Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / Mayor Blangiardi on severe weather, the Haʻikū Stairs, and the 2026 Point in Time Count

Transcript

Mayor Blangiardi on severe weather, the Haʻikū Stairs, and the 2026 Point in Time Count · 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 we're back this week with Mayor Rick Blangiardi.
• 0:21
  Mayor.
• 0:21
  Today is February 12th, 2026.
• 0:24
  Yeah.
• 0:25
  And that means it's your managing director, Mike Forbes birthday. Wow.
• 0:29
  What does he mean to you?
• 0:31
  You know, Michael means everything to me.
• 0:33
  I, honestly, I've.
• 0:35
  I've worked for a lot of senior executives over the course of my career
• 0:38
  in a lot of places.
• 0:38
  And Mike is absolutely at the top of the list. He,
• 0:42
  you know, he's a very,
• 0:45
  smart man.
• 0:46
  He's intelligent in ways that,
• 0:49
  really come to play, given the dynamics
• 0:52
  of the kind of things one does as a mansion director of a city.
• 0:55
  So he's got that feel, if you will, and based on his experience and knowledge,
• 1:01
  but it's just the way he conducts himself and, you know, and so he's,
• 1:05
  he's very ethical.
• 1:07
  I go to him for advice.
• 1:09
  I am, each and every day grateful for what he brings,
• 1:13
  you know, because he has an incredible work ethic.
• 1:16
  I mean, you know, this early in this week, Sunday
• 1:18
  morning is an example when the winds were blowing or whatever.
• 1:22
  And he and I were in the EOC together and he, you know, and,
• 1:26
  he's just there at all times.
• 1:28
  And I feel like Mike is there at all times on top of everything.
• 1:32
  There's so many things
• 1:33
  that sometimes if I need information on, he's my first go to.
• 1:37
  And if he doesn't have it, he knows how to get it.
• 1:39
  And you know, he's helped in our decision making immeasurably.
• 1:43
  So much of this job is about decision making.
• 1:46
  And, and if it's a problem solving, I always feel like when we get to
• 1:50
  those moments, that we've done the proper due diligence
• 1:54
  in large part because Mike is so thorough,
• 1:58
  you know, and I love that about him.
• 2:00
  He's been a great colleague. You know, I,
• 2:03
  I didn't
• 2:04
  know what the managing director did when I first got elected.
• 2:08
  All I knew, was you better have a damn good one.
• 2:12
  And I had known enough about my four months of working with Mike,
• 2:16
  that I was convinced that, again, because we didn't know each other that well.
• 2:19
  I knew him actually, prior, but only in the roles
• 2:22
  that he held in the past.
• 2:26
  And so our working relationship really evolved
• 2:29
  and became, what it became when we started out in this job together.
• 2:33
  And it's been it's been it's been a great complement.
• 2:37
  You know, we are different from each other.
• 2:39
  Decidedly so.
• 2:40
  I think that that's why it works.
• 2:42
  I and I think that Michael feels the same way.
• 2:44
  I show him a lot of respect.
• 2:46
  I don't I'm not a micromanager.
• 2:48
  Neither is he.
• 2:49
  But I've always believed in relationships like this.
• 2:52
  That person has to feel completely trusted and respected.
• 2:55
  And I find that very easy to do it, Michael, because he's deserving of that.
• 3:00
  Sticking with your cabinet, DTS has a new deputy director
• 3:04
  in Hong Lee after John Oji moved to become the department's director.
• 3:07
  Transit. What makes Hong the right man for that job?
• 3:10
  Yeah, I have to be very.
• 3:11
  Careful because I don't want to denigrate
• 3:12
  John Hoochie, who's just taken a big promotion.
• 3:15
  Right.
• 3:16
  But hung as an engineer and his background
• 3:20
  and his success already over 12 years at the city knowledge, etc.,
• 3:25
  is stepping into the role with knowledge and maturity,
• 3:29
  and experience that that you know that sometimes maybe the deputy
• 3:33
  you might not necessarily get that.
