Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / Mayor Blangiardi on Memorial Day and a recent town hall meeting at Radford High School

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Mayor Blangiardi on Memorial Day and a recent town hall meeting at Radford High School · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

• 0:14
  Welcome to the one Oahu podcast.
• 0:16
  I'm your host, Brandi Higa, and today is Thursday, May 29th, 2025.
• 0:21
  And we're back this week with Mayor Rick Blangiardi mayor.
• 0:24
  Monday was Memorial Day.
• 0:26
  Yes it was.
• 0:27
  Can you talk about this year's Mayors Memorial Day ceremony
• 0:30
  for those who want to do that?
• 0:31
  But first thing I want to say is happy birthday to my son Ryan, who turns
• 0:34
  45 today.
• 0:35
  He's my youngest son turning 45.
• 0:37
  I'm in denial.
• 0:38
  I'm in disbelief. But nonetheless, that's the reality.
• 0:40
  Well, before we jump into it, Ryan actually had ties here in Hawaii.
• 0:44
  Had one here. Yeah.
• 0:45
  He worked for UH, worked, and he worked for, Norm Chow in the Nick Rolovich.
• 0:50
  Both.
• 0:51
  He was at the assistant AD at Chaminade and was the AD
• 0:54
  at Saint Louis for a couple of years. Yeah, he.
• 0:57
  But he's moved to the mainland because he fell in love is young man.
• 1:00
  Want to do. Yeah.
• 1:02
  And she lived there.
• 1:03
  She had her business there.
• 1:04
  And she said pretty much, you know, if you want to be my guy,
• 1:08
  you got to come here.
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  He left a year ago this, this past week, actually.
• 1:13
  So. But anyway, I, I just I set off with that.
• 1:16
  Well, happy birthday to Ryan. Yeah.
• 1:18
  Well, Memorial Day this year, I thought, was was especially meaningful
• 1:24
  for me, in part because I went to a multiple number of services as it was.
• 1:28
  But we had the Mayor's Memorial Day,
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  when I we're really honored to have Admiral Papa speak.
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  Also had an incredible turnout of people.
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  And everything about it was really,
• 1:40
  nicely done, very respectful.
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  And, you know, it's one of the things that I really love about
• 1:45
  our people is that in cases like that, they show up and.
• 1:49
  And they show up a great spirit you could feel it was palpable.
• 1:52
  So once again, the scouts and and all the people
• 1:56
  I was involved, that whole Holly and honored couple, I mean,
• 2:00
  Not for the.
• 2:01
  Couple. I I'm sorry.
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  I was talking to a couple on this morning earlier,
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  a couple a and people were out there sewing ways, you know,
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  and trying to get ready, and we fulfilled that commitment on the 38,000 flags.
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  And in ways, it just it's just,
• 2:17
  you know, it's just very special.
• 2:18
  I thought it it had all of the,
• 2:21
  the right time.
• 2:22
  So I've had some nice feedback this past week, but,
• 2:24
  you know, I just follow in the footsteps of other mayors.
• 2:26
  This was started by Mayor Blaisdell, a couple of years ago.
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  I talked about my comments and and then to today to have this week
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  to have somebody like Eric Papa, who's ahead of us in the park,
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  one of the really great leaders in the world,
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  as far as our military organizations and the responsibility that he holds
• 2:44
  for every American, for that matter, our armed services.
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  It was just a real special honor.
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  So I feel good about I felt that if our intent was to be respectful
• 2:53
  and remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice
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  and then subsequently to their gold Star families,
• 3:00
  that that was done that did a great job of talking about the Gold
• 3:03
  Star families who were in attendance, the the loved ones that they lost.
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  And in my respective comments I talked about,
• 3:09
  you know, you got to remember that yes, they paid the ultimate sacrifice,
• 3:13
  but those who love them still mourn, and that never leaves them, you know?
• 3:18
  And at one time when they were alive, they were, they were everything.
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  They were their entire world to these people,
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  whether they were sons or daughters or husbands and wives or siblings,
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  you know, and and we shouldn't forget that.
• 3:30
  And so I thought we paid attention to all the right stuff.
• 3:34
  It's a bye week.
• 3:35
  But last week's Radford town hall meeting covered a lot of communities.
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  One of the biggest issues that came up had to do with homeless.
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  With all the strides that we've made in the last few years.
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  Does it surprise you, frustrate you?
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  What's the sentiment?
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  I you know, I. Keep coming up. Well, here's what I think.
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  I think that that woman asks the question, what are you doing about it?
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  It gave us an opportunity to tell her in great length.
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  And I watched her reaction, and she was she didn't know.
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  She was very pleased. She's very surprised.
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  I think one of the things that I wanted to stress that night
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  is we're not going to end homelessness.
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  I know a lot of people like to go around saying that that would be a lofty goal.
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  I don't think it's realistic.
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  I've talked about functional control,
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  you know, where we can really help those people that are most in need.
