Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / Mayor Blangiardi on HPD Chief Lazar being sworn-in, housing updates, and Skyline's 3rd anniversary

Transcript

Mayor Blangiardi on HPD Chief Lazar being sworn-in, housing updates, and Skyline's 3rd anniversary · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

• 0:14
  Welcome to the One O'ahu podcast.
• 0:16
  I'm your host, Brandi Higa, and today is Thursday, July 9th, 2026.
• 0:21
  We're back this week with mayor, Blangiardi and mayor.
• 0:24
  July got off to a pretty exciting start.
• 0:27
  We kicked it off by swearing in a new police chief.
• 0:29
  We did your thoughts on his message as chief Lazar officially took on this
• 0:34
  new role. You know, his message was right on the money.
• 0:36
  You know, I'm really, very excited about having Chief Lazar join us.
• 0:39
  I think, you know, we said all along, that we wanted to have somebody
• 0:44
  that really understood 21st century, police work
• 0:48
  and somebody who could come in here and establish respect
• 0:52
  and, and be the leader we need for that department.
• 0:55
  And that's a tall order that really is in today's day and age.
• 0:59
  Because we have a very large department.
• 1:01
  David just brings to 33 years of experience.
• 1:04
  He had Sir Francisco, but he brings with him a genuine humility and knowledge.
• 1:09
  Now seen and listened to it, understanding
• 1:13
  what it takes to lead a group of men and women in a police department.
• 1:17
  So his message was on the money to his troops.
• 1:20
  You know, he talked about them.
• 1:23
  He said all the right things about how he would treat them,
• 1:26
  what they could expect.
• 1:27
  So I really liked that.
• 1:29
  I mean that to me.
• 1:31
  His humility was on full display, while at the same time
• 1:34
  he was establishing his authority as the ch That's a masterful move.
• 1:38
  And it comes with a lot of experience.
• 1:41
  Social media,
• 1:42
  as expected, is having a field day with his background not being from here.
• 1:46
  But what have you got to say exactly? What do you know?
• 1:48
  The general public doesn't.
• 1:49
  And that could be everything from, like you said,
• 1:51
  leading a department of this size to the Hawaii issues.
• 1:54
  Yeah. You know, people make too much of that.
• 1:56
  And that's a dangerous thing. And that's not a way of the future.
• 1:58
  We're going to have to get used to the fact
• 2:00
  that people are coming in here in different leadership positions
• 2:03
  or even coming here to live, and we have to be more accepting.
• 2:06
  And we've always been an accepting place.
• 2:08
  But, you know, you get into these jobs,
• 2:10
  you will need knowledge and skills, you know, it's what you're looking for.
• 2:14
  So, you know, at the end of the day, I would say this
• 2:17
  for all that's being talked about.
• 2:18
  What about what David supposedly doesn't know.
• 2:20
  And most people can't tell you that specifically because they don't know
• 2:23
  if he knows a street name or know the stuff that I hear is expanding right.
• 2:30
  There's a broader body out there.
• 2:33
  Our police department there quite honestly
• 2:36
  doesn't know what it means to have a really strong leader.
• 2:39
  It's been a while.
• 2:40
  It's been a while since we've had a really strong leader in the police department.
• 2:43
  You know, for the last Chiefs we've had
• 2:45
  now have all had tumultuous times in office.
• 2:49
  And Rade who tried really hard, was in an interim position for a couple of years.
• 2:52
  But, you know, we we are stabilizing force there at the head.
• 2:56
  And he's going to bring knowledge and skills that he's gained over the years.
• 3:00
  I've told him that that's the value stuff, the other stuff you can learn.
• 3:03
  So what they're going to see in action now is how he organizes
• 3:07
  and runs his department, the expectations that he sets, and so on and so forth.
• 3:13
  That to me,
• 3:15
  that to me, from the standpoint of what's not known right now
• 3:19
  is the bigger issue and how they can adjust
• 3:21
  to a different leader because, you know, leaders are leadership
• 3:26
  is situational, and the right leader can make all the difference, you know,
• 3:30
  especially at the top.
• 3:31
  And that's what we're looking for.
• 3:32
  So I think the awareness discovery, the learning is going to come
• 3:36
  from the department as a whole.
• 3:38
  And and that how that, you know, permeates itself into the community all the while.
• 3:42
  David will start learning about whatever he is supposed to learn
• 3:46
  about names or beaches or whatever else that people are concerned about.
