Sidewalk Bill deferred
Stanley Chang's Bill 59, CD1 was deferred by the Honolulu City Council Committee on Public Safety and Economic Development earlier today.
Bill 59, Relating to Public Sidewalks, would have (with a few exceptions) made it illegal to lie down on sidewalks in Honolulu. After the bill was deferred in committee the first time (October 29), Committee Draft (CD)1 was created. CD1 differs from the original bill. From the Committee on Public Safety and Economic Development agenda:
CD1 strengthens the underlying purpose of the Bill to emphasize the impact of the prohibited activity on commercial businesses and the tourist industry; narrows application of the prohibition to the hours of 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. in the Chinatown Special District, Hawaii Capital Special District and the Waikiki Special District; and requires a warning before a citation can be issued, providing the person with the ability to avoid a citation.
In today’s Committee on Public Safety and Economic Development meeting, the committee voted to defer the CD1 as well, by a vote of 3-2. Stanley Chang and committee chair Carol Fukunaga voted against deferring the bill, hoping to pass the draft, while council-members Breene Harimoto, Ikaika Anderson and vice-chair Kymberly Marcos Pine voted for deferment.
Stanley Chang introduced Bill 59 on September 5 of this year. Opponents contend that the bill is unconstitutional and targets a specific category of people. Meanwhile supporters, many of them the owners of businesses in the three special districts, maintain that people lying on the sidewalks that front their stores threaten their ability to conduct business.
Ikaika Anderson and Stanely Chang are both running for Hawaii’s District 1 Congressional seat.
The above cartoon was created by Will Caron