• 3:36
  So to complement Roger Moore and who I consider
• 3:39
  to be a tremendous transportation guy, but the projects there,
• 3:43
  you know, Roger's always been really good at getting federal monies.
• 3:46
  They've got some $600 million,
• 3:49
  in monies,
• 3:50
  grant moneys that we expect to execute.
• 3:53
  And Hong Kong becomes the perfect deputy now because of his engineering background,
• 3:59
  his knowledge,
• 4:00
  his relationship with Roger, important and dynamic, already well-established.
• 4:05
  And so we're really very fortunate because this next several years,
• 4:09
  we're going to spend that money,
• 4:10
  execute that money, all of which is going to go to the good at improving
• 4:14
  quality of life from a transportation standpoint for our residents.
• 4:17
  So I, you know, I've said this before, Brandi,
• 4:22
  I'm really proud of our team,
• 4:24
  because I have great confidence in the team.
• 4:27
  But one of the things I'm really proud of, and it's been subtle,
• 4:29
  but over the course of the past five years,
• 4:31
  we've made adjustments to the team and each and every time.
• 4:35
  Just last week was Super Bowl week.
• 4:37
  You know, I thought our draft choices got better and better.
• 4:41
  I thought that we were able to augment the existing group
• 4:45
  every time when we had an opening or created an opening.
• 4:49
  Where somebody came in who could really hold their position and do well with it.
• 4:53
  So I am happy for John Noguchi.
• 4:56
  He's got his own challenge now.
• 4:58
  It'll be good.
• 5:00
  You know, in the in the whole operation,
• 5:02
  if you will, of of the city's operation of, of of skyline.
• 5:07
  But Hong Kong implementing
• 5:09
  Roger is the perfect complement and it's that
• 5:13
  it's sort of like I was just saying about Mike
• 5:15
  and I, you know, I think we complement each other.
• 5:17
  I Hung's engineering background, his personality
• 5:21
  and their relationship along with all that they have in front of him.
• 5:24
  I feel really good about their ability to execute the plan.
• 5:27
  You mentioned this earlier, but this weekend brought
• 5:29
  some dicey conditions.
• 5:31
  Many told to stay home on Monday as crews raced to fix
• 5:34
  downed lines, blown roofs, downed trees.
• 5:37
  Your reaction to the response to our first emergency of 2026?
• 5:41
  Yeah, I felt I felt. Good about we were prepared.
• 5:43
  You know, I mean, hopefully I may not hopefully, but thankfully it didn't.
• 5:47
  It didn't he didn't get worse.
• 5:49
  But I would tell you,
• 5:51
  it was touch and go there for a while because the winds were very, very strong
• 5:55
  and that the capability the reports I was getting on Sunday morning,
• 5:59
  when I was in the EOC talking to Randy Collins, our emergency
• 6:02
  management director, was that they could actually increase
• 6:06
  to hurricane force winds without any rain per se.
• 6:09
  And we haven't really had a storm like that before.
• 6:12
  We've had the threats of hurricanes.
• 6:13
  You they go all this water
• 6:15
  and not that it wasn't raining, but this wasn't about the water.
• 6:18
  This was just about strong winds.
• 6:20
  And to the point that, you know, we this building
• 6:24
  was built a long time ago, 100, over 102 years ago, 1924.
• 6:28
  And I don't know when it was, when it was built originally had a skylight.
• 6:31
  Skylight? If you will. And anybody who comes to.
• 6:33
  Oh, Holly, you can see it.
• 6:35
  Years ago, though, they sealed it shut because it proved to be,
• 6:38
  I think, from an architectural standpoint, nice design,
• 6:43
  but given bird droppings and Ray,
• 6:45
  all that other stuff and the fact that it didn't close all that readily,
• 6:49
  you know, think about the fact that they made a thing they would operate
• 6:54
  and open a long time ago and however they constructed it anyway.
• 6:58
  We were like a football stadium.