• 3:49
  We wanted him for his specific knowledge and skills
• 3:53
  at running a police about that is what we needed.
• 3:56
  That is what got addressed.
• 3:59
  Okay, that's where the importance is and that's where the value is.
• 4:03
  Yeah.
• 4:03
  And like you said, a department of this size. Right.
• 4:06
  And everything that comes with that,
• 4:07
  the learning, this culture, what do you think will be
• 4:09
  the most difficult challenge for David Lazard in his first 100 days?
• 4:14
  Yeah, that's a big question.
• 4:15
  You know, and I think, I'll be curious to ask him that too,
• 4:18
  when he gets to a 100 day, you know, as he goes through a discovery,
• 4:21
  I think, you know, the biggest challenge when you're in a takeover situation is,
• 4:27
  you know, listening and trying to understand where the
• 4:30
  where the hotspots are, where the problems,
• 4:32
  the things that you need to address, you know, establishing your priorities.
• 4:36
  And then all this stuff in between, because there's a lot of noise
• 4:39
  that comes at you in the beginning, you know, it's all kinds of noise.
• 4:43
  So I think it's going to be that I think it's just settling in.
• 4:46
  I think we're very different in San Francisco.
• 4:48
  There'll be some similarities, I'm sure,
• 4:49
  because we're both major urban areas and so on and so forth.
• 4:54
  But I think it's going to be more about,
• 4:58
  we say biggest challenge.
• 4:59
  It's not a negative.
• 5:00
  It's just it's integrating oneself into that leadership mode, especially now
• 5:04
  because this is the first time he's been the chief.
• 5:07
  He was assistant chief.
• 5:08
  But as we've talked about before, there's a big difference
• 5:11
  in going from assistant coach to a head coach.
• 5:14
  You know?
• 5:14
  And so it's that adjustment too, because now he has a chance to exercise
• 5:18
  things he's believed in. Maybe he could before.
• 5:20
  Maybe he couldn't before.
• 5:21
  But that's sort of when you, when you get the, when you get the alpha Jeff.
• 5:27
  That's, that's, that's when you get to do you know.
• 5:29
  So I think it'll be that it'll be okay.
• 5:31
  I'm, I'm now the guy in charge and, and he's going to integrate himself
• 5:35
  into this department, learn where the needs are.
• 5:37
  Like I said, his priorities for change, things like that.
• 5:41
  I think I'm I'm really excited.
• 5:42
  You know, I,
• 5:43
  I've not spent a considerable amount of time in a short period of time,
• 5:48
  that he's been here and over the last several weeks and seeing him in action,
• 5:52
  both directly with me and with other people.
• 5:54
  And, you know, he's genuine.
• 5:56
  I talked earlier about his authenticity.
• 5:58
  You know, he's very comfortable in his own skin.
• 6:00
  He he knows who he is.
• 6:02
  And I was looking for authenticity, passion.
• 6:05
  He saw the passion about the job and cooking capability.
• 6:08
  And so far, in every instance that I've seen, David exudes all of those.
• 6:13
  And that's that's what we wanted.
• 6:15
  And like I told him, and like we all know, he knows respect is earned.
• 6:20
  He's going to have to earn the respect.
• 6:22
  But is there every right to demand loyalty and have this department understand
• 6:25
  the responsibility, because we depend so much on our police department
• 6:29
  for the very essence of our.
• 6:30
  Number one thing we have is we're keeping the public safe.
• 6:34
  Right?
• 6:34
  So, I feel really good about it.
• 6:37
  I really do, mayor.
• 6:38
  This year you chose to walk with the governor
• 6:40
  and combine marchers and this year's Carnival 4th of July parade.
• 6:44
  Why was that?
• 6:45
  Well, you know,
• 6:46
  governor, every now and then reminds me, we're friends.
• 6:49
  He actually said the pictures.
• 6:50
  Said friends,
• 6:52
  you know, which I thought was funny.
• 6:54
  No. You know, really, we're all of us.
• 6:57
  You know, the collaborating.
• 6:58
  We have no ego agendas.
• 7:00
  We're all in this trying to make good things happen.
• 7:02
  Big things happen.
• 7:03
  I think the governor agreed.
• 7:04
  And our team is certainly now that we've been in office a little bit longer.
• 7:07
  And he has everybody came into this job, and he was lieutenant governor
• 7:11
  before everybody came into the show, understanding the moment in time.