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  However we go about doing it, you know, I think we've been,
• 4:24
  very strong on our relationship with the state and different systems.
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  It would be to provide moneys.
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  And that's a oh, no, we had the collaboration that we've had.
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  But the facilities we've acquired, we've invested
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  $740 million since we've been in office of various facilities.
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  The fact that we established Core, which takes $3.5
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  million a year, is now going up to 40 people.
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  To be able to go with that, help mitigate a lot of the 911 calls.
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  It used to require E.M.S.
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  at HPD going to the scene.
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  Sometimes it still happens.
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  But that said, you know, the fact we we're able to treat these people
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  medically and, and and we're doing so with, with drugs and,
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  you know, in medicines that,
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  are healthy for them,
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  is a really big game changer.
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  And we've only really begun that in really the last year or so.
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  As aggressively as I like it, I have a lot of confidence
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  because we have a weekly homeless meeting that over the course of the next three
• 5:18
  and a half years, as we really begin to get traction now, we have
• 5:21
  we have created some 750, 800 beds.
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  A lot of those beds are designed to be transitional.
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  So it really has a multiplier effect.
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  We're moving Honu, which has been very effective
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  when we first put it out in a couple way, they didn't want it.
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  And now we're taking it away after several months up there and
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  and they they wanted to stay, you know what I mean?
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  It's a transitional thing.
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  So, so the, the fact that we have places to put people
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  in, buildings that we've acquired, the fact that we're able to provide top
• 5:51
  flight medical service where possible, including some psychiatric care,
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  we have a shortage of psychiatrists, but we do what we can.
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  And the very fact that, we're not over crowding our emergency rooms,
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  which is what used to happen before they would take them,
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  pick them up, take them to Queens for the most part.
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  Not that they didn't go
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  to, Straub as well, but for the most part, everybody went to Queens.
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  Was very costly proposition.
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  They lost a lot of money.
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  It made our emergency room
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  look like a war zone and so on, only to have
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  these people turned back out on the street because there was no place.
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  This is a really systemic way
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  of treating it at a at a very deep level.
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  And the other part of it is that what we're finding now,
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  we're giving the medical treatment, is that many of them are very sick as well.
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  But soon a lot of cancers, organ failures, liver disease,
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  terminal situations, quite honestly.
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  And that's painful.
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  And that's one of the things I even said that a lot of people don't realize.
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  We probably, on average, on average,
• 6:49
  losing about one person a day, 700 people die on the streets a year.
• 6:54
  So all of that we're doing plus, in addition, if I just had me here,
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  see what IHS, IHS alone this month flew 17 people back just in the month of May.
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  Waikiki Business Association, they flew a bunch back as well.
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  You know, we've talked repeatedly.
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  I've mentioned my state of the city that we now know firsthand that we're
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  getting some 500 to 1000 people coming here a year,
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  intending to be homeless here because they feel it's Paradise
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  that they've been told they could sleep on the beach.
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  Whatever.
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  And we're making it really clear them. They can't.
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  And where we can get them reunited with their families.
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  We're looking to be even more aggressive with that.
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  So all of that said, that's a lot different than just doing
• 7:34
  what used to go on.
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  And, and it's humane, yet it's aggressive.
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  You know,
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  we've said all along,
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  we know there bad guys who hide out in the homeless population.
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  We try to sweat them out. We,
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  have made since we started with weed and seed and in downtown and safe
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  and sound in Waikiki was, I mean, thousands of arrests we've made.
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  And, you know, you know, that's a zero tolerance policy.
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  The problem is we have habitual crime criminals.
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  They're just repeated misdemeanors and the courts turning them back on.
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  It's a complicated thing, but, we've made over 5000 arrests.
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  If you start to average that out on a daily basis, that's a lot.
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  So we're being aggressive that way to try to protect people, keep them safe,
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  and other crimes be committed to them.
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  We're trying to be as humane as possible.
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  In, in the treatment of picking up our homeless people.
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  In addition to that, we've reinstituted the guardian litem program for those for,
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  you know, and we've gotten some really good responses
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  that people can represent people who really can't represent themselves.
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  So we can then maybe provide help, provide antipsychotic drugs,
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  which are really powerful at changing behaviors.
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  We've clearly identified, you know, with respect
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  to how we want to treat people who are suffering from depression,
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  schizophrenia, bipolar, bipolar, PTSD, what medications,
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  those, those meds once they get back on and we had a chance to stabilize them.
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  We're taking advantage of everything the Supreme Court allowed us to do
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  under the Grants Pass ruling, with respect to voluntary
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  and even involuntary holds up to a certain time.
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  So I don't think we could be
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  as many as we could be anymore, conscious or deliberate,
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  not the least of which is our weekly meetings
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  that we have with the state and city combined, never done before.
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  What really very specific focus is on encampments
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  and different things like that.
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  So it's an all out process for us.
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  And using a lot of resource, you know, and,
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  and we're
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  committed to, like I said, gaining functional control.
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  Yet I know stuff still goes on.
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  And this is a battle of any major urban center.
