One Way To Look at It: Timing of Mayor’s Exit Couldn’t Be Better in Light of Governor’s Stance

We’re not going to spend more than a couple paragraphs on another “puffed up” piece by the Advertiser this morning. This page-one story, like several others by the same writer (and his editors), casts rail in a negative light – this time because the incumbent mayor has announced he’ll resign in July to run for governor.

Another news organization, Civil Beat, had a different conclusion based on the same facts, headlining its story last week as shown here. Even this morning’s piece has enough quotes to question its thesis that rail’s future is clouded by the mayor’s departure.

So back to our own headline: Isn’t it reasonable to conclude that rail’s prospects have never been better (anti-rail Cliff Slater notwithstanding) and will even improve once the governor is out of the picture?

Both the mayor and his primary opponent have supported rail, whereas the governor has floated enough concerns about Honolulu's elevated rail project to suggest she won’t accept the Final Environmental Impact Statement. Without her acceptance, the project can’t proceed.

But she’ll be gone in just over six months, and it's likely one of the Democrats running for her office will succeed her. Just like that, the roadblock she seems determined to throw up will be gone, and one of the new governor's first acts will be to accept the FEIS.

That’s a more plausible scenario than what the Advertiser suggests, but we doubt you’ll see it in its pages – at least, not until the paper’s current leadership also is gone and the new Honolulu Star-Advertiser hits the streets on June 7.