• 7:14
  We were
• 7:14
  I just talked about, you know, leadership, a situation with respect to chief was,
• 7:19
  you know, we came in at a time
• 7:22
  when there were a lot of needs really pronounced
• 7:25
  needs, you know, they were some which we called wicked problems.
• 7:28
  But there were things that just needed to start happening with the city,
• 7:32
  you know, building a house department and creation of housing,
• 7:35
  the work with homelessness, getting skyline going.
• 7:38
  You know, we had systemic problems in some of major, you know, offices like TPP.
• 7:44
  It's just all these things and some of the stuff we were able to do
• 7:48
  internally amongst ourselves.
• 7:49
  But some of the things, especially in our homeless efforts,
• 7:52
  the collaboration with the state is really invaluable.
• 7:55
  And so, you know, Josh just known all along that I didn't want that job.
• 7:58
  I know all the past mayors, which ones I've known going back to Mayor Fasi
• 8:02
  all, ran for governor at some point.
• 8:04
  Some even left office like Mayor Hanneman prematurely to run for governor.
• 8:08
  I had no ambition to do that.
• 8:10
  I took great pride in getting elected by the first term, even more
• 8:13
  so the second term after we put our team together and we won so convincingly.
• 8:17
  I understand my responsibility to the public.
• 8:19
  I actually love this job.
• 8:21
  So I think the fact that we can be friends, there's no hidden agendas, it's
• 8:26
  no threat, if you will, has really, made a good ...
• 8:32
  and Josh is just a good guy.
• 8:33
  I've been able to communicate with him in practical terms,
• 8:36
  you know, and, neither one of us is trying to outtalk the other.
• 8:39
  Outsmart the other.
• 8:40
  He understands the scope of the responsibility of being the mayor.
• 8:44
  City and County of Honolulu.
• 8:46
  It's it's a big job.
• 8:47
  And he has respect for that.
• 8:49
  And I respect that. He's running the state and all the islands,
• 8:52
  and that's not easy either.
• 8:53
  And and we just approach it that way.
• 8:55
  You alluded to this the progress on our housing front, your city's
• 8:58
  Department of Housing and Land Management recently celebrate its first anniversary.
• 9:02
  Are you pleased with the progress that DHLM is making and why?
• 9:06
  Because, you know, we we just we just went through yesterday, in fact,
• 9:10
  we saw it took us a long time
• 9:13
  to get all of our inventory what the city has put down.
• 9:17
  But the work we're doing now
• 9:18
  with the amount of developers we're working with
• 9:20
  and how the city is a player both in financing,
• 9:23
  working with development, using our affordable
• 9:25
  housing funds, using our private activity bonds, things that we weren't doing
• 9:29
  before, using our own city lands now, which was the whole thing about it,
• 9:33
  in order to offset construction costs and in, in material costs,
• 9:38
  if you will, just all of this, all of these initiatives, you know,
• 9:42
  there's so much that will get done over the next two and a half years.
• 9:45
  But we have really
• 9:47
  changed the trajectory.
• 9:49
  I've said this before, I know, but in housing, given the city a capability now
• 9:54
  in momentum and with all the developers who know that, who know that,
• 9:59
  I mean, it's I've had a number of them.
• 10:02
  And these are people who are tough to get a complement by,
• 10:05
  say, in the last three years, they've never seen anything like this.
• 10:08
  They’ve been doing business in this town for a long time. That's very gratifying.
• 10:10
  They don't have to say it, but they know it's very real.
• 10:13
  And they are so pleased with that.
• 10:16
  For me, that's extremely gratifying.
• 10:18
  So it's not just housing DPP works in with that as well,
• 10:22
  because that was a big barrier to entry as we know.
• 10:24
  That's getting better by the day.
• 10:26
  We're not quite yet where we want to be.
• 10:28
  But we'll get there.
• 10:30
  It's really a lot about training our people
• 10:33
  because we took a giant step into the future with the technology
• 10:36
  that we invested in and the capability that that gives us.
• 10:38
  So, yeah, I'm feeling really good.
• 10:40
  And, you know,
• 10:41
  and the numbers are starting to really show up
• 10:42
  on the number of projects and units are being built.
• 10:45
  You look at it and we've taken some amazing moves.
• 10:48
  I think we're going to do it. You know, it.
• 10:52
  Kuhio Park Terrace, it's going to be amazing.
