also learned a lot about writing. Like any craft, it gets better with practice, and practice is best when it’s fun, which blogging usually is, and it’s helped me free up my public writing from the constrictive forces of mainstream journalism that shaped it.

I figure the educational aspects alone are worth plenty, and would cost a good bit if one could even find such curriculum at a university, so I keep blogging, even though it takes a good bit of time and doesn’t earn me any money.

And so it goes on this 4th of July.

Turns out that I was right to be puzzled. In an email being circulated among Honolulu architects following the rail issue, another mainland consultant familiar with the history of rail in Phoenix pointed to what was not said during the Mayor’s rail symposium.

As to Rich Simonetta (CEO of Phoenix’s Valley Metro), I am sure that he did not mention that in 1989 the area’s voters disapproved a referendum that was intended to pay for an $8 billion (back then) 103 miles-long elevated railway using - Guess what? - automated light metro technology based on Vancouver’s Skytrain system [the SkyTrain is also the model for Hannemann's rail choice]; the successful opposition was based on affordability, feasibility and objections to the environmental blight that would result from an elevated railway built along those wide streets. The light rail concept was developed circa 2000, with construction beginning in 2004 following a referendum specifying light rail that the voters approved.

The all elevated train was voted down by a 3-1 margin.

That Phoenix history is outlined by the Arizona Rail Passenger Association, a pro-rail group.

Seattle Times columnist Jerry Large grabbed my attention yesterday with a column about dealing with an aging parent.

Aging has been doing its business to people forever, but when it’s your turn to face it, it feels new and wrong.

He’s definitely got the right of it. My dad has started dwelling on that sense of loss, of things, of freedom, of memories. He walks the halls of the nursing home some nights, looking for where he left his car. Or he complains to the nursing assistants that we have taken his car, and added insult to injury by even taking away his bicycle. He complains about the meeting he is supposed to attend if he could just remember where it is happening. He stands at the elevator on the third floor, telling people that he’s going home, while the electronic gizmo on his wrist keeps the elevator door from opening. He’s continually surprised that we’re able to find him, and I’m not really at all sure where he thinks he is. He wonders how many other people live in “this house”, which is how he perceives the nursing home.

I know it’s hard for him. And it’s hard for us to try to tag along on his journey. And Jerry Large understands that. Thanks.

Campaign issues…Check out Maui attorney Ben Lowenthal’s assessment of the recent Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals decision in the long awaited campaign spending case on his Hawaii Legal News blog.

And if the arguments over whether or not to limit or eliminate contributions to Hawaii candidates by corporations got you worked up, get ready for the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court to do their thing. The court is going to re-hear a case later this year that could pose a frontal challenge to the century-old ban on corporate contributions in federal elections.

A meeting held this week involving representatives from a broad range of mostly nonprofit journalism organizations has resulted in the call for creation of an Investigative News Network.

Therefore, with a full appreciation of both the complexities and the opportunities to be achieved by more formalized collaboration, the nonprofit news publishers at Pocantico hereby declare that preparations should be immediately made to form a collaboration, the Investigative News Network (working title). Its mission is very simple: to aid and abet, in every conceivable way, individually and collectively, the work and public reach of its member news organizations, including, to the fullest extent possible, their administrative, editorial and financial wellbeing. And, more broadly, to foster the highest quality investigative journalism, and to hold those in power accountable, at the local, national and international levels.

It’s actually very educational just to read through the descriptions of the participants and the settings in which they are working. There’s actually an unexpectedly large number of experiments underway, which I find very encouraging.

It was a very lucky shot. I happened to have the camera in hand when he took up a position on the floor, looking up to the counter top, and his back end signaled that he was preparing to jump. So I raised the camera and took several images in short order. This one caught almost the perfect moment as he appears to be hanging in mid-air.

Today’s Feline Friday collection also includes several photos taken as the cats started gathering in preparation for eating, which involves a lot of social interaction, as you’ll see. It’s all quite interesting to watch and I think you get a flavor of it from today’s gallery.

