Honolulu ranked nation’s sixth-greenest city

Honolulu is ranked No. 6 nationwide in WalletHub’s report on 2018’s Greenest Cities in America.

The personal-finance website compared the 100 largest U.S. cities across 26 key indicators of sustainability, including greenhouse-gas emissions per capita, number of smart-energy policies and initiatives and green job opportunities as well as percentage of green space.

The four key dimensions examined were environment, transportation, energy sources, and lifestyle and policy. Due to the lack of comparable city-level data, WalletHub did not include metrics measuring the availability of recycling programs or amount of waste recycled.

Honolulu ranked first in farmers markets per capita, second in median air quality index and seventh in greenhouse-gas emissions per capita. Honolulu also ranked at the top for percentage of green space.

San Diego topped the rankings.

Big Isle housing official rescinds resignation

Neil Gyotoku, Hawaii County’s administrator of the Office of Housing and Community Development, has rescinded his resignation in a letter to Mayor Harry Kim. The resignation would have been effective Sept. 30.

“I apologize for not announcing this sooner,” Kim said.

Gyotoku had cited health issues in offering his resignation. Those issues have since improved, enabling him to continue as administrator, the county said Wednesday in a news release.

Sharon Hirota, who manages the department’s existing housing division, had been named to succeed Gyotoku as administrator effective Oct. 1.