• 10:54
  You know, you know, we're going to go from 302
• 10:58
  housing units up there to ten buildings with 20,
• 11:00
  2500 units and it's incredible.
• 11:04
  I mean, these kinds of developments at price
• 11:07
  points in areas where people really, need it is just,
• 11:11
  you know, it's all unprecedented and and it's big, it's aggressive.
• 11:15
  And I love that we're going to be doing a blessing pretty soon up in School Street.
• 11:19
  Just met with Highridge Costa.
• 11:20
  And we broke ground a couple years ago.
• 11:22
  Incredible facility.
• 11:24
  All the right I mean we're just creating housing so people can live and stay here
• 11:28
  and and quality housing, that's that.
• 11:31
  People could actually afford the kind of money they're making.
• 11:34
  And we try to be as practical as we could.
• 11:35
  We all know Hawaii's been expensive.
• 11:37
  Forever will always be. We're in the middle of the ocean.
• 11:41
  But I
• 11:41
  think to the extent that we have worked
• 11:44
  creatively and cleverly, if you will, with developers to actually produce
• 11:50
  housing, that people go, okay, I could I feel pretty good about that.
• 11:53
  I feel really good about that. Yeah. That's amazing.
• 11:56
  So DHLM and turns one skyline turned 3 to 3 years of operation.
• 12:02
  What are you most proud of with that transit system?
• 12:05
  With skyline.
• 12:05
  So well you know, we're going to
• 12:07
  we're going to have our first anniversary of the second segment in October.
• 12:10
  Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah.
• 12:12
  And the second.
• 12:13
  So yeah, the second segment has been a game changer
• 12:16
  because really, quite honestly, the first segment
• 12:17
  when it was going to Aloha Stadium when it was defunct.
• 12:20
  Right. Wasn’t really ideal.
• 12:23
  I mean, you know, we weren't even getting by any of the,
• 12:26
  you know, the places where people work.
• 12:29
  I mean, you know, now that we go to the airport, we get past Pearl Harbor.
• 12:32
  There's 2 or 3 big employment centers.
• 12:34
  So it's just that getting out of with the mobile,
• 12:37
  you know, it was always meant to be, you know,
• 12:40
  the way they designed it, the rail they get on a bus,
• 12:42
  getting out of a lot of stadium was not time saving.
• 12:45
  And now it's different.
• 12:47
  And, you know, we've got the express busses working out of Middle Street
• 12:50
  and they are full. Our ridership is building.
• 12:52
  You know, you probably have seen you know proud of it but we've worked out
• 12:56
  really creative, aggressive advertising campaign
• 12:59
  with pretty much everywhere trying to win share of mine, giving people
• 13:02
  details, educating them, you know, doing everything we can.
• 13:05
  in the present knowing full
• 13:06
  well that there's
• 13:07
  a tipping point out there where things we really start to grow exponentially.
• 13:11
  But so much of what we're doing for the future.
• 13:12
  So there are so many housing projects coming up
• 13:16
  now that going to be within a half a mile walk of the rail line.
• 13:19
  And that's how people will start to make their decisions.
• 13:22
  And, you know, with every passing day, we get closer to getting to not only that
• 13:26
  first phase,
• 13:27
  which will be to Halekauila and South Street, 18.75 miles from East Kapolei
• 13:32
  But while on the way right now with OMPO and others in the discovery here
• 13:36
  and design and build for what will be the second phase, we've got to go through
• 13:39
  some legislative work next year.
• 13:41
  But, you know, the ridership is building, by the day.
• 13:44
  The success is there, the time savings are there.
• 13:47
  People are seeing the benefits with with added certainty back, I love
• 13:51
  we always used this tagline more time, more life,
• 13:55
  you know, and be able to demonstrate to people.
• 13:57
  And there's a lot to be said for that.
• 13:58
  You know, sometimes maybe the morning commute, people can put up with it.
• 14:01
  It's a coming home at night and that uncertainty that can really be stressful.
• 14:05
  And I think more and more people now are starting to make those changes.
• 14:08
  It's just going to take a while.
• 14:10
  But when we
• 14:11
  open up the next phase, I think we're going to see huge spikes.
• 14:14
  We're going to have good incremental, steady build between now and then.
• 14:17
  Yeah.
• 14:17
  But I think, you know, it's like anything you want, people want to,
• 14:22
  you know, have it be convenient for them.