So just click on Mr. Romeo to see this week’s Feline Friday collection.

Check back later this morning for a more substantive additional entry. It is, after all, a holiday, so we’re starting just a little later than usual.

Lawrence “Bill” Boyd, labor economist on the faculty of the University of Hawaii’s Center for Labor Education & Research, says the cuts being proposed by Gov. Lingle are 25% greater than required to meet the Council on Revenues forecast.

A Powerpoint presentation summarizing his arguments can be found on the CLEAR web site.

Boyd says Lingle’s furlough plan will contribute to the decline in Hawaii’s private sector economy because of the multiplier effects of public employee spending (or lack of spending). He projects the private sector will lose in the neighborhood of $516 million annually as a result of the furloughs, and state tax revenues will be cut $50 to $60 million because of resulting declines in income tax and GET.

In an email yesterday, Boyd wrote:

By concentrating these cuts in wages (and going beyond what is necessary) she has made this worse because her cuts will directly effect local resident’s disposable income. The cuts will have about a $1.1 billion dollar impact over the next two years. These effects will
happen in the private sector through a drop in consumption.

This will lead to a further reduction in tax revenues. Between $50 million and $60 million annually. These will come primarily from reductions in GET collections and income taxes. The majority will appear as private sector tax losses.

Boyd warns that, as in the Great Depression, policy choices based on political ideas can quickly make the situation worse.

It was the actions of those making policy that made the “Great Depression” “Great”.

And these actions were based on ideas.

Something like the actions of Linda Lingle.

Lingle remains single-mindedly focused on across-the-board furloughs despite growing evidence that this will cost the state more than it saves in many areas.

KHON reported this week that Department of Health nurses providing required care for “medically fragile children” in public schools will be furloughed, even though the state will then have to contract for private nurses to provide the necessary care.

Sources say those contractors cost more than the state staff.

The Department of Health told KHON2 the Department of Education will be asked to reimburse the health department for outside nurse expenses.

This appears to reflect the ideological rather than fiscal basis of the governor’s furlough plan, at least as proposed and currently being implemented.

Yesterday, University of Hawaii president David McClain reviewed the budget situation facing the UH system.

McClain on furloughs:

Tomorrow, Judge Sakamoto of the State Circuit Court will take up the question of whether furloughs can be implemented outside of the process of collective bargaining. If it is found that furloughs are an option we could employ, I believe, based on discussions with the chancellors and other university constituencies, that the most sensible use of this instrument would be during the winter break between semesters, the spring break and the Friday after Thanksgiving. Taken together, 13 furlough days would amount to a 5% reduction in compensation and—applied to those faculty and staff members paid with general or special funds, including our executives—would save the university more than $23 million per year. Such an approach would permit us to continue to deliver our educational services to our growing student population with minimal disruption of the academic calendar. Almost everyone I have consulted also recommended that the university system adopt a single approach to any furlough program rather than varying by campus or unit.

Though there are arguments on both sides of this issue, for a furlough plan of this magnitude (13 days per year), I would not support having those paid with federal funds—except our executives in that category—take a furlough. Researchers paid on “soft” funds are true entrepreneurs, assuming the risk that their grants will not be funded, and represent a powerful stimulative force in Hawai‘i’s economy. Indeed, in the fiscal year concluded June 30, UH scholars brought in more than $412 million in research and training grants and contracts, an increase of nearly 20%.

In addition, UH will now be closing many buildings on weekends, and whole campuses during the winter and spring breaks, shutting off electricity and locking out faculty and students. McClain also said savings will be made through attrition, leaving positions vacant, and suggested early retirement incentives may be proposed.

Meanwhile, in the face of all that stress, enjoy this photo taken early yesterday morning in Kaaawa. Yes, it was as calm as it looks. Perhaps it’s contagious.