Sometimes the best advice is: "Just don’t." That is the caution Anthony Clark, an expert in the definitely rarified field of presidential libraries, gives the University of Hawaii.
He is urging UH to consider it an honor that it has gotten to the final four sites ranked for the proposed Obama presidential library — and call it quits.
"What doesn’t make sense, in my opinion, is for any site that has very little chance of success to continue to participate. While locating the library in Hawaii could make it the most unique in the system — and not just because of dramatic views — it would pose significant challenges," Clark said in an email interview.
Clark is writing a new book on presidential libraries, "The Last Campaign: How Presidents Rewrite History, Run for Posterity and Enshrine Their Legacies," and his work was featured in a recent Chicago Tribune article about the presidential library competition.
The next round requires expensive, detailed plans to be submitted by December to the Obama Foundation.
Today there are no more guesstimates; the president’s folks want details, names and dates.
The first question to be answered, said Clark, is:
Who will come to the Obama library in Kakaako?
If it is not a large and engaged local population, it will fail.
"What sustains a presidential library over the long haul, after the initial years (and after the death of a former president) isn’t tourism. It’s the locals. Those who come back a few times a year for special events, traveling exhibits, lectures, book signings, film series and students on field trips," Clark said.
In contrast, the University of Hawaii says, putting the library in Hawaii would be "transformative."
"The presidential center will enhance public education, strengthen the university, bolster the visitor industry, and launch programs that will improve lives in Hawaii and around the world," the UH’s Obama library web page (http:// goo.gl/h2Z7d3) declares.
UH then gives a more pedestrian reason: The library will make money.
"Generating an estimated $556 million in additional economic activity and creating or maintaining approximately 2,130 direct, indirect and induced jobs," said the UH Obama library web page.
Meanwhile, the Obama Foundation people want to know in great detail how the four universities in the running will operate this new library.
What is "the long-term strategic vision for the university, including its global footprint and vision, as well as any existing or projected expansion plans"?
They want to know UH’s level of expertise and success in projects like the Obama library.
When they ask for the "most relevant projects demonstrating success in large-scale, multi-use developments," I’m assuming that UH will not include the always over-budget and still-not-planned-out West Oahu university, nor the deadline-stretching Ching Athletic complex, or the daily budget soap opera figuring out how to pay for years of backlogged maintenance at the Manoa campus.
Obama’s foundation also wants to know how UH will market the library and what "significant local attractions that may complement and help bolster attendance for the project."
Well, there’s the great Falls of Clyde exhibit just down the way. Nope, that closed. Ditto for the nearby maritime museum. Or maybe the redevelopment of Aloha Tower into a tourist and cultural center — nope, that also didn’t happen.
Finally, the foundation wants a "detailed master development plan for the surrounding community (academic and otherwise) that will drive economic revitalization."
That surrounding community is Kakaako Makai, one of the state’s most confusingly controversial land parcels, with the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs, citizen activist groups, develop- ers, legislators and environmentalists all having different ideas of what should go there.
Is it possible by December to put together the impact statements, the community meetings, the developed community consensus, the funding pledges and the spending plan?
Everyone wants to think big, but first you have to think it through.
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.