• 14:24
  So once we get down to downtown, and be able to get back.
• 14:28
  But, you know, even the express bus services are really, you know,
• 14:31
  we got one every ten minutes nonstop to university.
• 14:34
  It's, two stops to downtown, and it's,
• 14:38
  14 stops to Waikiki compared to 54.
• 14:41
  We knocked out 40 stops, cuts over 35 minutes just in travel time.
• 14:46
  And that's assuming maybe good traffic.
• 14:47
  It it was nothing crazy going on.
• 14:49
  Those are all benefits.
• 14:50
  It's an hour a day.
• 14:51
  For example, somebody who's working in, let's say, ABC stores,
• 14:54
  you know, or something. It's not the highest paid job.
• 14:57
  They're working really hard, but you get it back an hour a day just on that.
• 15:01
  And, that's pretty good for $3, you know, you can ride
• 15:05
  then get on the bus and boom.
• 15:07
  So things like that were just, this is all new and it's all rolling out,
• 15:11
  and we're living in the present as we create the future,
• 15:15
  and people are starting to adapt to it.
• 15:16
  And I'm excited about that. And we're not going to let up.
• 15:18
  We're going to continue to fight for sure of mine and and,
• 15:22
  and so the benefits and I think that, it's a good service to the public
• 15:27
  every, think it's, it's been something that's been needed for a long time.
• 15:31
  I mean, I, I can remember way back
• 15:33
  when, in my early days in television, go to a presentation with Mayor Fasi.
• 15:37
  I was invited to go.
• 15:38
  It was at Michelle's on his rail system way back then, which never went anywhere.
• 15:43
  But they were talking about the need to do that.
• 15:46
  That was before a lay.
• 15:47
  Everything that we know about, the West Side even became a reality.
• 15:52
  Where were you talking about that that, you know.
• 15:54
  So I'm it's this is what's so exciting
• 15:57
  about the job because we work in the present.
• 16:00
  Yes. We try to do things that are immediate. Yes.
• 16:02
  That's the day to day mandate.
• 16:04
  For some of the stuff we're doing, whether it's the housing developments
• 16:07
  in the skyline or even knowing full well that as we correct,
• 16:12
  like of the power, like DPA, really get it humming the way we will get it humming.
• 16:17
  And it's already much, much better than it ever was.
• 16:20
  And what that will mean going forward, all that's good stuff.
• 16:25
  The Honolulu
• 16:26
  Emergency Services Department recently added nearly 30 employees.
• 16:30
  So EMS growing to
• 16:32
  really one of the largest incoming waves that they've had in years
• 16:35
  when it comes to hiring, not just in this department but citywide.
• 16:38
  Where do we stand as a city making the strides?
• 16:41
  I know that you asked for this massive change three years ago
• 16:44
  when I was taking like half a year to hiring one.
• 16:46
  Yeah. It was. Yes. Exactly.
• 16:47
  Right. We're making strides. We really are.
• 16:49
  And, you know, I think we only have two vacancies in EMS right now.
• 16:53
  It's really great recruiting.
• 16:54
  We have our largest
• 16:55
  right, largest class right now in session for the police department,
• 16:58
  over 40 officers.
• 16:59
  I understand the next class may even be as big, if not bigger.
• 17:03
  We're making strides.
• 17:04
  You know, it's a big organization.
• 17:05
  Nearly 10,000 people.
• 17:07
  We're starting to study on why people leave.
• 17:10
  You know, there's all kinds of different reasons beyond retirement or sometimes
• 17:14
  people relocating, in some cases just getting a better job.
• 17:17
  I mean, so we're we're looking at a retention.
• 17:19
  But, you know, for four straight years now, we've had positive growth.
• 17:23
  We have a lot more to do.
• 17:25
  You know, some of the stuff we've had to deal with
• 17:29
  is making sure people have real growth opportunities with the city.
• 17:32
  And how do we train and develop people?
• 17:34
  We've had problems with, quite honestly, pay.
• 17:38
  So the, the pay scales, especially with today's cost of living, were out of whack.
• 17:42
  We've made adjustments. We've worked with the unions.
• 17:44
  We're trying to do everything we can to be a great employer.
• 17:47
  And that's just not just for our union personnel,
• 17:49
  which is a lot of our people, but people outside of it.
• 17:52
  You know, I it's we're in the right direction.