• 6:59
  Yeah, a little bit like open.
• 7:00
  They the sides are sealed shut.
• 7:02
  The winds were so strong that they opened it up.
• 7:05
  I mean, it blew open.
• 7:06
  I mean, that's pretty incredible.
• 7:09
  I'm not even so sure how it is right now.
• 7:12
  It hasn't been closed yet.
• 7:13
  How how are we going to even figure out doing that?
• 7:16
  I think we're going to have to get the, defensive line from the Seattle Seahawks
• 7:20
  to just. Push it close.
• 7:21
  Yeah, it's going to take. Something like that.
• 7:23
  I think it's it's I think they're still trying to figure it out.
• 7:26
  But really, and I live in a high rise.
• 7:29
  I live up high too.
• 7:30
  And our house is getting pounded by the winds.
• 7:32
  It was really strong.
• 7:34
  And if I could just add anecdotally, I, I try to take my what my dog offers
• 7:38
  Sunday morning walk the other day and he's only six, 7 pounds.
• 7:43
  This trade was going to get blown away like like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
• 7:47
  You know, it was he's low to the ground.
• 7:49
  It almost blew. Us both over.
• 7:51
  I knew that lasted all of about 15 seconds.
• 7:53
  I couldn't pick them up fast enough and try to make it back inside.
• 7:57
  I thought there was.
• 7:58
  I don't know what I was thinking, but I had not experienced
• 8:01
  on the ground, outside winds like that.
• 8:05
  I mean, it was really pushing me really high.
• 8:07
  It's almost like sometimes you see some of these reporters in the storm
• 8:11
  say to the hurricanes coming and, and they're all but lashed
• 8:15
  to a telephone pole or something to try to report outside.
• 8:18
  It was that forceful? It was.
• 8:20
  You had all you could do to just keep your balance and stand up.
• 8:24
  So I'm glad that the worst is behind us.
• 8:26
  I know that's been a bunch of wind damage. I don't have it as of this morning.
• 8:30
  Any kind of totals or whatever.
• 8:33
  But I think for the most part on Oahu,
• 8:36
  that we were spared compared to some of the neighbor island,
• 8:39
  things that went on. So,
• 8:42
  you know, it was I thought we were ready.
• 8:45
  I was in impressed with the people who came in,
• 8:48
  at the EOC, and everybody kept the close to the ground.
• 8:51
  And we will talk with the governor and,
• 8:55
  all systems will go well.
• 8:56
  Good.
• 8:57
  Mayor, I want to ask you now about Haiku Stairs.
• 9:00
  Yeah, I know that we've been waiting a little bit
• 9:02
  to hear back on that,
• 9:03
  but what is the latest when it comes to the stairs?
• 9:05
  Yeah.
• 9:05
  You know, it's been a source of frustration for us
• 9:07
  because the stairs were dangerous,
• 9:09
  to begin with, which was led to all of our due diligence.
• 9:12
  And then the ultimate decision to take them down.
• 9:14
  So I want to be really clear.
• 9:15
  It's been held up in court, but no court has said we've done anything wrong.
• 9:20
  Or for that matter, that we're not going to be allowed to do that.
• 9:24
  It, we were already beginning the deconstruction,
• 9:28
  and there was an appeal, and then it went to the end.
• 9:30
  And, you know, I think it's the, an intermediate crown
• 9:33
  feels the ICA, and they held that up and,
• 9:37
  and not because we're not allowed to proceed.
• 9:40
  It was just their evaluation.
• 9:41
  And we're really hoping to hear from them.
• 9:43
  Some time has gone by.
• 9:45
  We spent a lot of money in the interim.
• 9:47
  What HPD, you know, having people there so people wouldn't
• 9:50
  get hurt, you know, and finally it just became too costly for us.
• 9:53
  So we pulled back on that,
• 9:55
  we have since, you know, we're just waiting for the court.
• 9:58
  Look, I know the court is backed up.
• 10:00
  It's hard working.