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  The good news for us is that our numbers are scalable.
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  We can make a big difference where people can begin to see it.
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  I think people are already seeing it, you know?
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  Next week,
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  I was informed that they're going to do their annual point
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  in time count in Waikiki.
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  I think the numbers dramatically lower than it was a year ago.
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  A year ago, it was 186, and nearly 90% of the 186
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  were off of people who had been in Hawaii for less than a year.
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  That's where they kind of go.
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  They migrate, you know, you can understand that.
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  So I mean, our consciousness, our awareness of what we're doing,
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  what what would the stuff we're doing at a etc.
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  all this is unprecedented. It just takes a while.
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  And and as I said earlier, I know from going to the U.S.
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  Conference of Mayors
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  that other cities, especially post-Covid, the numbers have really spiked.
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  And quite honestly, a lot of them don't have a game plan.
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  At least we've got a good game plan tied again, you know,
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  working with the state and Governor Green, he and I just spoke yesterday, at length
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  about about some things.
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  We're all working together to do the Best Buy.
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  I know it's a long answer, but I wanted to get that out there.
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  It's, I would tell you, homelessness and housing somewhat connected,
• 10:48
  but very different strategies along with public safety.
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  And both of those come into public safety are just,
• 10:54
  you know, we have a lot of priorities here.
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  Some are more equal than others.
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  Those, Yeah, I think I think the managing director mentioned this.
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  I'm not sure if it was at the last one, but when it comes to the energy
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  and the time that you spent on this one issue, you said there's
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  weekly meetings for the public that doesn't know mayor on your schedule.
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  Right.
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  Other issues, deep heart, big issues, homelessness,
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  that standing meeting with the state has been going on for a long time,
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  and it's still your only weekly meeting.
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  Well with with with the state. Yeah.
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  And but the thing is
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  and we talked about it this week, I talked to doctor Mike champion, from the state.
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  Is that,
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  you know, creating a vision, getting everybody on a shape which I, you talk to.
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  You said he actually, for my benefit talked in football language
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  the other day about, you know, we'll all go and we call a play.
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  Everybody has to know what what they do.
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  You know, and just it's taken a while to to bring that together.
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  But you know in the same room
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  now we have the sheriff's department and HPD working together.
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  None of this finger pointing.
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  We've begun to put signs up.
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  You know, where allows us to be more aggressive.
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  We before we had park rules up at Diamondhead.
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  Fine. There's only so much you could do now.
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  We have no trespassing signs up there, and and and other things that,
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  If people are there, then they're trespassing.
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  They can be arrested. You okay?
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  We started out with 100 and somewhat.
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  People have a diamond head and on the slopes of Diamond Head
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  this last week, the point time countdown there was up to 12.
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  Went back up and check. Now.
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  So they went other places, some of them.
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  But we said we're going to take over that encampment.
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  We'll get it down to zero. That's the objective.
• 12:27
  We're doing the same thing now.
• 12:28
  It's a really big plan coming up for eliminating all the homeless
• 12:31
  that I don't want a beach park, and relocating them.
• 12:35
  You know, we're looking at doing things like this combined,
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  because in this particular case, in the relocation from,
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  I want a beach park, which is state owned,
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  move them to another state park, although we have part of it.
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  It's a city on the Rio.
• 12:47
  If we effective could do that, that takes a lot of collaboration.
• 12:50
  It's got both HPD again in the sheriff's department.
• 12:54
  It's got a whole bunch of other things going on.
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  This is a concerted effort.
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  And and I like it because as I said, I know we won't end it,
• 13:01
  but I have a lot of confidence in our ability to execute,
• 13:04
  which is why we're keeping the focus up and that execution is going to
• 13:08
  it already is manifesting, you know, make a difference. I
• 13:11
  really today I was driving down through Chinatown and I felt so good.
• 13:14
  I saw the guys out there, power washing the streets.
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  But I also noticed there's
• 13:18
  a lot of people out there walking around,
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  but I didn't see any homeless hanging out on the sidewalks
• 13:22
  like you would typically do if people had to walk around them.
• 13:24
  Whatever.
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  And I drove down there a lot and go down there, and look, it's
• 13:29
  not perfect, but we've come so far with 37 cameras down there.
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  The incidents, as I said earlier of the arrest, when something's,
• 13:37
  you know, the zip, the combination of zero zero tolerance on bad behavior,
• 13:42
  especially in the same time treating people humanely is effective.
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  And then,
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  you know, and I go back to what we've done a couple of years ago, removing
• 13:50
  River of life down there. And then ministry is flourishing.
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  But things that were causing people to aggregate in
• 13:56
  doing that when everybody said
• 13:57
  that could never be done, they've been there for 35 years.
• 14:00
  All of this stuff is,
• 14:02
  you know, one thing on top of I'm proud of it because it's smart.
• 14:06
  It's smart work. It's work with purpose.
• 14:08
  It's work with intention.
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  And and it's work to really, quite honestly,
• 14:13
  help help those people, you know, who really are suffering.
