Four day week? What four day week!? It doesn’t count when you fit nine days worth of content, discussions and live events into a four day week – does it? What about when one day’s worth of journalism is enough to potentially change your vote for your future mayor of Honolulu? That’s what Honolulu Reporter-Host Adrienne LaFrance provided with her series on the leading mayoral candidates this week. One day in the life of each candidate; the articles were reminiscent of the old dating show formats that I’m probably too young to remember. In any case, the articles were a great preview to the Open Mic that will be live on 830 KHVH on Tuesday morning from 7 to 9 a.m.

• Do You Want This Man to Be Mayor? Kirk Caldwell

• Do You Want This Man to Be Your Mayor? Peter Carlisle

• Do You Want This Man to Be Your Mayor? Panos Prevedouros

Candidate #2, What Would You Do On Our First Date?

Discussion: Honolulu Mayoral Election 2010

• After reading the profile of his candidate, Peter Kay seemed to like the approach:

“Nice piece on Panos, Adrienne! I was a little nervous of how much you might reveal about our “top secret meetings” :) but it came out nicely. Tell your boss your piece was the straw that made me pop for a subscription!”

• Ragnar Carlson enjoyed the insight, but seemed critical of some of the unique opinions the candidates shared.

“Really appreciate these very human profiles of the mayoral candidates. It’s good to be reminded that these are three-dimensional people… especially the guys who are running one-dimensional campaigns! Panos’ love of parking meters might not win him many (any?) votes, but it definitely reveals a lot about what makes him tick. Nice work LaFrance!”

• A change of heart came over Patricia Blair after reading about the candidates.

“Adrienne, I enjoy and appreciate your writing style offering new insights about the character of the Mayoral candidates. I may have to change my vote …Civil Beat is to be commended for its selection of writers and approaches to Hawaii issues. Thank you very much!”

Rail Discussion All But Off The Tracks

Not that it needed any more fuel, but when Nanea Kalani published, City’s Spending on Rail PR Totals $4.7 Million, the discussion on rail shifted into a new (and very interesting) gear. I could have highlighted 20 or 30 comments this week but many of them are of great length and it would have been difficult to do so efficiently. If you have any interest in the topic of rail, I would highly recommend reading and participating in the discussion.

Discussion: Honolulu Rail: Should $5.5 Billion Project Go Forward As Planned?

• John Kawamoto shared his feelings about the state spending money on public relations efforts for rail:

“There are various definitions of “public relations,” but common to most of them is the objective of influencing the public or a particular audience. Private organizations (both for-profit and not-for-profit) contract with public relations companies to further their goals, and it’s perfectly understandable that public relations companies operate in the private sector. But democratic governments have goals that are very different from private sector organizations, and the use of public relations by democratic governments cannot be justified. As Abraham Lincoln once said, ours is a government ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people.’ The citizens of a democratic government are supposed to decide what government does for them. It’s incongruous that a democratic government would try to influence its citizens. Individual elected officials may try to advance particular policies, programs, or projects. However, the apparatus of government should not do so. It should be responsive to the people.”

• An active supporter of rail, Hannah Miyamoto shared her insight on why she thinks rail is a must. This time in a more CliffsNotes-like format:

“…perhaps the most important reason to go forward with Rail is that today’s young adults have less interest in driving than any since the invention of the car. Driving is simply no longer necessary for maintaining social relationships, and is now counter-productive. Unlike Prevedorous driving his BMW 3-series luxury car from Ewa to Manoa, future Americans will resent long commutes, especially if it takes them away from their ability to text their friends or surf the web.”

• John Brizdle seemed enlightened by the transparency of rail spending:

“Ann Kobayashi is finally getting details on how the city rail contractors are spending our tax dollars. I’m glad CB is looking into this as well. The city has contracted with InfraConsult LLC for over 11 million dollars.”