• 10:01
  But if the status stays with dangerous before the even more
• 10:05
  so now because we took down segments of the stairs
• 10:08
  and, you know, and we don't want any loss of life.
• 10:11
  And at the same time, you know, it's amazing
• 10:14
  how people will flirt with that and, and possibly get themselves in trouble.
• 10:17
  In fact, you may even recall a year ago or so they had these guys,
• 10:23
  throwing pirate over the cliff, you know, the barricade that we put up there
• 10:27
  trying to protect people.
• 10:28
  So, I'm uneasy about it because we did a lot of due diligence.
• 10:34
  And I just be clear, I started out thinking we can stave haiku stairs.
• 10:38
  That was my personal belief. And.
• 10:40
  But after we did everything that we did and understanding
• 10:43
  the community at the base and all the other things,
• 10:46
  and then really looking at the condition of those stairs and what it would take,
• 10:50
  you know, I didn't want to take away anything that would be
• 10:53
  a nice, adventuresome experience for anybody.
• 10:57
  But those stairs were never constructed for that purpose.
• 11:01
  And over the course of time and everything else, you know,
• 11:05
  they had to be dealt with and, and made
• 11:07
  and we could not at the expense of the community downstairs.
• 11:11
  And so, at the base of it.
• 11:13
  So we made all the right decisions.
• 11:15
  Also concerned because I know over the course of time,
• 11:17
  it's been a couple of years now, the cost of that has gone up.
• 11:21
  And I'm kind of angry about that, honestly, because we
• 11:24
  went through a whole process of trying to, you know, keep it
• 11:27
  so it would not be cost prohibitive because the right of way.
• 11:29
  A lot of critics said,
• 11:30
  you don't need to spend that money and all this other thing, but
• 11:34
  at the end of the day, it's the right thing to do, and I do.
• 11:37
  I do think that, at some point in time, something like that,
• 11:41
  perhaps on the other side, going back to Cooler Ranch.
• 11:44
  I know that John Morgan has expressed
• 11:45
  interest of building something for hikers up there.
• 11:49
  That would be that kind of experience.
• 11:51
  Look, I love that stuff.
• 11:53
  Yeah, we invested in cocoa.
• 11:54
  Hey, trader and cocoa had stairs.
• 11:56
  You know, to make that kind of experience for everybody.
• 11:59
  And, I get it. You know, I, I really do.
• 12:03
  I come down on the side of people doing things like that, if it can be safe.
• 12:07
  Had last year was not safe and had been for a long time,
• 12:11
  Mayor, a few weeks ago, outreach teams and service
• 12:13
  providers went out to participate in another point in time count.
• 12:16
  Yeah. What kind of data are you looking for
• 12:19
  when it comes to the results that we'll get? Maybe by the summer?
• 12:21
  Yeah.
• 12:22
  I think the, the data I want to know is where we are.
• 12:24
  How are we with the chronic homeless?
• 12:26
  You know, we've been trying to treat a lot of those people.
• 12:29
  We've got a lot of people last year into various treatments.
• 12:32
  There was a certain amount of recidivism, people going back.
• 12:35
  But we were also able to place a lot of people, we now have a good system
• 12:39
  in place with respect to core, which is our,
• 12:42
  you know, our mobile crisis unit, which mitigates a lot of the EMS.
• 12:46
  And quite honestly,
• 12:48
  HPD calls,
• 12:50
  that we used to come in on Vietnam on one, we get nearly a million calls a year.
• 12:55
  And so that's good.
• 12:57
  We have had we've established beds and places,
• 12:59
  along with the governor, the call hall, a lot of houses of places.
• 13:03
  We have a couple, we've opened three family shelters.
• 13:06
  We've taken a lot of people off the streets.
• 13:09
  We know this influx of people who come in here.
• 13:13
  Last year, Partners in Care, executive director, law
• 13:16
  at the UN estimated about 600 590 people came in.
• 13:20
  I know, through IHS in the bid in Waikiki.
