Caldwell must do better with rail

Roads. Sewers. Parks. Contending with Oahu’s persistent homelessness problem.

Those are the nuts and bolts of city governance that Kirk Caldwell always claimed as the foundation of his first term of service as Honolulu’s mayor.

There has been progress in such areas, progress that Caldwell has put front and center in his administration, and Tuesday night, the city’s voters rewarded him with four more years in Honolulu Hale.

However, it’s not the nuts and bolts that need the most attention from the mayor: It’s the remaking of the city that its elevated rail project is meant to propel.

The 20-mile alignment, linking East Kapolei to urban Honolulu, is to serve as the magnet for a new concentration of residential and commercial development.

But as the city has observed to its chagrin over the past four years, that result is not being delivered on time and on budget, as Caldwell initially promised. And clearly it won’t magically materialize without a much more powerful push from its chief lobbyist, the mayor.

The construction of the rail project remains the jurisdiction of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, but it’s plain to see that the mayor needs to be riding herd, too.

Caldwell needs to be out in front finding ways to close the mammoth financing gap for the project, now estimated at $1.8 billion. He needs to be working with developers who hope to capitalize on the opportunity of building around the rail stations to help meet that challenge. And he must work with stakeholders to ensure that transit-oriented development includes the affordable housing that Honolulu needs.

There is also some bridge-building to be done with the state Legislature. Its members hold the key to the most plausible source of additional revenue for the project: an extension of the general excise tax surcharge. And a lot of the key players in the state Capitol have not been convinced by the mayor that this is necessary.

One of them is state Rep. Scott Saiki, who is House majority leader as well as the representative of the district where rail will terminate, including Downtown and Kakaako. He is calling for a briefing in Honolulu by the project’s partners in the Federal Transit Administration.

The public would benefit from such an open airing of the federal constraints under which rail will proceed. And the mayor’s job will be to establish a more cooperative relationship with lawmakers, who will play such a crucial role in realizing the project.

Some of the City Charter amendments on Tuesday’s election ballot were there to also facilitate success.

Voters approved Amendment No. 4 that will put rail operations within control of the city administration — a good move that will enable the city to begin important planning for a multimodal system, coordinating bus and Handi-Van with rail service upon completion of the system.

Voters also approved the establishment of a city land-management department, which in the rosiest scenario could help streamline the process of transit-oriented development. The administration must ensure that its potential weakness — the short-circuiting of processes that protect transparency — does not come to pass.

Caldwell will not get the opportunity to serve a third term, thanks to the voters’ rejection of extended term limits for the mayor and City Council, and the imposition of three consecutive terms for the city prosecutor. The voters were right to do so.

Eight years should be enough for the mayor to finish the job he was elected to do. But time is fleeting. Caldwell had better get busy with the tasks that remain.