• 14:17
  I mean, my heart goes out to that.
• 14:19
  I, I, I am soft in that regard.
• 14:22
  When we start talking about a losing
• 14:23
  a person dying literally out in the street a day, you know,
• 14:27
  a couple couple weeks ago, I saw a cat get hit by a car
• 14:31
  that bothered me all day. It was violent.
• 14:34
  It was vicious. The poor, the cat struggled.
• 14:37
  They just died. You could tell, right?
• 14:40
  I saw that whole thing, and.
• 14:41
  And that pain me so much.
• 14:43
  And I thought to myself, I feel really bad for that cat.
• 14:46
  I mean, that was awful to witness.
• 14:47
  There's start thinking about the people that when sometimes you're driving by,
• 14:50
  are you really if from a humane standpoint,
• 14:54
  as an active humanity or as an awareness of being somebody who's now
• 14:58
  in a position of authority and responsibility,
• 15:00
  doing the kinds of things we're doing, I know is all the right stuff,
• 15:03
  so we just can't do it all fast enough is pervasive.
• 15:07
  But I know in my heart,
• 15:09
  as a leader and as responsible as the mayor, that we're doing right
• 15:13
  by all the people, including arresting the bad guys when they get out of hand.
• 15:17
  I don't know what else I can say about it.
• 15:19
  Yeah.
• 15:19
  And I think you saying it over and over again helps for those who
• 15:21
  maybe have never heard it before.
• 15:22
  I know I hear it often, but,
• 15:24
  you know, at that meeting, I think that there were
• 15:25
  at least most of them are satisfied with that answer.
• 15:28
  It's not going away completely. Right.
• 15:30
  So people see it, it seems, you know, it's somewhat omnipresent.
• 15:33
  I get that we know that.
• 15:35
  And we're just going about it as aggressively as we can.
• 15:39
  Fireworks didn't come up last week despite us being right there.
• 15:43
  Here.
• 15:43
  Element to Salt Lake Boulevard widening didn't come up either.
• 15:46
  Were there issues that you either didn't have a chance to report on it?
• 15:50
  I asked Chief Chief of City to come up because he was prepared.
• 15:54
  And, and I actually said to them, I don't know.
• 15:57
  He's asked us. We thought we were here for certain.
• 15:58
  So I want to give you an update from our fire department's perspective.
• 16:02
  We talked about Senate bills, and he talked about what we're doing.
• 16:05
  And that was good.
• 16:06
  I know I think you know what I, I think, Brandon, as we get ready
• 16:11
  to wrap up this year's seven town halls,
• 16:14
  29th in total over the course of time.
• 16:18
  You know, we've learned a lot.
• 16:20
  But I one of the things
• 16:21
  it's a take away from me this year, I mentioned it last week after Richard.
• 16:25
  I said, you know, the the people that are coming now are talking to us differently.
• 16:29
  And the first time, first year, things were much more contentious
• 16:33
  and I think this was unprecedented.
• 16:35
  And maybe there was a residual of people that, you know, thought, okay, I'm
• 16:39
  going to go and let them have a digital, you know, whatever.
• 16:42
  And I think as a grown now to see these things in, they're constructive.
• 16:46
  And our team is their entire cabinet were listening and people be responsive
• 16:50
  and they're following up and they know that we're genuinely concerned.
• 16:53
  And this is not some stunt.
• 16:54
  I mean,
• 16:55
  one of the things I felt really good about was one of the guys said, you know,
• 16:58
  I was impressed when you did these last couple of years, but not you got elected.
• 17:03
  I didn't think you were doing any more on the fact you guys are here doing it.
• 17:06
  That says a lot.
• 17:07
  I think it shows the sincerity of our team and the caring and the concern
• 17:11
  and one of the things I've said
• 17:12
  repeatedly to the cabinet when we were in private is, look,
• 17:16
  I know a lot of you come.
• 17:17
  You never get asked a question, but I really think it's essential
• 17:20
  because you can get very task oriented and you respect of disciplines
• 17:23
  because everybody on our team has got a tough job.
• 17:26
  But if you're aware on a first hand basis, not just something you,
• 17:30
  you know, you you can you can think about, but you hear what people are saying.
• 17:35
  I just think if you hold a leadership position in this city, no matter what
• 17:39
  your specific area of expertise is, this is good for you to know.
• 17:42
  And so I think it's been really it's been good.
• 17:45
  I think people will see that.
• 17:46
  I think people see our team show up and that's unprecedented.
• 17:49
  And and when we do that part in the beginning,
• 17:51
  when they all introduce themselves and they can see the faces and the voices
• 17:55
  and some of the things that people say, or for that matter,
• 17:57
  when they do get called upon, when they come up in the answers that they give
• 18:00
  and the knowledge that they show and the caring that they show.
• 18:03
  I mean,
• 18:04
  so I think over three years now, the, the oldest has talked to us differently.
• 18:08
  It's a better form of engagement.