• 17:56
  And I think the biggest thing that we did is systemically, right now,
• 18:01
  internally, HR functions as it should be,
• 18:04
  because that was a real cultural change in that regard.
• 18:08
  And and to get them to understand their area of workforce development,
• 18:11
  not just ministerial on benefits.
• 18:13
  And they're doing everything they can.
• 18:15
  So, we just keep hammering at it and hammering at it.
• 18:18
  And,
• 18:21
  so it's a great place to work.
• 18:22
  There's a lot of really wonderful people.
• 18:24
  And, we're building on that.
• 18:26
  We're building on that asset, at least with.
• 18:28
  Yeah, I didn't know how to calibrate it.
• 18:31
  I remember thinking, okay, we get out of this thing given the circumstances.
• 18:35
  You just said, you know, eight, six months even get hired.
• 18:38
  And what do you start with that it was crazy, right? It was.
• 18:40
  No. Yeah.
• 18:41
  And then, so how do we climb out of that big hole and where will we be?
• 18:44
  And I felt like, okay, well, we may not get there in eight years.
• 18:48
  It's not enough, but we're we will be it all
• 18:52
  the way we function will be will be good.
• 18:56
  And and it'll be taking them further into the future.
• 18:59
  So, as far as hiring and I think that, in getting people
• 19:03
  to jobs and training them and developing them and promoting them
• 19:06
  and having good succession planning and putting in good leadership to inspires
• 19:11
  people doesn't turn out to be all that stuff is all stuff
• 19:14
  we're paying attention to.
• 19:15
  It all needs to be paid attention to, you know, we're
• 19:18
  we're an organization of people, you know, city and county
• 19:21
  sounds like, you know, buildings and whatever the streets.
• 19:24
  But the city, county and what makes it work
• 19:26
  is the men and women who come here every day in their various departments
• 19:29
  and their passion and their commitment and and their love of doing public service.
• 19:34
  And, we try to create an awareness of all of that and, and facilitate that.
• 19:39
  Sticking with jobs.
• 19:41
  We're in the dog days of summer.
• 19:43
  Mayor, what was the first summer job you ever had?
• 19:47
  Well, the first one I ever had, I know, I think I know what you know,
• 19:51
  the first one that I had was a dog can talk about your worst one next.
• 19:54
  Well, I was a diamond brand packing company.
• 19:58
  It was a tomato packing company in South Boston where I did.
• 20:02
  I would add pallets of tomatoes and then it would go down an assembly line.
• 20:07
  We have the sort, the ripe was the green ones or whatever else it was.
• 20:11
  It was mine, the beach.
• 20:13
  My life was a summer job.
• 20:15
  The only I was like 16, you know, I couldn't get a construction job.
• 20:19
  Then when I got older in college, I worked construction in the summers, and I did.
• 20:24
  I did a whole bunch of stuff.
• 20:25
  I did the worst one I've ever had since you asked me what I love.
• 20:28
  Beef in a beef. Beef Capri.
• 20:30
  I was in a refrigerated car with three guys.
• 20:32
  I was a college football player at the time.
• 20:34
  These guys were, like, twice as big as me.
• 20:36
  I feel like a little guy. Big, strong men.
• 20:38
  And we just lug beef all day long.
• 20:40
  I quarters in four quarters in a refrigerated car.
• 20:43
  You had to change clothes halfway through.
• 20:45
  Even those tables, frozen, were covered in blood
• 20:47
  because it was just you up against your body and stuff
• 20:50
  all day, all day.
• 20:51
  I was I don't think I was ever as strong in my life.
• 20:54
  I don't have to go to the weight room that whole summer.
• 20:56
  It was that was to keep up with these guys was pretty intense.
• 21:01
  Yeah.
• 21:01
  But anyway, I think stuff I said, look, I grew up in that era
• 21:05
  when we all were expected to go to work as soon as we were old enough.
• 21:08
  That was 16.
• 21:09
  You know, the two things were to 60 was get a driver's license, but
• 21:11
  I never stopped working two and summer jobs or had in between.
• 21:16
  And so is kids.
• 21:17
  I mean, you know, we we didn't have much to offer other than basic waiver.
• 21:23
  So you didn't want to do anything.
• 21:24
  And so those are the kind of things you did.
• 21:26
  And, you know, I mean, I painted houses one summer.
• 21:29
  That was crazy.
• 21:31
  I stuff like that.
