By Jerry Burris

A story in The Advertiser last week about Jeremy Harris, soon to be out of public office — elected or appointed — after decades of service, suggests he has been quite a travelin' man in recent months.

Staff writer Johnny Brannon reports that Harris has been out of town, mostly for speaking engagements, for 45 1/2 of the 123 workdays of the year thus far.

He's zipped off to China, Chile, Australia and points in between, often talking about Honolulu and its efforts to be an environmentally friendly, "sustainable" city.

Harris' critics suggest he has lost interest in the job and is trying to build up his reputation as an environmentalist and cutting-edge urban leader.

The second part of that may indeed be true. What will Harris do once he leaves office? His background is in environmental planning and ocean resources. He could hardly be blamed if he sought a post as a consultant in one of those fields after 10 years as mayor of Honolulu.

The argument that Harris has lost interest in his current job would be harder to sustain.

There's no doubt he wants to leave office on a high note, with a string of accomplishments and works in progress that will leave a lasting legacy. Why would he quit on the job when he is this close to the finish line?

One area that will need work is basic infrastructure. Already the candidates who wish to succeed him are making strong points over what they claim is the city's lack of attention to basic infrastructure while glamour projects proceeded apace.

Harris' position on these projects — soccer stadiums, parks, fountains, landscaping, Sunset on the Beach and so forth — is that a great city is more than roads, sewers and police and fire protection.

A city, he argues, needs some glamour, some excitement, to be other than ordinary. The question is whether the glamour projects overwhelmed basic responsibilities. When most of these projects were launched, Harris had his eyes firmly set on the governorship.

It's a sure bet that his efforts to bring some excitement to Honolulu would have figured strongly in his campaign for governor, which was aborted when polls said he might not win.

The irony here is that if you sit down and talk with Harris, he will go on with great enthusiasm and knowledge about those gritty things — sewers, paving, garbage collection and the like.

Yet he is likely to leave office with a reputation for caring less about these important but unglamorous things than he does about putting in fountains and planting flower baskets.

So, yes, in these last six months or so, it is inevitable that Harris will begin lifting his eyes beyond the boundaries of Honolulu.

But if he cares for his reputation, you can bet he will be spending time on cementing public impression of the work he has accomplished here at home, on the ground.