It’s not really a surprise that the City Council would hesitate to require older residential high-rises to install automatic fire sprinklers.

It’s an expensive way to mitigate what some say is a remote risk, notwithstanding July’s tragic Marco Polo condominium fire, which led to the deaths of four residents and caused extensive damage to dozens of units.

A Honolulu City Council committee on Tuesday deferred a bill that would require the sprinklers in approximately 150 Oahu residential high-rises that were deemed most vulnerable. There are an estimated 360 residential high-rises that don’t have sprinklers, which were mandated in buildings constructed since 1975.

It’s understandable that residents in these buildings might object; the cost per unit could be in the thousands, or tens of thousands, of dollars. There also are other ways to mitigate the risk: properly maintained fire extinguishers and smoke detectors in every unit, for example. And residents may choose to accept the risk rather than shell out the money.

It’s important to remember, though, that it’s not just the residents whose safety is at stake. Firefighters face serious dangers in fighting high-rise fires, and those dangers escalate in buildings that don’t have easy access for crews and their equipment. So the Council shouldn’t abandon the idea of requiring sprinklers in certain buildings. Meanwhile, it should consider ways to ease the financial burden on residents of the affected buildings.

More bikes, pedestrians

It’s not always easy sharing Hawaii’s roads, but get used to it. The fact is that there will always be competing modes of transport on our streets — and it will only get more congested as our population grows, as it certainly has in developing urban cores such as Kakaako.

That’s why Hawaii folks — motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians — deserve some credit for keeping this year’s traffic death toll contained: at 90 fatalities as of Monday, it’s 10 fewer than reported at this time last year.

To be sure, any death, let alone injury, is tragic and traumatic. But considering a statewide population of about 1.3 million, it seems folks generally are taking care out there. New data from the state Department of Transportation shows that so far this year, there were 37 traffic deaths on Oahu, 32 in Hawaii County, 15 in Maui County and six in Kauai County.

After a particularly brutal year for Oahu pedestrians in 2016, in which 18 were killed by this time, three died this year, so it appears people are being more mindful of walkers. But concerningly, there have been five bicyclist fatalities this year (three on Oahu), compared with none last year.

Obviously, there’s more cycling on our streets, thanks to city bike lanes and the Biki bikeshare initiative. Drivers, cyclists and pedestrians all need to get used to this new normal of looking out for each other, sharing the road and not rushing. All that is the essence of the Complete Streets policy, which by the way, is the law of the land (see honolulu.gov/completestreets). Stay alert.

A healthier Cancer Center

After years of touch-and-go struggle, it looks like the patient has finally turned the corner.

For the first time since it opened in 2013, the financially ailing University of Hawaii Cancer Center is projecting a balanced budget this year. That certainly is cause for cautious optimism, but the ongoing challenge will be to sustain a positive trajectory.

Built for $130 million, the Kakaako facility has struggled with financial woes even as it has worked to maintain its research and academic credibility. Chief among this is its National Cancer Institute designation, which opens the way for additional grants available only to the 69 U.S. centers so designated. That designation must be renewed every five years — it’s based on quality and depth of research, outreach and education — and NCI officials are expected to conduct a site visit in January.

With much on the line at this critical juncture, the Cancer Center’s Nov. 1 annual financial report provided some timely good news. Its $7 million annual deficit had dropped to $2 million in fiscal 2017 due to attrition and operational efficiencies and aided by $2 million apiece from the governor’s budget and from the University of Hawaii-Manoa for faculty salaries.

The Cancer Center, though, must pursue self-sustainability. For now, its financial migraine has subsided — relief that should enable the center to regroup to expand its important research, which focuses on ethnic diversity and cancer, via more grant and philanthropic funding.