• 21:32
  I mean, you know, you just you just kind of grow up and earn a few bucks a year,
• 21:35
  have to burden your parents, and, you just did whatever was in front of you.
• 21:40
  You mentioned,
• 21:42
  how strong you got lifting meat.
• 21:45
  You know what else is pretty impressive in strength and endurance?
• 21:49
  32 year old Kelsey Fender.
• 21:51
  Yeah, she arrived on our shores Friday night, Friday,
• 21:54
  smashing records for her solo row from California.
• 21:58
  I just want to get your thoughts, your reaction
• 21:59
  while you were trying to get well, you know, you wanted to make this a video.
• 22:02
  We did. We wanted to show where she was coming.
• 22:04
  It was the 4th of July weekend, too.
• 22:06
  We had already so many activities planned.
• 22:09
  But we got with the this woman was doing this.
• 22:13
  Kelsey was very was doing this from, you know,
• 22:16
  it started out from Sarah had done it before but part of a formality
• 22:19
  this is going to be solo is she's going to was like, wow.
• 22:22
  You know and I know you're a young woman, you're an athlete.
• 22:26
  And, you know, I has such respect for female athletes
• 22:31
  these days in all sports, you know, I mean, track and field, anything.
• 22:35
  I was watching women's rugby the other night on YouTube.
• 22:39
  How rough it is, how physical, you know, and,
• 22:42
  and so for her to take on, you have to be so mentally tough
• 22:47
  beyond the
• 22:47
  physicality of that, but just mentally tough to say.
• 22:51
  I'm going to row by myself across the ocean
• 22:54
  from California to Hawaii, what had been done before.
• 22:58
  And I'm going to do it.
• 22:59
  I'm going to survive and to be able to talk about it.
• 23:02
  Apparently she came in and was strong to carry in.
• 23:05
  I incredible, you know, as a guy that has five granddaughters.
• 23:09
  Okay.
• 23:09
  And I'm not just say it's because you're a young woman.
• 23:14
  I watch stuff like this and think and think,
• 23:17
  you know, the world that they're going through is very different than how it was.
• 23:21
  How would I used to see women when I was a young guy
• 23:23
  and and the way things were, you know, it just in my own lifetime, the tremendous.
• 23:29
  And there's still a lot more room to go.
• 23:32
  But the breakthroughs are incredible.
• 23:34
  The and, and it's really fun to watch it.
• 23:37
  It's exciting to watch it.
• 23:38
  I somebody like Kelsey Fender, whom,
• 23:41
  I don't know, I would have loved to have met her.
• 23:43
  Just her courage and bravery and mindset.
• 23:46
  And yes, that's that's good stuff.
• 23:48
  And I'm here. This is the one Oahu podcast.
• 23:51
  So for one final thought, look, I'm really proud of our team here.
• 23:54
  We got 30 months left.
• 23:55
  I told the team last week that I'm not counting down.
• 23:58
  I'm counting up.
• 23:59
  How much are we going to get done between now and then?
• 24:00
  You've heard me tell them before going to sprint pass the finish line.
• 24:03
  We've got no we've got, no small plans
• 24:06
  and, they're big and I'm really hoping that, we're going to some great success.
• 24:10
  We have Taiwan in starting this week.
• 24:12
  Now, with respect to the cultural plaza, we can make headway there.
• 24:16
  Something that, well, in my opinion,
• 24:19
  generationally will change downtown and Chinatown completely.
• 24:23
  That four acre block, in addition to what we're going to do in Eveleigh across
• 24:27
  the way as a station, comes in in the 17 acres that we have now spot.
• 24:32
  And we'll be developing just all of that, that whole area, what it means
• 24:36
  for the future of our city. Very excited.
• 24:37
  So I can tell people, is there's no let up in us,
• 24:40
  we're going for it and we're going to be really aggressive.
• 24:44
  And we're at a time right now where all the work that we've done
• 24:46
  for the first five and a half years, we've put things in place.
• 24:49
  A lot of good things are going to happen.
• 24:51
  Mayor thank you, thank you.
• 24:52
  And next week, we'll sit down
• 24:54
  with members of the Honolulu Youth Commission, fresh off a moving ceremony
• 24:58
  that commemorated the 250th anniversary of the first public
• 25:01
  reading of the Declaration of Independence.
• 25:03
  They'll be with us right here on the One Oahu Podcast.
• 25:06
  Mahalo for listening. And until next time, aloha.