Today we venture into 2020, the gateway to a new decade. The leadership path through much of its first half will be shaped by elections this year. On the national level, a deeply divided electorate will decide whether to grant President Donald Trump a second term in what’s likely to be a referendum ballot on Trump’s vision for America and its role in the world.
In the islands, candidates will vie for seats now held by Hawaii’s two U.S. House representatives, Ed Case and Tulsi Gabbard. Pursuing a longshot presidential bid, Gabbard has announced she’s not seeking re-election. Also, elections will decide seats in the state Legislature, and four of nine Office of Hawaiian Affairs board seats.
At the city level, selection of a successor for termed-out Mayor Kirk Caldwell will be key in setting direction for Honolulu on some longstanding complex matters, such as homelessness and affordable housing as well as construction and operation of the $9.2 billion rail line. Plus, five of nine City Council seats will be up for grabs.
In addition, there’s optimism the city prosecutor’s office will get much-needed new leadership as Keith Kaneshiro, who has been on paid leave since March — after receiving an investigation target letter from the U.S. Department of Justice — is not expected to run.
Despite grumbles to the contrary, a single vote can make a difference. Given that vote-by-mail will be wholly applied for the first time to statewide elections, beginning with the Aug. 8 primary, the state Office of Elections must effectively help voters transition to an efficient and accurate mail-in system.
By next New Year’s Day — barring further construction delays — passengers will be riding the rail line’s first stretch, from Kapolei to Aloha Stadium. Whether the full 20 miles of elevated transit will be finished by the city’s December 2025 target date will hinge on a public-private partnership (P3) that rail and city officials hope to have in place in coming months.
Similarly, P3 is the linchpin in planned redevelopment of the Aloha Stadium site; in Caldwell’s overreaching vision for a Blaisdell Center makeover; and in an overhaul of the dilapidated Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor. The forging of such partnerships on this scale is untested here and warrants close public scrutiny.
Just as the timeline for rail — the largest public works project in state history — is due for much-needed clarity, so too is the ongoing federal criminal investigation into the project.
During 2019, an undisclosed number of Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation staffers were served with federal grand jury subpoenas, and HART itself received subpoenas demanding vast amounts of documentation — including records related to the relocation program for property owners in the way of the rail line, and minutes of closed-door executive session meetings held by HART’s board of directors.
Moving forward, the semi-autonomous city agency and its board must throw wide more transparency about past and present rail dealings.
As rail is being pieced together, so is transit-oriented development (TOD), which is touted as a ticket for mixed-use hubs — housing (affordable housing, especially), jobs and services — within a half-mile radius of a rail station.
TOD presents a golden opportunity for the city and state, working together, to put a major dent in Oahu’s chronic affordable housing problem; an estimated 20,000-26,000 units are needed to meet demand. Among ideas that deserve consideration: creation of low-cost leasehold condos for sale to Hawaii residents on state-owned land near rail’s proposed 21 transit stations.
Given our high-cost-of-living challenges, with rent registering as the most daunting monthly expense for households living paycheck-to-paycheck, it’s not surprising that Hawaii continues to have the nation’s highest per-capital homeless population. However, there are some green shoots sprouting in this rocky terrain.
Last January saw the opening of Hawaii’s first all-in-one homeless project, Punawai Rest Stop in Iwilei. With its array of services, the project is a “compassionate” element in the city’s “compassionate disruption” strategy for tackling the homeless problem, which has involved disrupting encampments for much of the past decade.
And wrapping up 2019 was the mid-December debut of a promising new strategy to reduce homelessness — supported by city, state and nonprofit groups. Through the two-pronged “Homeless Outreach and Navigation for Unsheltered Persons” (HONU), police crack down on homeless-related violations within a 5-mile radius of a pop-up inflatable structure, which also serves as a temporary “navigation center” toward needed services.
The state of Hawaii and its local government are a work in perpetual progress. The path into the next decade will be smooth in spots, pothole- strewn in others. It’s time to buckle up and roll forward with a charge of shaping a bright future for generations to come. Happy New Year!