• 18:10
  And that's going to be my takeaway.
• 18:11
  Now, admittedly, we have one left to go across.
• 18:15
  Hope I hope I don't, but yet
• 18:17
  he tell you this take turns into a fist fight out the parking lot.
• 18:20
  But right now, I'm not anticipating that, you know,
• 18:23
  I just I'm thinking the people get to come and they say, okay, this is, you know.
• 18:27
  Yeah, yeah.
• 18:29
  There was a news story that did come out after the Radford Town Hall.
• 18:32
  Horton, who's now covered a story on Street Noise.
• 18:34
  Yeah.
• 18:35
  You know, nowadays we can have decibel meters on our phones,
• 18:38
  on our Apple Watches.
• 18:39
  So why is it so hard for.
• 18:41
  I know there's probably much more to this, but why is it so hard
• 18:44
  for HPD to enforce?
• 18:45
  You know, the other takers, you got to catch the guy in an act.
• 18:49
  And so far, these guys aren't so stupid if they see a blue and white, even a un.
• 18:52
  But, unmarked police car that they.
• 18:54
  You know that.
• 18:56
  But it's that that I don't want to call it ambient noise
• 19:00
  because it's more that ambient noise that's pervasive.
• 19:04
  You know, when we talk about things we hear in different places,
• 19:07
  I mean, that was as true out in Kahuku as it was in town.
• 19:10
  Radford and, you know, I don't look, I'm not going to blame the kids who go to do
• 19:14
  these are people who live near a high school.
• 19:16
  Maybe it's more apt to happen, but I hear it.
• 19:19
  I see it sometimes, you.
• 19:20
  Know, recording this podcast. Sometimes we. Hear it. Yeah.
• 19:22
  You know, you you put some guy's next to you and he's like,
• 19:26
  you know, like it's a block party or something.
• 19:29
  How could you be even listening to that, you know, vehicle.
• 19:31
  And so I think the cops should,
• 19:35
  if they see that they should get some audio
• 19:37
  if it's not loud music,
• 19:39
  but certainly some of these things that people the guy was talking about, the
• 19:42
  the guy had an at Bryce's in his truck or a car or whatever
• 19:45
  causes the backfire loudly.
• 19:47
  Like it was like, you know, like almost like setting off a firework.
• 19:50
  That's an intentional thing.
• 19:52
  That stuff they they should stop that and, you know, and tag those people,
• 19:56
  if not arrested for disturbing the peace, I, I think it's it is I mean, I,
• 20:00
  I feel bad for, for people who are complaining about that
• 20:04
  because it's, it's not I think it's a, it's a complaint of, this warranted.
• 20:09
  I know people just don't make that up when they're talking about
• 20:12
  this newest continues.
• 20:13
  I mean, that's so the police should be able to maybe even
• 20:16
  canvass certain areas where there's seemingly more complaints
• 20:20
  and when you put an end to it.
• 20:23
  But the other part of it is,
• 20:24
  I don't understand why people do stuff like that.
• 20:27
  I mean, you know, I mean, look, there's a lot of that we could talk
• 20:30
  about human behavior, but really, that's just not flat out,
• 20:33
  you know, rude, ignorant, wrong, you know,
• 20:37
  and you would think, you know, what did you ever learn from your mom and dad?
• 20:40
  I mean, come on. Yeah.
• 20:41
  People shouldn't be doing that.
• 20:42
  And so I think it's a matter of civility and and I just hope that,
• 20:47
  I'm going to be more aggressive with our HPD and talking about that
• 20:50
  because it's come up with far too much frequency.
• 20:53
  And I, like I said earlier, we've all experienced it.
• 20:56
  You and I, as you just said, have experienced it sitting here
• 20:59
  in the confines of this office.
• 21:02
  And sometimes somebody's out there
• 21:03
  in the street and it's coming through the walls, you know. So
• 21:08
  usually that's just one more thing we need to crack down on.
• 21:11
  But I would like us to crack down on that.
• 21:12
  That would be, you know, would be a good thing.
• 21:16
  Phase two A wahi pana is underway. Yeah.
• 21:19
  Thanks to that grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies
• 21:21
  as part of that video that was unveiled just this week.
• 21:24
  And I'm gonna bet you were able to enjoy the Bay at night.
• 21:27
  Yeah. Oh, that experience was beautiful.
• 21:29
  And I reminds everybody when we all walked in
• 21:31
  and it was, you know, getting like 530 ish or whatever, it was
• 21:35
  the sun gets really nice and it begins to get ready,
• 21:38
  and it just the ambient, the ambient light there was perfect in the trees.
• 21:41
  And it got the grounds above the bay, which is where we had
• 21:45
  the function in pristine condition.
• 21:48
  I mean, the trees look so beautiful.
• 21:50
  The grass was nice was.
• 21:51
  And then we were entertained by these incredible highlights.
• 21:54
  But even even before that, in the presentation of the film,
• 21:59
  the fact that people were up there in a rare occasion, you know,
• 22:02
  because a park closes
• 22:04
  earlier to be able to enjoy it and see that at sunset time along do the same.