• 13:23
  They flew back combined at least a couple hundred of them.
• 13:26
  But we have that sort of onslaught, if you will, of our state
• 13:30
  homeless coming in here because, you know, people bought them tickets and told
• 13:34
  me, you go live, you can sleep on the beach in Waikiki
• 13:36
  and a lot of other mythical things that just not we're not going to allow,
• 13:40
  so you've got that element.
• 13:41
  But I feel good about the system.
• 13:44
  We have, and the fact that we're
• 13:47
  being properly aggressive in a humane way.
• 13:50
  We're not looking to use jail as a diversion.
• 13:53
  I've said a lot for a long time.
• 13:54
  I'm not interested in criminalizing our homeless people.
• 13:57
  But when you deal with the chronic homeless
• 13:59
  who've been on the streets for ten years or more,
• 14:02
  many of whom are suffering from mental illness, you know, we see a lot of,
• 14:06
  PTSD, schizophrenia and bipolar depression.
• 14:11
  Some of these drugs, some of these things can be stabilized
• 14:14
  with drugs if we can hold them long enough.
• 14:17
  You know, we are in the business of administering antipsychotic
• 14:20
  drugs, also stabilizing.
• 14:23
  But in addition to the mental illness,
• 14:25
  we're seeing a lot of, you know, drug abuse, obviously, and addictions,
• 14:28
  but, you know, crystal meth, really bad drug.
• 14:32
  So that's difficult to deal with.
• 14:34
  And that is compounded by the fact that not would be able
• 14:37
  to provide medical treatment for them in our respite centers.
• 14:40
  And having doctors look at them
• 14:41
  and not surprising, many of them are also really physically sick.
• 14:45
  You know, it's bad enough that we lose a couple of hundred a year
• 14:48
  dying on the streets.
• 14:50
  But a lot of these people have terminal conditions
• 14:52
  when it comes to cancers, organ failures, liver especially,
• 14:57
  you know, the heart conditions, things like that.
• 15:00
  And they're not they don't have the wherewithal to see doctors.
• 15:04
  So they're in pretty serious shape.
• 15:07
  And that's also tragic, you know, and quite honestly, I don't have a median age.
• 15:13
  Maybe these people are not that old.
• 15:15
  And so life on the streets is very hard.
• 15:18
  You know, I've said repeatedly it's a cliche, I know, but
• 15:21
  the street is not a home.
• 15:23
  And, and and you know, and a lot of these people,
• 15:27
  that's all they want to deal with are they want to stay there.
• 15:29
  It's not easy.
• 15:30
  So we've been able to start now, getting really aggressively
• 15:33
  that if we come upon somebody, you know, outreach
• 15:36
  that looks like they're a danger to themselves
• 15:39
  and imminent danger to themselves or perhaps somebody else, especially
• 15:42
  with sort of psychotic behavior that's out there.
• 15:44
  And everybody has seen that, that we can pick them up voluntarily
• 15:49
  and we can take them in and do assessments on them,
• 15:52
  and not just take them to an emergency room at the hospital,
• 15:55
  or have them cleaned up and maybe have
• 15:58
  some topical wounds bandaged and then put back on the street.
• 16:02
  And we're looking to be able to place some of those people, in all candor,
• 16:06
  because it's working so closely with the state.
• 16:08
  The state hospital is overrun right now.
• 16:10
  I think the bed capacity of the statehouse was something like,
• 16:13
  don't hold me to this, even though I'm saying it on this,
• 16:16
  something like 270, 275 beds,
• 16:18
  and we've got 370 people in there already.
• 16:22
  It's it's, the challenge now is as we really we're
• 16:26
  at this inflection point, have a capability of taking them up
• 16:30
  against their will or voluntarily.
• 16:32
  We have places to take them.
• 16:35
  We have wraparound services to a certain extent,
• 16:38
  but it's it's trying to figure out how do we put them in places
• 16:43
  where we can absolutely address the appropriate level of care,
• 16:46
  especially given some extreme mental illness that's out there.