• Barry Weinmann offered an alternative to rail, with hopes of a similar outcome. Although I have to admit he forced me to Google the word “sneezer”:

“…has anyone done a detailed study of traffic patterns and commute times and delays when UH Manoa is in, and not in, session? I suspect but can’t verify (trust but verify) that if $200 million was invested in building the UH West Oahu campus and correctly staffing it along with relevant programs the traffic issues would sort of disappear. Saving of $5 Billion and improving students quality of life is an interesting sneezer.”

• Peter Kay felt that finding a solution was simply tied to an alarm clock:

“…can’t recall that study specifically, but it gets even cheaper: let UH students sleep in a couple more hours, start classes at 9am or 10am, and all that congestion goes poof.”

Before any comment is published on Civil Beat, members are asked to remain civil during all debates and discussion. Occasionally, a gentle second reminder is required, but it’s far more effective when it comes from another member. In this case it was from Mark M. Murakami:

“Are we still civil? You both raise great points. I too notice that traffic is much more tolerable when UH is out of session or when, later in the school year, students start to cut classes more. I live in Kailua and shudder to think about the commute from Kapolei to Waikiki. We have a lot of residential housing planned for Central Oahu and Ewa and all the jobs seem to be in urban Honolulu and Waikiki. Seems like we need alternatives. So, rail makes some sense to me. [Side note: A. Kam Napier has a great column on networked solutions to traffic instead of rail – maybe an idea for a Manoa incubator?]. If there was rail to Kailua, I would take it and give up my car. Especially when gas is above 4 bucks a gallon.”

The Mufi/Neil Race Gets Personal

Some interesting new insights were shared this week about leading gubernatorial candidates Mufi Hannemann and Neil Abercrombie. In The Personal Is Political, both candidates touched on aspects of their lives that hadn’t been highlighted before. In Civil Beat Poll: Abercrombie on Top, Hannemann in Trouble and Civil Beat Poll Reveals Hannemann’s Problems, Abercrombie’s Strength , a clear direction of where both campaigns currently stand is presented. Yet the voters on Civil Beat seem to be hungry for even more.

• Tracy Ryan acknowledges the focus on certain issues, but also questions the lack of mention for others:

“It’s amazing to see how much of this election is being dominated by concerns about civil unions, (righteousness) and God. We are in the third year of a major recession. Without arguing with Mr. Brandt’s assertions it should seem clear that the two leading Democrats are more likely to look to government spending and “stimulus” to promote economic growth than to tax cuts and a reduced government involvement in the market place. Duke Aiona talks about small business, but is out of step with many conservatives who dislike the role the Lingle Administration has played in promoting rail, tax increase to support rail, and in supporting the Akaka bill. The media seems to have written off John Carroll who opposes all three of the things I noted above as concerns conservatives have with our current Lt. Gov. For better or worse John’s ideas deserve more public discussion and debate. Like a lot of bloggers I feel passionately about any number of issues that don’t come down to dollars and cents. Nevertheless, I think we all need to realize that our economy is the 800 pound gorilla in this election and more quality discussion of economic issues is needed.”

• Thomas Brandt seemed to agree:

“Not mentioned in your coverage (The Personal is Political) of the Sept.7 (gubernatorial) forum sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and HMAA was the exchange between Mufi and Neil about taxes. But I’m not referring to their responses to the question about raising the GET (Mufi said he would not do so now, while Neil stated without equivocation that he would not raise the GET). I’m referring to their comments about who supported more tax and fee increases while Neil was a congressman and Mufi was mayor. This exchange, combined with Tracy Ryan’s comments above, makes me even more interested in a Civil Beat fact check on this topic.”

Enhanced Discussion

I have to admit, in addition to looking super fancy for our big nights out, the new Civil Beat website has certainly enhanced the discussions. New members are talking more often and are adding value to the site every day. The opinions and resources that arrive on Civil Beat regularly have become some of the most viewed sections. I literally have to pull myself away from reading your comments at times and get back to work. Wait, that is my work – sweet.