• 22:08
  And the whole purpose of why were there, which was to share this video
• 22:11
  and the legacy of him on would be was really nice.
• 22:15
  So you said, God, this is what we should be doing.
• 22:18
  We should. Do more of that, more. Of it. It was just it was so beautiful.
• 22:21
  I mean, you were there.
• 22:21
  You saw that. It's it's really,
• 22:27
  tranquil to say the least.
• 22:29
  It's just like, oh, it was just very calm.
• 22:32
  I was I almost didn't want to leave.
• 22:34
  It was actually, you know, it was you could just stay.
• 22:37
  It was beautiful. So I don't have enough surprises.
• 22:40
  Like I said, first time I saw a bay was about six years ago.
• 22:44
  I never saw anything like that in my life.
• 22:46
  This kid from the East Coast get, you know, was one of the first sights
• 22:49
  I got to see when I came to Hawaii because I show up to go to camp.
• 22:52
  But somebody had the smart local guy to go with the girls, and they took me,
• 22:56
  and I was.
• 22:57
  I never saw anything like that, especially those days.
• 22:59
  We could drive down to the beach, but I never walked in water.
• 23:02
  We're up to my waist and put my head down
• 23:04
  till like I was a tropical fish taken off in a patch.
• 23:08
  I never saw anything like that.
• 23:09
  It blew me away. And then.
• 23:11
  And then through the years.
• 23:13
  And I and I made reference to this as my kids were grown up.
• 23:16
  When we had those moments when one of them wasn't playing sports
• 23:19
  that needed to be on some field, a gym somewhere, it never was a question.
• 23:23
  If I asked them where they wanted to go, it was Hanalei Bay, followed by the zoo,
• 23:27
  followed by Bella's Bahama Bay, because the kids loved it so.
• 23:31
  And every time I would go there, I marvel at the beauty.
• 23:34
  And again, I had not been there in a couple of nights, a couple of years
• 23:37
  rather.
• 23:37
  And we got there this week and I walked out again.
• 23:40
  I was like, wow, I so,
• 23:43
  you know, the physical beauty of that place is it's so special.
• 23:46
  I'm so pleased.
• 23:47
  I gave a shout out
• 23:48
  to the friends in front of the Bay with the cities also participating.
• 23:52
  The things that we've done to now try to keep an I was the whole point of the film.
• 23:57
  You know, if there was a benefit from Covid,
• 23:59
  if there was any silver lining anywhere, and there'd been a couple of them
• 24:02
  because it was such an incredible timeout, costly but incredible.
• 24:07
  That was one of them.
• 24:08
  And so it's something we need to protect
• 24:13
  that's not optional for future generations.
• 24:16
  For those of us who have been gifted with this in its present
• 24:19
  and on how beautiful it is as it was in its past going into the future,
• 24:23
  because places like that become more and more rare.
• 24:28
  The only we're here within Hawaii on the planet,
• 24:30
  it's just it's just, incredible.
• 24:34
  You recently honored some pretty special guys
• 24:36
  with 50 plus years at OTS.
• 24:39
  After meeting them, what did you walk away with?
• 24:41
  We want. To. We want to talk about being blown away.
• 24:43
  I just got done talking about how those guys were incredible.
• 24:46
  I walked away with a little bit of envy because those guys, first of all,
• 24:50
  they all look great.
• 24:51
  They all look great.
• 24:52
  They came in.
• 24:53
  They're coordinated not because they just did.
• 24:55
  They were tanned. They look healthy.
• 24:57
  They look a joy in life, but they love their work.
• 25:00
  A couple of guys, they've had the same road for a long time.
• 25:03
  And did they own ambassadors of Aloha?
• 25:05
  I'm sure, because as I talked about that day, it's one thing to serve
• 25:08
  local residents, which they do, and I'm sure that they know who gets on there.
• 25:12
  But all that, you know, there's that familiarity. But you think about
• 25:15
  and I said this, you know, I've been
• 25:18
  I've been a stranger in a strange city riding public transportation,
• 25:22
  knowing full well, you know, you're full of questions,
• 25:24
  especially people who would come here
• 25:26
  and they're good natured and how they looked at their work.
• 25:29
  And I was I was so thrilled, you know, what was surprising about that?
• 25:35
  I don't know if you know this.
• 25:36
  I was tipped off about one guy, you know,
• 25:39
  and that was Clifton, a boy, former player, his cousin.
• 25:44
  And I thought, wow, we should do it.
• 25:45
  My cousin's going to have 50 years driving the bus.
• 25:48
  I thought, okay, and we found out. Do it.
• 25:50
  Eight of them.
• 25:52
  We were I mean, I had it,
• 25:54
  so I doubt that we couldn't do enough of those guys.
• 25:57
  But honestly, when they left here, they did a lot for me.
• 26:00
  I just thought, wow, these are guys who really,
• 26:05
  are really into serving people, loving their jobs.