• 16:51
  And and that's the hard part, and that's the part we're working on with the state.
• 16:55
  I think that's the next chapter in our treatment of our homeless.
• 16:58
  And again, there are certain people within the context
• 17:02
  of the universe of homeless people out there who are bad people,
• 17:05
  who are more criminal than they were homeless, choosing to be that way,
• 17:09
  none of whom have long rap sheets, misdemeanors and look looking to change.
• 17:13
  That was on a habitual misdemeanor. For example.
• 17:16
  You know, if you do some of the stuff over and over again
• 17:19
  and just consistently getting wet off because it's not necessarily
• 17:23
  a felony to the extent it's a slap in the wrist saying, don't do it,
• 17:26
  and they continue to do it at some point, that ought to add up to say, you know,
• 17:31
  you just done that ten times.
• 17:32
  That's going to come up with some kind of consequence to it.
• 17:34
  So it's a it's a hard, hard thing.
• 17:38
  And everybody knows that you've got
• 17:39
  a criminal element in there or people who are just bad,
• 17:43
  bad behavior.
• 17:46
  And then you've got people who are just
• 17:48
  really sick, mentally really, really sick.
• 17:52
  And their addiction really lost,
• 17:56
  and have given up almost.
• 17:58
  It will try to deal with that in a humane way because, as I said
• 18:01
  repeatedly, and we'll take a look at what the number is.
• 18:05
  But if you were to take
• 18:07
  the point in time, historic number 4500 and even double it to 9000,
• 18:11
  that's still less than 1% of our population on Oahu.
• 18:14
  And the chronic homeless is a fraction of that. It is.
• 18:17
  But but their visibility and the fact
• 18:20
  it is so provocative that people don't know what to do
• 18:23
  about it, somebody has to deal with that.
• 18:25
  That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to really,
• 18:28
  mitigate to the extent
• 18:29
  now the governor has a different philosophy about ending homelessness.
• 18:32
  And he's got and and I, I don't deny
• 18:39
  the possibility of that.
• 18:41
  Because anything is possible.
• 18:43
  And I want to be an optimist.
• 18:45
  What we're literally looking
• 18:46
  to get here, though, from our standpoint is more functional control.
• 18:49
  So we feel like we're on top of it.
• 18:51
  That's why we open up a data center.
• 18:52
  Now we're working closely with HPD.
• 18:54
  If they pick up somebody where we can take them
• 18:56
  and so on, and we will to be opening up a new treatment center, Honu.
• 19:00
  And on the west side, specifically for the West side,
• 19:03
  that's proved to be an invaluable tool for us in our transitions.
• 19:07
  I want to be able to feel like we're not overrun by that,
• 19:12
  even though there'll be homeless people out there
• 19:14
  and that we're dealing with it aggressively and more than anything, humanely.
• 19:19
  I, I have a lot of compassion in my heart.
• 19:22
  I have for people who are suffering that badly, I do,
• 19:26
  I always have, I think personally it was one of the real motivators for me.
• 19:30
  When I decided to run for mayor, I thought, you know what?
• 19:32
  I think we can do a better job with that
• 19:34
  because we've been working with it extensively.
• 19:36
  When I was in broadcast and did all kinds of news stories and documentaries,
• 19:40
  it wasn't like I was oblivious to it and actually had spoken around the state
• 19:44
  about it, because of the editorials I used to do on the subject.
• 19:48
  So I feel like we're doing all the right stuff.
• 19:53
  It's interesting.
• 19:54
  It's just become more and more challenging the more that we do it
• 19:58
  right and figure out our capacity and what we can get done. But,
• 20:02
  we're going to get there.
• 20:03
  We're going to we're going to get to a place, I believe,
• 20:06
  where we have really operational control of the situation, functional control,
• 20:10
  where we're we're ahead of ahead of the curve on it.
• 20:14
  And again, those point in time numbers expected in May or June.
• 20:18
  I'm hoping the number I'm hoping the number goes down.
• 20:21
  Just so you know, I don't want that number to go up,
• 20:24
  but I'm prepared to hear anything that we're going to learn.
• 20:27
  Because I've always felt anyway, the point in time count 4500 was inaccurate.
• 20:32
  Anyway, so it's not to denigrate that.
• 20:35
  I've just always believed it's correct.
• 20:37
  When you think about the challenge of counting everybody on one night
• 20:40
  and whatever the algorithms are and how they extrapolate it, I don't know,
• 20:44
  but I've always felt like, you know,
• 20:47
  I don't know if I want to buy into that number.
• 20:49
  And so, I will be okay.
• 20:51
  I like is a system we've put in place now.
• 20:54
  Mayor, you touched on this, that you were a bit busy on Sunday
• 20:57
  due to the storm, but the Seahawks are Super Bowl champions.
• 21:01
  I know there the
• 21:03
  Seahawks won. I.
• 21:04
  I might have been a small emergency for the Pats, but
• 21:07
  did you get a chance to watch that game?
• 21:09
  I did, I did
• 21:11
  I did on two levels.
• 21:12
  One was we were doing a lot texting.
• 21:16
  Also, I. Kept thinking my TV's.
• 21:19
  To go out, where I live because the winds were just.
• 21:21
  Hammering the whole thing, and, and I got through, most of the game.
• 21:26
  There were some other things that went on Sunday for me.
• 21:29
  In addition to the storm, because Big story broke on Chinatown
• 21:33
  and my phone was blowing up, because we took some
• 21:36
  very strong positions on what we hope to do at the Cultural Plaza.
• 21:39
  And so I was it was like a combination of all that.
• 21:43
  It was the storm.
• 21:44
  It was trying to be responsive to all the positive feedback we were getting.
• 21:48
  And I was hearing from the the real estate developers and people that,
• 21:51
  you know, you need to respond back to and then trying to watch the game.
• 21:54
  And then on top of that, with the win, say,
• 21:56
  I'm sure some point my TV is going to go out.
• 21:59
  And then on top of that, the Patriots weren't doing really well.
• 22:02
  So it was, you know,
• 22:04
  it was like that Sunday afternoon I had a whole different anticipation
• 22:09
  of the Super Bowl over the course of the last couple of weeks.
• 22:12
  But as it turned. Out,
• 22:15
  you know, they
• 22:16
  lost and, they and they, they lost to a really good team.
• 22:20
  And I knew they were going to be the underdogs.
• 22:21
  But really, Seattle was really very much the better team.
• 22:24
  Although the Patriots defense did play very well.
• 22:27
  Yeah.
• 22:27
  I was going to ask you about what you thought of the defensive side of the ball.
• 22:30
  Well, you know, I've been saying throughout.
• 22:32
  The year that, the defenses look better than the offenses.
• 22:35
  You know, these throughout the season.
• 22:37
  You know, on any given Sunday, everybody was beating the other ones.
• 22:40
  And the reason why they were doing
• 22:41
  this is the defenses were all playing really well.
• 22:43
  And that's,
• 22:44
  I think, kind of created almost some seemingly parity in the league.
• 22:47
  Right. Defense is really not good. And
• 22:51
  so when you watch
• 22:52
  a game like the other day and you can see the fact that,
• 22:57
  they were a shut down the Patriots passing game, I was rushing only for.
• 23:02
  And anytime you can rush four and cover seven,
• 23:05
  with the athletes they have in the NFL and their ability
• 23:08
  to disguise whether they're playing man and zone and confusion,
• 23:11
  that kind of led to what you saw on trade, made the young quarterback,
• 23:15
  holding the ball far too long, too often and trying to read what they were doing.
• 23:18
  And of course, they're on rush.
• 23:20
  The front line was so aggressive they'd sacked them six times,
• 23:24
  and at one point it was really seven.
• 23:25
  And they technically said, no, it's not a sack.
• 23:28
  But that was a lot of pressure.
• 23:29
  And when and when he wasn't being sacked, he was hurrying his passes.
• 23:32
  They were missing passes.
• 23:33
  Did you know at the time they put tremendous pressure on him?
• 23:37
  So, you know, he used to say when I was coaching way back when,
• 23:41
  you know, you win or lose on defense, you know, offense sells tickets.
• 23:45
  It's exciting or whatever else.
• 23:46
  But the game gets decided that way.
• 23:49
  And then on top of that, the Seahawks also did some great special teams play.
• 23:52
  That punter Dixon was off.
• 23:54
  And you just put the ball everywhere you don't want it gave them.
• 23:57
  It was already hard enough to even get a first down.
• 24:00
  They had so many series where they were just three and out
• 24:02
  that he was putting them in positions where there was a long field.
• 24:06
  They didn't make any progress against it. Then they punt it back.
• 24:09
  I mean, who to think, who would think rather who would think this poor think,
• 24:14
  a Super Bowl
• 24:16
  that they would get to four field goals 12 nothing.
• 24:19
  And even though the fourth quarter played out differently,
• 24:22
  but they would get to four field goals and look like they had the game already won.
• 24:26
  You know, and that was the feeling.
• 24:28
  And then the notion was, well, what if he kicks a fifth against that?
• 24:31
  As it turned out, he did.
• 24:33
  And and that was, you know, that's a testimonial to the defense,
• 24:38
  you know, I mean, to the Patriots defense that they they kept them out.
• 24:41
  They kept them from scoring until Baracus got the ball late in the fourth quarter.
• 24:46
  The first touchdown.
• 24:48
  But offensively.
• 24:51
  But that was just it was really a good defensive football game.
• 24:55
  And it was a question of who could capitalize on the breaks.
• 24:57
  And they just couldn't even get into field goal range.
• 25:00
  You know, I mean that that's how dominant it was.
• 25:03
  They weren't even a typically you see a game this that magic you know
• 25:06
  one for one two for the six and six or something like that.
• 25:09
  They just they, they, they mounted
• 25:13
  enough of a lead
• 25:14
  where they had command of the game, you know, when it was 12.
• 25:18
  Nothing. Yeah. Yeah. Congrats at the finish.
• 25:22
  We want to hats off to Mike Vrabel.
• 25:24
  Yeah. What a great season for Mike.
• 25:26
  But since my three kids and everybody.
• 25:28
  Else I see oh that's right.
• 25:30
  Probably including you were Seahawks fans.
• 25:32
  Well you had family in the Pacific Northwest.
• 25:35
  That's right there after.
• 25:36
  So yeah.
• 25:36
  But it was it was. Yeah.
• 25:38
  It was yeah.
• 25:39
  It was I think if you're a Seahawks fan, I guess I was
• 25:42
  I've kind of almost over the last.
• 25:43
  Couple of days checking it off.
• 25:45
  But I think because I was, I was resigned during the course of the game
• 25:49
  that this is a mismatch.
• 25:51
  That if. You're Seahawks.
• 25:53
  You feel. Pretty good.
• 25:54
  So hats off to all the Seahawks fans.
• 25:56
  Congrats twelves.
• 25:58
  And there this is the one or who podcast for one final thought.
• 26:01
  A lot of good things going on.
• 26:03
  We said this we're gonna have an amazing year.
• 26:05
  I can't believe February.
• 26:06
  We're halfway through. Valentine's day is coming up.
• 26:09
  Make sure everybody does the person they love.
• 26:11
  Happy Valentine's Day in.
• 26:13
  This year's for six weeks.
• 26:15
  This year is crazy, but I'm excited and so does our team.
• 26:18
  And I think people can anticipate we get a lot of good things done.
• 26:21
  So with that, we go for it.
• 26:23
  Well said. Thank you mayor.
• 26:25
  And like you mentioned, Happy Valentine's Day and happy Chinese New Year.
• 26:28
  Until next time. Hello.