Was 2022 a year when lots of things happened, or when nothing got done?

Both of these things can be true.

The city’s rail project is entering its most difficult phase of construction, with the prospect of a partial system launch this year a long-awaited bright spot.

But there was also a corruption scandal snaring state Capitol veterans J. Kalani English and Ty Cullen; the Red Hill contamination debacle; the push for affordable housing; the uncertain fate of Aloha Stadium redevelopment; the overhaul in tourism policy. Each of these issues is a ball still in play, now that the calendar page has flipped to 2023.

And now the ball has been handed off to a new state administration. Will the changing of the guard matter, or will Hawaii officials fall into the same ruts and general inertia that always seem to obstruct progress?

It’s easy to be cynical, but it’s also New Year’s Day, so optimism that some measure of success is possible seems the right outlook.

Take the COVID-19 pandemic, for example. The restrictions receded early in 2022, and social activities and routines resumed in what is at least a “new” normal.

The less positive, lingering effects? Pandemic fatigue has meant fewer people taking precautions, more people getting sick, than was really necessary.

An even more distressingly persistent lapse is the backsliding in school performance and emotional health for a lot of students still struggling to recover lost ground in learning.

The state Department of Education has been using federal funds to bolster its outreach to these kids, but it’s plainly a long-term project. The main concern is that as many students as possible are helped while still within reach of the educational system.

Starting kids off well on the educational track is also critical, and that became a major plank in the campaign platform of Gov. Josh Green. The promise from the new lieutenant governor, Sylvia Luke, to pursue expanding universal pre-kindergarten access in Hawaii is a critical focal point of the 2023 agenda.

Among all the big stories of 2022, none galvanized the community as thoroughly as the fight over the Red Hill fuel-tank storage facility. This system of 20 underground tanks is located just above the principal aquifer supplying much of Oahu’s drinking water.

The issue first leaped into news headlines in 2014, when about 27,000 gallons of fuel escaped the tanks, causing a great deal of worry among public health and environmental watchdog agencies. But when in 2021 fuel actually contaminated drinking water, principally at military housing areas, the reaction was furious, islandwide and lasting through 2022.

Ultimately this furor led to a decision to shut down the installation, but the damage to the public trust of the military was done. Hopes for a smooth path to defueling the facility were dashed when the Navy stumbled further, most recently spilling toxic fire-retardant chemicals. Oahu residents will hold their breath until they see more progress on the road to recovery.

Not far from this area, the Aloha Stadium still stands, despite more than a year of turbulence over how it’s to be replaced.

There have been dueling plans — one with public-private partnership contracts to build the new stadium and a separate mixed-use “entertainment district,” and one sprung late in the game by the outgoing governor. David Ige wanted to use the allocated funds to build the stadium first, using a conventional design-build contract, and ordered that the initial bidding process be put on hold.

It was, briefly, but it appears now that Green prefers to keep the process going, with the intent to settle on a blueprint that includes a significant element of affordable housing. As it should.

How that plays out will be one of early dramas of the Green administration: The pressure to deliver on housing is intense. Affordable housing, paired with better accommodations of the state’s unhoused population, was a key election-year promise.

There’s one major onramp already in place: the $600 million allotted to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to reduce its waiting list for Hawaiian homesteads.

This task has landed on the desk of the new governor and his nominee to head DHHL, former City Council Chairman Ikaika Anderson.

A road map was laid out by the past chairman, William Aila, but the final plan is still up for debate before the Legislature, which already has catch-up work to do on other fronts.

For instance, there should have been progress on a transition to better tourism management, but instead the state has been spinning its wheels untangling a dispute over competing contractors.

That was one disappointment of 2022, as were lawmakers’ pallid efforts last year to address ongoing concerns with corruption in local politics.

The better news? Again, it’s that they have a chance to complete unfinished business. Doing a full ethics cleanup at the People’s House would be a good way to start the new year, for sure.