• 26:08
  And, and just absolutely vital because we know the bus even involved
• 26:14
  mayor for I see, you know, because I can remember his time in office
• 26:18
  and always talking about the bus, the bus and all the awards they've won.
• 26:21
  And, I it just.
• 26:23
  Yeah, it was really it was one of those really feel good things.
• 26:27
  Yeah. All right.
• 26:27
  Tailing on that may as we wrap up, may, is mental health awareness month.
• 26:33
  I'm checking my mental health.
• 26:35
  We're going to check it right now.
• 26:36
  I know that you're mentally sound, but to help spread.
• 26:38
  Okay, I'm not sure.
• 26:39
  I want to go through some of the mental health. Okay.
• 26:42
  Check and. Go ahead.
• 26:43
  And for our listeners, keep in mind you're supposed to go through this often
• 26:47
  for maintenance.
• 26:47
  Yeah.
• 26:47
  Well, you know, I do, you know, believe it or not, I just get a little rough.
• 26:50
  I do those tests on YouTube every now, but
• 26:53
  they say if you can get six of these, you're a genius or something.
• 26:56
  That'll go.
• 26:57
  Come on.
• 26:57
  The first question is, which is two plus two or something?
• 27:00
  And I go, come on, you gotta be kidding me.
• 27:01
  But I but I do, I, I like to test myself.
• 27:03
  So go ahead. Okay. So but this is for, for mental health.
• 27:06
  All right.
• 27:06
  So first how are you feeling today.
• 27:09
  Really I feel really good.
• 27:10
  Mentally and physically.
• 27:12
  Mentally and physically I feel really good.
• 27:14
  I didn't sleep as much as I wanted to last night.
• 27:18
  But that aside, I feel really good.
• 27:22
  What did you do today so far that made you feel good?
• 27:26
  Well, you know,
• 27:29
  when I get up, I,
• 27:33
  thought about the day ahead.
• 27:34
  Like the stuff on my calendar.
• 27:36
  I got some really tough things in front of me today.
• 27:39
  I'm going to go eat Chinese food tonight.
• 27:41
  That's something to look forward to.
• 27:43
  But I also did a radio show this morning, and that was a good engagement.
• 27:47
  And, you know, so I look, I wake up every day,
• 27:51
  I've said this now, and I don't want to become trainer cliche,
• 27:56
  but this job for me, on a very personal level, as we begin our second
• 28:00
  term, we're coming up pretty soon, six months instead of second term,
• 28:06
  is the way I've wanted to describe it is the challenge, responsibility,
• 28:09
  and privilege of a lifetime all rolled into one?
• 28:12
  To wake up every day with that sense of purpose and feel like I can do that
• 28:16
  job aggressively, intelligently, doing things like we just discussed,
• 28:20
  save our homelessness or the town halls or the other things
• 28:23
  that I know that we're really working on, to, to make things happen.
• 28:27
  And for the good of this place that I've loved since I arrived six years
• 28:31
  ago, and strangely enough, has led me back through various iterations of my life.
• 28:36
  Whether it's coaching, football, you age, or all the years I spent media now
• 28:39
  four plus years as mayor, is an incredible gift.
• 28:44
  And so honestly, I wake up,
• 28:47
  I wake up, I have an attitude of gratitude.
• 28:49
  I know that sounds cliche, but I do.
• 28:50
  I stay grounded in that take nothing for granted and and just go about it.
• 28:56
  Trying to be my best every day.
• 28:58
  And so I as I sit here in my early mornings by myself,
• 29:02
  I purposely wake up early.
• 29:04
  I'm a guy who meditates per se, but I wake up at five every day
• 29:08
  to spend about a half hour with me, you know, just to think things through.
• 29:13
  I look at my just because I need some of that time,
• 29:16
  and I and every day I go, okay, let's go.
• 29:20
  It's like that.
• 29:22
  What are you grateful for right now?
• 29:24
  Well, I think it starts with my wife, Karen, and my family.
• 29:28
  You know, I don't see my three kids, but they're all doing okay.
• 29:33
  So this week to my daughter earlier this week, which was a treat
• 29:35
  because she has for for young kids from 18 months to nine,
• 29:39
  trying to get her a telephone is like rare occasion.
• 29:42
  I get a text or whatever.
• 29:45
  Not saying anything is easy.
• 29:47
  But I really continue to feel very blessed.
• 29:51
  The live here in Hawaii.
• 29:52
  I live with an incredible woman.
• 29:54
  I love our team, the men and women we work with here.
• 29:58
  I love the sense of the challenge.
• 29:59
  If you will.
• 30:00
  The responsibility that we all share and the opportunity to do good things.
• 30:04
  And I think that, you know, I've said this before, I worked for 43 years, and me
• 30:09
  and I worked for privately held, publicly traded company companies.
• 30:14
  And in those years, you know, the metrics were pretty much the same.
• 30:18
  How much revenue generating?
• 30:20
  What's the rating of your weight next?
