Editorials
Tuesday, August 11, 1998

Economic setbacks
cloud election outlook

ECONOMIC developments often create chain reactions. Thus the slowdowns in Japan and Hawaii have led to cuts in service by United Airlines and Matson Navigation. United has reduced its flights between Honolulu and Tokyo to one a day, from four, and in October will drop its daily flight to Osaka -- consequences of the reduced flow of Japanese tourists to Hawaii.

United is also proposing to shift more than 300 Honolulu-based flight attendants to mainland cities. The company proposed an alternative of letting the attendants stay in Hawaii and flying them without charge to Tokyo to work the new Tokyo-Seattle flights, but the union rejected that. Negotiations are continuing, with Governor Cayetano urging both sides to be flexible, but some reduction in United's staffing here seems likely.

Matson is cutting its weekly container ship arrivals from the West Coast from four to three, a 25 percent cut. This is also a result of the slowdown in the Hawaii economy. Matson ships are now running only 60 to 70 percent of capacity, compared with 90 percent a decade ago. The number of shipping containers Matson carries between Hawaii and the West Coast has declined for three consecutive years and is down nearly 17 percent from the record of nearly 180,000 containers in 1990.

These moves are perfectly understandable business decisions in view of the declining traffic numbers, but they are bad news for Hawaii. Any decrease in the number of flights and cargo ship arrivals reduces the options for travelers and businesses and may result in further decreases in economic activity.

There have been some positive economic developments for Hawaii as well -- for example, home sales are up sharply and United has just opened an $8 million cargo-transfer facility at Honolulu Airport to handle cargo moving between the mainland, Hawaii and Japan -- but the outlook heading into the fall election season is for more of the same -- slow or no economic growth.

It comes as no surprise that Linda Lingle and Frank Fasi are focusing on the economic issue to the virtual exclusion of other concerns in their bids to unseat Cayetano. The governor, for his part, is quick to recite all that he has done to get the economy moving in his first term. The election may well hinge on whom the voters find most convincing on this issue.

Bad economic news leading up to the election, like United's transfer of flight attendants, can't help the incumbent.

Bicycle pathways

NEARLY one-fourth of Oahu residents rode bicycles in the past month, but most did not pedal to work. An agreement by the city and state to expand bikeways could increase the number of bike commuters by linking paths to make such commutes more feasible.

Governor Cayetano and Mayor Harris announced a 20-year plan to create a 14.8-mile "Lei of Parks" route winding through the city's regional parks and attractions to link Diamond Head with Aloha Tower, a "park boulevard" along Young Street and a continuous bikeway between Pearl City and East Honolulu. In all, the plan calls for nearly 100 miles of new bike routes from Kahala to Pearl City. The work is estimated to cost the city $50 million and the state $30 million, a small price for the benefits it could bring.

The "Lei of Parks" and the Kahala-Pearl City segments are to be given top priority, followed by mauka-makai links and central bike corridors. The plan is to be submitted to neighborhood boards in affected areas this month and could be revised.

The master plan follows a 15-month planning period. A recent survey indicated that 23 percent of Oahu residents had ridden a bike within the previous month. City and state officials hope linking the routes will not only encourage more cycling for recreation but also prompt some to ride their bikes to work.

Hawaii's climate should result in heavier bicycle usage than exists, but bikers understandably have been unwilling to mingle with auto traffic because of safety considerations. A comprehensive bikeway network would make it possible for Oahu's potential for cycling to be realized.

A useful photo

BRITAIN'S royal family has often tried to evade intrusive news photographers, but a photo of Prince Harry served a useful purpose. The picture showed the 13-year-old prince being eased down a 160-foot dam without a helmet or safety equipment.

The Daily Mail newspaper reported that Harry's father, Prince Charles, was "livid" after seeing the photo in another newspaper. It said Charles had summoned the former nanny of his two sons to explain the incident. Prince William, 16, who is next in line to the throne after Charles, also descended the wall without safety equipment.

The paper quoted a friend of the family as saying Charles "has lost track of the times he has made clear that William and Harry can't do whatever they want because they are not ordinary children."

The nanny, Tiggy Legge-Bourke, was with the boys at the time of the incident. They were visiting her parents in Wales.

Presumably Charles would never have known about the incident if the photo hadn't been printed. This time he should be grateful that a photographer was on hand.

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Rupert E. Phillips, CEO

John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher

David Shapiro, Managing Editor

Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor

Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors

A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor