Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / Mayor Blangiardi on storm preps, another affordable housing project, and a future landfill site

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Mayor Blangiardi on storm preps, another affordable housing project, and a future landfill site · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

0:15
Welcome to the one oahu podcast.
0:17
I'm your host, Brandi Higa, and today is Thursday, August 13th, 2026.
0:21
We're back this week with Mayor Blangiardi ahead of yet another storm system.
0:26
I feel like we were just talking about foster.
0:28
And now this week, another storm heading our way.
0:30
What's your message for the public as we prepare?
0:33
My message is the public is one of pleading.
0:35
If you will please pay attention.
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We intend to communicate as thoroughly as we can through all outlets,
0:41
including our own. Each and our alert.
0:43
We will be sending out updates twice a day.
0:45
Right now, as of this recording, it's a little bit early.
0:48
Even the National Weather Service
0:50
is a little bit hesitant to make predictions,
0:52
but we know that the systems are big enough and strong enough
0:55
that they could cause problems.
0:56
Even if they go past the house,
0:58
we could still end up with a very strong wind event,
1:01
which is not what we had during the kona lows,
1:03
but the wind events right now, with as much dry
1:05
brush as we have, could lend itself to, you know, wildfires and everything else.
1:08
So look, we, we're on full alert.
1:12
We're thoroughly prepared that we might not be able to control the storm.
1:16
We know that im mean kona lows were humbling.
1:19
It was a 500 year storm.
1:21
But we we can control our preparedness.
1:23
And we learned a lot in that last go around.
1:25
And we understand what's at stake.
1:26
So I can promise the public the city will be well prepared
1:30
as well as the state,
1:31
I'm sure, in our federal authorities as well, it'll be all hands on deck.
1:35
But I really don't want anybody to be cavalier about this.
1:37
Let's hope for the best.
1:39
We're trying to prepare for the worst.
1:41
People were really affected last time.
1:43
They should know they're out there like a flood zone
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or things that they always knew before but didn't.
1:47
Couldn't believe that it actually happened.
1:49
Be prepared. Be prepared to get your family out of there.
1:53
And evacuate.
1:54
Will we will be on top of evacuation notices.
1:58
But let's just see what happens is a little bit early right now.
2:00
So I don't want to, like, an alarmist,
2:02
but I do want people understand we're taking this more seriously.
2:05
Like you said, Kona lows, a humbling experience.
2:08
We've learned a lot.
2:08
What's going to be different this time around?
2:10
Is there any kind of, you know, change in the cadence that we're meeting
2:14
or collaboration with the state or what we've already we got a couple days ago,
2:17
we had a full cabinet meeting this time which we didn't have before.
2:20
The other thing that happened during the, do the kona lows
2:23
was we set up a joint operating center right at the police headquarters
2:27
that a lot of first responders to really increase the mobility.
2:30
You know, with all due respect to the Fasi
2:33
building the emergency operating centers in the basement of that place,
2:36
and it has some problems as a result of that.
2:39
So now we're going to have an emergency operating center,
2:42
with an incident management team from HFD in there.
2:45
But as well as the joint operating center.
2:48
And then, you know, last time we got some incredible drone footage
2:51
out of that, that really helped us in some of the rescue efforts and so on.
2:54
So it's a combined entity as far as a difference in cadence,
2:57
I think, will will be more thorough if you want deployment of our people.
3:01
At the same time,
3:04
while these things are wildly unpredictable because of the circumstances
3:08
and the advanced knowledge and knowing full well,
3:12
the severity of the gravitas
3:14
of a storm, we, I think we're on an extra alert.
3:18
If I can say it that way. I'm mean, everybody.
3:20
You know, we've made sure that everybody knows what they're doing,
3:23
what the expectations, what their responsibilities will be.
3:26
We are on full alert and much more ready to, open shelters.
3:32
We're on, you know, full alert from the standpoint of eyes
3:36
around the island,
3:37
how we're going to deploy people to make sure we have visibility everywhere
3:40
and reporting back, because one of the things we don't know is
3:42
which part of the island will be impacted, you know,
3:46
or for that matter, if it's a whole thing we want to be able to,
3:49
we want to be able to know what we're doing.
3:51
And we have that kind of Intel now.
3:53
And I feel really good about that.
3:54
the city recently began demolition of the former Dee Lite bakery site.
3:58
Yeah. What does that step mean for your administration?
4:01
You know, it's really a meaningful step.
4:02
We've been talking about Dee Lite Bakery pretty much since we came in.
4:05
It took some time to put that together.
4:07
It's an important part of the transit oriented development housing plan.
4:11
It's going to be right there on Dillingham, right across,
4:13
really not far from a station.
4:15
So it would be an ideal circumstance, because of where it's at
4:18
and the land costs or whatever.
4:20
We're definitely going to have knowing full
4:22
well We're not going to build anything that's not relevant to that neighborhood.
4:25
So this will be affordable workforce housing, new places
4:29
to live, conveniently located next to the transit station.
4:32
So I think what I'm excited about, Brandi is that this concept of Tod,
4:38
which I know we're seeing a lot, the public, I think, is still trying
4:40
to figure out what this means.
4:43
You know, it's really going to start to manifest itself,
4:45
where people can live near transit lines,
4:47
be able to walk to get there, and perhaps eliminates the need for a car.
4:50
And the tremendous overhead, car takes, not the least
4:53
of which is how to deal with parking, parking costs, etc.
4:57
fuel, all that stuff that's just trying to make life convenient.
5:00
Add to the quality of life and the fact that this will really be an affordable
5:04
housing complex, really built, brand new, I think
5:09
I love this stuff.
5:10
This is, you know, you keep doing this, you know, and just because we're trying
5:14
to address the housing shortage, but we're also trying to gentrify the city
5:17
and work conceptually, strategically about,
5:20
like I said, transit oriented development, which is what other cities have done.
5:24
They've built transit systems like this.
5:25
So if this comes off the way it's planned,
5:28
by the time skyline gets there, we should have that new building complete.
5:31
It should work out really well.
5:33
And that's true all the way down to what we hope to do in Iwilei as well.
5:36
Earlier this week,
5:37
there was a letter to the editor in the paper from Tim in Kailua,
5:42
and he says that a landfill in Kailua would be,
5:44
quote, bad for residents and the economy, unquote.
5:47
Mayor, do you agree with that sentiment?
5:48
No, I disagree with that, Tim.
5:50
It's really an uninformed statement.
5:52
That's the classic response you get.
5:54
You know, we are left with no options.
5:57
Kapaa Quarry has actually been an option since 20.
6:01
I have a book on my desk in 2000.
6:05
In fact, and even an editorial from Honolulu advertiser in 2003
6:08
about why it wasn't happening and beginning that process.
6:11
Because, you know, it's it takes years to build a landfill.
6:13
But we also knew there was an end date of 2028.
6:16
And so it wasn’t unrealistic to try to be 20 years out ahead of a landfill.
6:20
We don't have any technology, new technologies that are available right now.
6:24
They may be available in 20-25 years.
6:27
There are some technologies, but they could not handle the scale
6:29
of what we're dealing with.
6:31
We deal with a million and a half tons of trash a year on Oahu,
6:35
you know, because 500,000 of that is commercial.
6:38
On Oahu, that's that's one ton of trash per person.
6:41
Kapaa quarry is a site what we're looking at right now and will continue to
6:45
in my conversations with Castle Foundation that owns owns the land.
6:49
Is and this is an endeavor on our part as well.
6:52
We want to we want to see if we can move in there.
6:55
At the same time, keep HC and D thriving as a business
6:59
because there's a lot of rock there, really good rock needed for construction.
7:03
And I think the place is big enough that we're going to be able to figure it,
7:06
figure this out. We have no other options.
7:09
There are two pieces of legislation out there, one
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that was passed before we came in, and one subsequent act 73.
7:15
Bill 73 says you have to have a half mile buffer.
7:18
That in of itself then becomes restrictive
7:21
from where you can go to figure out how we could find this piece of land
7:25
big enough to put a landfill in.
7:26
But still, you know, more than a half mile away.
7:29
We had one of those in Wahiawa.
7:30
But that brings us to the next, the next, ruling,
7:33
which was 255, which means you cannot build over an aquifer.
7:37
If you look at the land maps, you know, and where they are, our entire island,
7:41
virtually, other than the coastal parts, is over aquifers.
7:44
So something has to give here.
7:46
You know, you, have, a distance requirement, if you will.
7:49
And you, you have the fact you can't build over an aquifer.
7:53
What we need in order to move to Kapaa quarry is the legislature,
7:56
which we'll be talking about
7:57
and talking publicly about it, because we're now left with no options.
8:00
This has to repeal 73 and make it from a half mile.
8:05
I say to a quarter mile, or we may get more specific than that,
8:08
but we're going to need a variance there in order to do this.
8:11
That said, of all the places on the island,
8:14
that is the best site from the standpoint
8:17
of all that blue rock in there and what it would afford us
8:20
going to cost us a lot of money to build, over the course of time.
8:25
But that makes the most sense.
8:26
I believe that this is
8:27
probably the last landfill that I'd have to take place on Oahu.
8:30
I do think that those emerging technologies will get more sophisticated
8:35
over time, and maybe 20, 25 years from now, they'll be able to do that.
8:38
I'm talking about this technique called paralysis,
8:41
the gasification of toxic stuff.
8:43
The other people, other thing that people have to remember is H.
8:46
Power has been tremendous for us.
8:47
We never take our toxic waste.
8:49
That's why we don't have the old dumps of yesterday converted to ash.
8:53
But when they were going through that, the supposition was that
8:55
they could take that ash and then recycle it to make asphalt.
8:59
The Department of Health has been against that,
9:01
and it will continue to be against that, because in essence,
9:03
what's happening is you take toxic, toxic materials, convert it to ash
9:07
to put it into the roadways, doesn't stop that toxicity from it.
9:10
Perhaps impacting people.
9:12
I'm not a medical expert, but I've been told unequivocally
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that they're not going to change their position on that.
9:18
So we've got to put the ash somewhere.
9:20
The good news about the ash is that if I took people to Waimanalo
9:24
Gulch today, that you would not have no idea.
9:26
Yeah. Yeah.
9:27
You know so there it's it's not the same thing as
9:32
most adults in their mind have some memory of a dump,
9:35
you know, with these piles of odorous materials, cats
9:39
running around chasing big rats, you know, it's not that anymore.
9:43
And so for somebody to say it's it's it's not good for a community or whatever
9:48
you know, what
9:49
people are going to say that no matter where we've been through enough exercises
9:53
to know that what this allows us to do is maintain our commitment
9:57
that we're not put on the West side.
9:59
So we're going to have to get an extension from the land use Commission up
10:03
from 28 to 2030.
10:04
We have actually a little bit more capacity at Waimanalo Gulch.
10:07
We have a plan.
10:09
I need to get confirmation from the Navy to use waipio
10:13
for a few years, as a temporary landfill, which we will put the ash in there.
10:18
And then we would also be obligated to remove it once Kapaa quarry is ready.
10:23
We've gone through
10:24
and we're really studied on this, and we have been from year one.
10:27
We formed the first landfill Advisory Commission.
10:30
The laws made it complicated.
10:32
We want to be respectful of the laws.
10:34
In fact, in that 2003 editorial, the old honolulu advertiser
10:37
I mentioned they actually were saying then
10:38
before Red Hill ever happened, you just can't put it over the aquifer.
10:43
And there's a belief that women, oh gosh, it's not over.
10:45
And I prefer.
10:46
But the more that I've looked at the maps
10:48
and we're yeah, we won't do that over and over it is
10:52
if we drill the hole in the ground and spend $1 million or so
10:55
to do that kind of a survey, we probably find we're over there.
10:58
So it's been frustrating in a way,
11:01
because, we've never had a leak at waimanalo gulch
11:04
but everybody's holding on to the fact I thought the wahiawa site, was great.
11:08
It was a, you know, really a remote location
11:11
a mile and a half from the nearest housing, 800ft over an aquifer,
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you know, not even close to what red hill representing a city like a
11:20
a place to a store. Jet fuel. So we've gone through.
11:23
We've exhausted all the space.
11:25
So we anticipate, I said, ready to get going
11:27
as soon as I said, this is where we're going to go.
11:30
There was going to be push back
11:31
you were going to get letters to the editor.
11:32
I heard people say that most of that is uninformed,
11:35
and then understudied on the subject as we are, and I understand
11:39
nimbyism So I really do now being mayor, I've always known about it.
11:42
But something's gotta give here.
11:45
And we definitely,
11:46
absolutely need a landfill, no matter what anybody else might say.
11:50
End the landfills or whatever.
11:51
That's not going to happen.
11:53
I want to do some good news.
11:54
Now, mayor,
11:55
your Honolulu Police Department and the core team
11:57
have made tremendous strides when it comes to helping our homeless population.
12:01
And they've done so through the MH three process.
12:03
Some people have heard about it.
12:04
There was that excellent special on Hawaii News now.
12:06
But what does that program need in your mind to,
12:10
not just remain effective, but maybe to grow in the years
12:13
past your administration? Does it need to stay with the city?
12:15
Does a state need to help us out?
12:17
Does it need its own, you know, city department?
12:20
What needs to happen there?
12:21
Well, I'm really glad you're asking me about it,
12:23
because this is a really major breakthrough in
12:25
how we've dealt with homelessness, because,
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first of all, there was a law change that allowed us to pick up
12:31
people who are really suffering on the street.
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This is people who are the most needy.
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These are the people that you see oftentimes isolated, not not part of a
12:38
homeless community, really severely mentally ill, drug
12:42
addicted, really kind of lost on the streets.
12:46
Some in cases even near death, because they have,
12:50
disease ravaged bodies or they have wounds and stuff
12:54
that just happened,
12:55
which is the thing that most people, if they saw somebody like that,
12:58
and I think I just described enough without getting any more graphic,
13:02
they would probably cross the street to avoid or if they were in their car,
13:05
wouldn't even want to look at.
13:06
That's what the people who are in danger to themselves
13:10
because of a circumstance, or perhaps in some cases where you see them
13:15
really volatile or yelling or whatever, a danger to others, we can now,
13:19
and this is what I was doing, along
13:20
with the police department, great integration collaboration there
13:23
because we are training our officers in this can go now and approach
13:27
one of these people.
13:28
And before, if you try to take them, they would always say no
13:32
and always resisted.
13:33
It was hard to get somebody who is not really in the right state of mind,
13:36
even though we've spent time trying to build trust, but now
13:40
we can take them out on the voluntary basis, bring them in for an assessment.
13:43
In some cases, if, if, depending on what we're doing,
13:46
if we're administering antipsychotic drugs to stabilize them or get them,
13:50
if we can do that and try to really move them off
13:53
the streets where they're a danger to themselves,
13:57
and try to provide humane care for them, it's it's aggressive.
14:01
We just did the beta test for several months.
14:04
We brought in, over 100 people like that.
14:07
We we figured out how we want to distribute those people to where they go
14:11
with this behavioral crisis center, emergency rooms, some or other facilities,
14:15
that we can take, if we do need a state to help us on an ongoing basis
14:20
with the Department of Health,
14:21
be it at the state side for for for funding for wraparound services.
14:27
And the thing that we really found out in this last
14:30
test is we kept a lot of it from going back out on the street.
14:33
They're just that helpless brand that they just don't know.
14:36
And honestly, for people who
14:39
might be opposed to that notion, I just ask you to think in terms of
14:43
if you had your loved one out there, whether it was a child, a sibling,
14:47
you got a parent.
14:47
In some cases,
14:49
would you want somebody to come along and help them
14:51
when when they're really lost in the world?
14:54
So like I said, we're doing it humanely.
14:57
There's this is not like like an ice raid.
15:00
I saw someone making comments.
15:02
We're not out there just abusing anybody.
15:04
Every one of these, events
15:07
is, is, is is tied to, in some cases
15:10
a medical doctor or health care professional, trained people.
15:14
Like I said, we're updating the training for the police department as well.
15:18
I think in all but a couple of cases, everybody was compliant.
15:22
Once he told me he had no choice, they would come.
15:24
We had a couple, I think maybe less than less than ten
15:28
where, they had to use a little bit of force, if you will.
15:34
Not really anything extreme.
15:35
We haven't had to take people down or anything
15:37
that you might have seen and nothing like that.
15:39
You know, we just had some people there in that state of mind.
15:43
They're incorrigible and they, you know,
15:45
and they're just suffering from a really aggressive mental disease.
15:49
And it's really hard.
15:50
So, you know, those those anyway,
15:53
that's already made a big impact and the potential for it to grow.
15:56
And you know, we just had a big meeting this week,
15:59
with the judiciary in the room with our state partners, talking
16:04
about what we need to expand that because that universe and even though
16:09
we've got a couple thousand people out there in the streets, that
16:12
that universe is a microcosm of that whole thing, right?
16:17
If we could get all of those people, that would be a huge lift.
16:21
That's a scalable problem.
16:22
We just need the kind of beds and the treatment services
16:25
which we're working on again in partnership with the studios.
16:28
So that's we're pushing it in a very different way.
16:31
Meanwhile, our other homeless stuff is working well,
16:35
it's a never ending battle.
16:36
You mentioned the the television speech.
16:38
So we were a op ed piece. Both.
16:40
And published in a couple of publications.
16:42
And I think it really kind of spoke
16:44
really well articulated to the, complexity of this problem.
16:48
And we're just trying to take it head on.
16:49
We're not ducking it.
16:51
I like that you so we're approaching it in a different way.
16:53
Another different approach recently was chief was, rolling out his drone
16:57
as a first responder program.
16:58
We've seen this all over the nation.
17:01
Right.
17:01
Honolulu Fire Department actually already does this drone.
17:04
As a first responder,
17:05
why do you think it took so long for the police department to roll out
17:08
something like, you know, one of the things we said we needed
17:11
when we were going to hire a new chief was some of you understood?
17:14
Understood. 21st century policing?
17:16
I can't speak to the.
17:18
Why not?
17:19
I can only tell you that when we came in
17:22
and coming off of a campaign nearly six years, six years ago now,
17:26
nobody is talking about modernizing the city.
17:29
And then you get in the city, you realize, wow, you know, we're behind
17:32
the times. So,
17:35
and we don't want to have Honolulu be like that.
17:37
Yeah.
17:37
You know, and so, this is all part of that effort.
17:41
All you it's manifesting there.
17:42
It manifests itself in other things.
17:44
Our embrace of AI, embrace of new technologies,
17:46
the kinds of equipment we brought people to work with.
17:50
And now, you know, having drones out there for, apprehending criminals,
17:56
if you will, and what that allows them to do and the efficiency
17:59
in the time take and save, to bring people into custody,
18:04
if you will, if they've committed a crime is greatly enhanced.
18:07
And so chief was, he jumped when I first met him.
18:10
And the interview we had for an hour and a half,
18:12
he asked if he could show me a video of an example in San Francisco.
18:15
I must admit,
18:16
my whole interview with him was great, but the ten minutes we took watch it,
18:20
I was like, whoa, whoa, look at this, you know, can they show the whole thing?
18:24
And how quickly?
18:25
And, you know, the whole idea
18:27
about keeping people public safe is they want to know that help is on the way.
18:30
If, in fact, they're in trouble. What?
18:32
They want the police to come so we can't get there fast enough.
18:35
And if we could do that,
18:37
not only I think it would prevent people from getting hurt, it hurt,
18:40
but could also maybe in some cases
18:41
prevent people from getting killed, you know, depending on a circumstance.
18:45
So, I mean, we're in full brace across the city on all kinds of technologies.
18:50
I think incorporating, as you said, he was already using it for the fires,
18:54
which is really helpful too, and how they were able to deal with the fire.
18:57
But this year and the doing of apprehension of criminal activity
19:01
is is a plus.
19:02
Add to that all the security cameras that we've now installed at work
19:05
in Chinatown, in Waikiki, and places like that, they're all AI based.
19:09
They have great capability.
19:11
We're no longer dealing with stuff from the 1980s where, in fact,
19:14
we came into Chinatown and 24 cameras all in one work and had to go up.
19:18
And, you know, it's old fashioned.
19:20
You and I both worked in broadcast VHS tape.
19:23
Pull it out.
19:24
It was better you had to go find a machine guide.
19:26
It was a bit of mayor.
19:27
No, it was a bit. Yes, I would all guy.
19:30
I'd be get ready yet. You.
19:31
Yes I did, but it was like that kind of technology
19:35
and you know, maybe you see it sometimes like these late night movies
19:38
where they point to a gas station and they will where's the to rewind it
19:42
like that kind of thing.
19:43
And it only has one of those which wasn't serving anybody anywhere.
19:47
So, like, all this stuff, I'm, I'm pleased with
19:50
because it does lend itself to keeping the safe.
19:52
The public safe.
19:53
Yeah. And something else that was pretty, I guess, surprising to me.
19:56
Like you mentioned.
19:57
Right.
19:57
Technology from the 80s, our lifeguards were using
20:01
like pen and paper still to do the reports up until this year.
20:04
Yeah.
20:05
So Watchtower installed, but I mean, Hawaii,
20:07
when you think of what you think of beaches. Yeah.
20:10
So so why not why do you think this happened now versus.
20:12
I mean,
20:12
I know that you were very instrumental in getting them their own department
20:15
because we said we're going to modernize the city.
20:17
That's why now I mean,
20:18
the guys are all, well, everybody's have received
20:20
the police have really embracing the strong
20:22
the drone stuff, have gotten great feedback.
20:24
We want to give people tools.
20:25
You know, look,
20:26
we pull our computers out of the building on the data center from the 70s and 80s.
20:31
People using does the work force themselves is demoralized by that.
20:35
In fact, we put the inspectors and DPP five years ago, their first iPhones.
20:40
They were all using flip phones from the the early part of mobile technology.
20:45
And they really need, given the capability where you could do it, an iPhone,
20:48
especially if you're an inspector from the picture order, which is so behind
20:53
and I yes, I had incredible day yesterday, but I don't want to digress,
20:56
but yeah, I was
20:57
I had both a skyline presentation then where the wastewater treatment plant
21:01
I don't know if you want to ask me about that,
21:03
but these are two multibillion dollar projects that we're doing right now.
21:07
And milk.
21:09
The wastewater treatment plant began in 2010 under a consent decree.
21:13
Federal consent decree is due to go through 2035.
21:16
But the progress we've made
21:17
since we've been in office and doctor Roger Babcock deserves a lot of credit.
21:21
But the stuff that they're doing, his world
21:23
class skyline, just won a national award from five years ago.
21:27
Be it's all the worst project in America.
21:29
Just won an award like I kitchen and Roger Moore going back
21:32
from after the sanctioning body for all you know, public
21:36
transportation cities across America, though, we give out three awards
21:39
and we're getting innovation.
21:41
I mean, we went from zero to hero, if you will.
21:44
But the thing I feel good about the wastewater plant,
21:46
because you even understand what that means, wastewater is what you flush.
21:49
Simple definition.
21:51
Everybody flushes.
21:53
And on average we use every person 100 gallons of water a day.
21:57
That's 800 million gallons of water it gets goes to a treatment plant.
22:01
Okay. Every day.
22:03
Most people even think about the scale of it.
22:06
What we're doing is so water that people flying it from around the world,
22:09
and we need to do that because we're islands.
22:11
Well, as we near the advanced, we've looked at the best systems,
22:14
been elsewhere.
22:15
We're working with a great partner, in this case, Central Phelps,
22:18
just like tulip really, is with skyline or Aecom is also out there.
22:23
I did a tour of facility.
22:24
I would I would fight anybody walk into there,
22:26
wouldn't wouldn't use the word wow a bunch of times.
22:30
Is that that impressive?
22:31
I mean, really world class.
22:33
I feel good about that because this is is in the moment right now.
22:38
This is the present.
22:39
But this stuff is for future generations.
22:41
And we're building stuff that is, you know, I could imagine a time
22:45
where someone's going to say, you know, maybe
22:47
not even that long from now, how do we ever live without skyline?
22:50
And given where it was and where it's going
22:52
and even the expectations now the narrative has changed.
22:55
People would already talk to us about more.
22:58
Skyline.
22:58
No longer has anybody talking about Will you ever get to album?
23:01
What were the narrative out there is beyond now?
23:05
More on how are we going to get to you agent,
23:07
and how much deeper going going to cop away, and are there any arms
23:10
that we could start taking it out there?
23:11
Can we get to do any good things like that?
23:15
That's terrific.
23:16
And I'm really proud of that because we've been able to do things around.
23:21
And, so in the fact I feel best about it is we're doing really good
23:27
stuff, quality stuff, world class stuff for future generations
23:32
that that is really good because you can feel like not only do
23:35
we do right by them, we're leaving them with really good,
23:40
good stuff that is going to impact their lives to the better.
23:44
That's that's powerful when you get into that.
23:46
Yeah, and you're absolutely right.
23:47
World class stuff. And we're actually getting recognition.
23:49
We're winning awards. Yeah.
23:51
But you know who else has won a world class reward?
23:54
Our pearl city senior little league champs. I love it.
23:57
You were on hand to greet them?
23:58
Yeah. What was that like?
23:59
It was. It was thrilling.
24:01
I mean, you know, because I, you know, we've created a chance before,
24:05
but this is the time when I get a call said, man,
24:08
can you get to be a part of a Sunday afternoon?
24:10
And I just so happened, I said, you know, I want to go do that.
24:12
I want to see these kids might get off a plane
24:14
to see the families and just feel that.
24:16
So I went out there empty handed.
24:18
I told the team that, you know, my good wishes.
24:20
I had to give them a list.
24:22
But the thing about this story is so fascinating
24:25
is that, you know, the playing the senior division of early.
24:27
Yeah. So they won here.
24:29
Then they go to the regionals in California.
24:31
They they play in Oakland.
24:32
And they lost their first game.
24:34
So they got into loser's bracket
24:36
and then they had to they had to win everything to either
24:39
come out of the losers bracket to overcome that.
24:41
And they won the whole thing in the regionals.
24:43
And then they go to South Carolina
24:45
and they lose in the and the opening game as well.
24:49
Now the loser's brackets, they had a win.
24:51
Seven out of the next seven games are eight games.
24:55
They won all seven.
24:57
Then that earned them the right to play Curacao for the World Championship.
25:01
It was the defending champion and they shut them out.
25:05
Ironically enough, five zero.
25:07
So Hawaii five zero.
25:08
But you talk about a team of destiny.
25:10
I'm not so sure.
25:11
You were attracted that teams
25:14
that got into a loser's bracket, not just in their regional rounds,
25:17
but in the in the series and muscling that way all the way through.
25:23
This is an incredible story.
25:24
So we're going to do something for the time. We'll do something.
25:27
And again this is a senior league.
25:28
So if you think about it you know they can be as old as 16 years old.
25:31
And as you get older bigger faster, stronger these are the same.
25:34
You know, 13 year olds we see on TV, on ESPN.
25:36
Even though they're older, I'm shrinking.
25:38
As I'm getting older, I'm okay. I'm faster, stronger.
25:41
Yeah.
25:42
I'm not a 510 and a half.
25:43
I used, I used to try to stretch to be.
25:46
I have to tell you, I was like looking up at these kids, shaking their heads.
25:50
It's all me.
25:51
I thought so much. So warm and fuzzy.
25:54
Little kids.
25:54
He's a big kid, so strong with it and have a great team.
25:57
Yeah.
25:57
Well, said Mary, we definitely will do something for that team.
26:00
But this is the one oh podcast so far.
26:03
One final thought.
26:04
Well, look, we're in a strong week right now.
26:06
So my, my my word would be of anybody watching or listening to this podcast.
26:09
Please pay attention, you know?
26:11
We're not trying to hide or scare anybody.
26:14
We're we're not interested in false alarms.
26:17
We will be straight with the public
26:18
as we get information as of this taping or recording.
26:21
Right now, it's a little bit premature to say specifically,
26:25
but if we get into a situation where we know specifically
26:28
where we're going to, we're going to be challenged.
26:30
And we I promise earlier this year we will be prepared and say it will be whatever.
26:35
We'll let the public know.
26:36
Just please just pay attention.
26:38
Let's get through this thing
26:40
I'm still so grateful for coming out of the kind of loss is devastating
26:45
and is
26:45
as traumatic as that storm was, and nobody died.
26:49
And that's a godsend.
26:50
You know, you and I used to work in the media business, and you see flash
26:54
flooding all the time with these stories, and they still continue to this very day.
26:57
And invariably, once they start to report on it,
26:59
what you typically hear is a death toll right afterwards.
27:02
So we had a lot of very harrowing rescues.
27:05
We're fortunate.
27:06
We want to we want to keep that story alive, if it comes down to that.
27:10
But we need the help from the public.
27:12
Government cannot do all of this.
27:13
We don't have enough resources to do it for everybody.
27:17
So people have to pay attention and help us help them be smart and be prepared.
27:23
Yeah. Thank you for your time. Thank you.
27:25
And next week, from winning the junior lifeguard state championships
27:30
to utilizing the new technology we talked about to make our beaches safer.
27:33
We'll sit down with the leadership from the Honolulu Ocean Safety Department.
27:36
That's next week right here on the One Oahu Podcast.
27:38
Mahalo for listening. And until next time, Aloha.