• 30:21
  Gets a bit of that stuff.
• 30:23
  You know, you're trying to satisfy these these ownerships right.
• 30:27
  And and same time build camaraderie and have a great team on the roof
• 30:31
  and serve the community.
• 30:32
  Because again, being in broadcast as you well know, is, you know,
• 30:37
  you talk a lot about the community.
• 30:38
  I mean, when you hold an FCC license, you're a general manager,
• 30:41
  you're responsible.
• 30:42
  That's in the public trust.
• 30:43
  And so that's why I wasn't so far afield from this role as mayor,
• 30:48
  except that you didn't really have the authority
• 30:50
  that maybe you had a sense of responsibility.
• 30:52
  With this job comes responsibility.
• 30:54
  Yeah, authority. And that's a big difference.
• 30:58
  But, you
• 30:58
  know, that to me, I always treated the money as a byproduct.
• 31:02
  I always looked first and foremost at the quality of our team that we could hire.
• 31:06
  Who? The best men and women we could put together in any organization.
• 31:09
  And then on top of that, how do we embrace the primary
• 31:12
  derivative of that human capital, its intellectual capital?
• 31:15
  What was our culture
• 31:16
  for embracing new ideas, risk taking, making good things happen?
• 31:19
  I always loved that because that always would manifest in really cool ways,
• 31:22
  because TV, for me is always a very creative environment.
• 31:26
  This year the metrics are very different, you know?
• 31:30
  And how do you satisfy a general public?
• 31:32
  You know, I, you know, I don't know
• 31:36
  what other mayors experience, but it means a lot to me
• 31:39
  to get stopped in a supermarket or the laundromat.
• 31:42
  What's over here?
• 31:42
  I want you to say maybe you're doing a really good job.
• 31:44
  Your team or I.
• 31:45
  That means a lot.
• 31:46
  And I hear that with a fair amount of frequency,
• 31:49
  as opposed to people going, yeah, you guys suck or something.
• 31:52
  And I don't hear that, you know, and I'm might say, people wouldn't say
• 31:55
  that if they felt that way in this world we live in today.
• 31:58
  So I feel gratified that people are showing up.
• 32:02
  I think people are noticing the combined effort of our team
• 32:06
  at the time we came into office, knowing full well the things were challenging,
• 32:09
  our willingness to take on the wicked problems, the way we've been transparent
• 32:13
  about it, the things that we've said, the things we've committed ourselves to.
• 32:17
  It's just really feels good.
• 32:19
  I think people realize that
• 32:20
  we're really trying to help make a difference, and that, to me,
• 32:24
  makes me very grateful that I'm like, maybe all roads led to this job.
• 32:29
  We're in it.
• 32:30
  We've got a great team around us.
• 32:31
  I don't feel like I do this thing alone at all.
• 32:33
  I try to play my position, but I feel like we're accomplishing things
• 32:37
  that in many cases, people didn't think could happen.
• 32:41
  And we're showing them that it can.
• 32:43
  That's that's a very, very satisfying feeling.
• 32:47
  On that note, this is the one off the podcast.
• 32:49
  So for one final question. Well, I thank you for the questions.
• 32:51
  I think we're,
• 32:53
  talking about all the right stuff.
• 32:56
  You know, look,
• 32:57
  we're coming up in the middle of the year 20, 25 going fast, for a lot of people.
• 33:02
  But it's also a great time now, kids are coming home from summer,
• 33:06
  vacations, and families are getting together,
• 33:08
  and, you know, we're trying really hard to get our summer fun program going.
• 33:12
  And if anybody out there does anybody looking for a job, we got lots of jobs.
• 33:16
  We try to help 10,000 kids this summer.
• 33:20
  We got some, you know, some really good things going on with that. I.
• 33:23
  Look, I just want everybody,
• 33:25
  to feel good about where we are, who we are.
• 33:28
  And, And let's make the most of it all together.
• 33:30
  But everybody's got to chip in. This is not government.
• 33:33
  Everybody's got to chip in if there's any message.
• 33:35
  That's kind of what we convey at the town halls that, you know, everybody has to
• 33:40
  help, not just with safety issues, but everything.
• 33:44
  You know, whether we're talking about ambient sound noises, not not, you know,
• 33:48
  not throwing stuff around, be respectful of the environment, all of that stuff.
• 33:53
  I just hope people realize how lucky and fortunate we are to live here in Hawaii.
• 33:57
  Mayor, thank you for your time.
• 33:59
  Well, and our next and final town hall meeting of 2025 is next
• 34:03
  week, Thursday, June 5th at Kalani High School at 6:30 p.m.
• 34:07
  that's for folks who live, work
• 34:08
  and play in Manoa, Waikiki, Hawaii, Kai, Kahala, and East Honolulu.
• 34:13
  We hope to see you there.
• 34:14
  Mahalo for listening.
• 34:15
  Happy birthday to Mr. Ryan Blangiardi.
• 34:18
  And until next time, Aloha!