Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / Mayor Blangiardi on Tropical Storm Lala, the Youth Climate Action Fund, and a new Honolulu Liquor Administrator

Transcript

Mayor Blangiardi on Tropical Storm Lala, the Youth Climate Action Fund, and a new Honolulu Liquor Administrator · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

• 0:14
  welcome to the One Oahu podcast.
• 0:16
  I'm your host, Brandi Higa, and today is Thursday, August 27th, 2026.
• 0:21
  We're back this week with mayor, Blangiardi and mayor.
• 0:24
  You know, the last time we sat down with you,
• 0:26
  we were just days away from Tropical Storm Lala.
• 0:29
  Yeah.
• 0:30
  you reinforce that message, making sure that the public was prepared.
• 0:33
  Do you think that we did enough and that the public was, in fact, prepared?
• 0:37
  You know, I think we got a lot of cooperation
• 0:39
  from the city
• 0:40
  and the community and of our people, and I want to thank them for that.
• 0:43
  Nonetheless, we still had people who didn't heed the warnings.
• 0:46
  And, you know, I guess I really wasn't surprised by that.
• 0:50
  But I was I was really grateful that, this was a wind event
• 0:54
  that caused problems.
• 0:55
  We told people that it would
• 0:56
  we were concerned about the power outages and the ramifications for that,
• 0:59
  and traffic lights being out and our property damage and lots of trees.
• 1:04
  I think,
• 1:04
  you know, across the island of Oahu, some 40 or 50 roofs have been blown off.
• 1:08
  So I don't want to trivialize any of that.
• 1:09
  But once again, we came out with a lot of fatality.
• 1:12
  I do think the people were prepared.
• 1:14
  And we certainly were prepared as a city.
• 1:16
  And I think that was the thing I felt the most encouraged by,
• 1:19
  because there really were serious lessons learned from, the Kona loss.
• 1:24
  And it's not like we we weren't trying to do our best.
• 1:26
  Then we just dealt with something that was so extreme
• 1:29
  that when you go through something as extreme
• 1:31
  as that, you, you realize things that maybe you might not have planned
• 1:35
  for before we put all of that knowledge and all of that preparation into our.
• 1:39
  So I felt like we were keeping everybody safe.
• 1:43
  Anybody who didn't listen to us, who got a little bit crazy out there,
• 1:47
  you know, just
• 1:48
  well when they should have been, are going places where they should not have,
• 1:51
  gone to that was sort of on them.
• 1:54
  But for the most part, I felt good about it.
• 1:56
  I'm sorry for the, it look, like I said
• 2:00
  repeatedly, we we can't control the storm, but we can control how we prepare for.
• 2:04
  I'm sorry that people have had extended power outages in places.
• 2:08
  And know I heard so many people say they had thrown out the food and stuff
• 2:12
  like that and extended property damage, and I think we lost almost 500 trees.
• 2:16
  We still have we have a team from the mainland, Team Rubicon.
• 2:19
  We have all kinds of volunteers
• 2:21
  in addition to our city department personnel right now out there.
• 2:25
  And just today, somebody come up to me and say, hey, I just acknowledge
• 2:27
  I see crews all over the place cleaning up.
• 2:29
  So we're still in the aftermath of that, even though mocha kind of
• 2:32
  came in and really was a nonevent for us, but we're still been clear for,
• 2:37
  which is why I'm so grateful that Mookie did did prove to be any more of a storm.
• 2:42
  Like looking at what's going to happen on the Big Island.
• 2:45
  And so, all things being equal, I thought we weather that.
• 2:49
  Well, I thought the the preparation was much better, and I not that
• 2:53
  I want another one, but since we are in the
• 2:55
  middle of hurricane season and we've been warned
• 2:57
  this is going to be a difficult El Nino year, I feel like,
• 3:02
  anything that comes our way, you know, we can get ready for it,
• 3:05
  but I don't want anything to come our way because with it comes
• 3:08
  unfortunate damage and potential loss of life or anything like that.
• 3:12
  But, I feel pretty good about it to come out alone.
• 3:16
  Yeah.
• 3:16
  And like you said, you know, we were fortunate
• 3:17
  this wasn't a rain and a wind event compounded.
• 3:20
  But in the early morning hours of that Sunday,
• 3:24
  when we were seeing the effects of La la, what did you see and hear?
• 3:28
  Maybe in the HPD Joint Operations Center that you see everywhere that you were,
• 3:31
  that the public wasn't able to see?
• 3:33
  Yeah.
• 3:34
  Well, I saw men and women who were in charge of the situation
• 3:37
  who were empowered to make decisions.
• 3:39
  I saw a lot of collaboration going on.
• 3:41
  I felt that the, confidence level in the joint Operating Center
• 3:45
  was really good,
• 3:46
  because that was something that was born out of the, kind of Lowe's and,
• 3:50
  and so, that's, you know, there we have two operation center
• 3:54
  now, joint Operation Center, and then the emergency operation center.
• 3:58
  And, both of them are obviously about operations there.
• 4:03
  It's all about the first responder operations
• 4:04
  and empowering our first responders in their purview of what they can see
• 4:08
  and what they're looking at
• 4:10
  and how they want to deploy their resources as manpower, as well as vehicles
• 4:14
  and everything else.
• 4:14
  In this particular case,
• 4:16
  you know, this time around, we had eyes all over the island.
• 4:18
  We had already deployed,
• 4:20
  you know,
• 4:20
  all of our high water vehicles with water from the military as well.
• 4:24
  I mean, we were in situations where
• 4:25
  if something were to occur,
• 4:27
  we would be aware and then we would do the appropriate thing.
• 4:29
  I mean, I feel confident all along.
• 4:30
  Nobody was going to get blindsided middle of the night, like what happened and why.
• 4:34
  Look at that rainbow effect. Something was happening.
• 4:36
  We had to evacuate.
• 4:37
  Would you? So me, all of those things were going on.
• 4:40
  They were on top of their game. Same thing.
• 4:42
  Is that all the other aspects, the things that the first responders don't
• 4:46
  do in the case of emergency, which is happens
• 4:49
  in the emergency operating sandwich, is about situational awareness,
• 4:51
  but also deploying resources on it could be anything.
• 4:55
  The food shelters are shelters.
• 4:56
  Exactly that. It this time around we opened up eight shelters Friday
• 5:00
  morning before.
• 5:01
  So I mean, everybody was showing that,
• 5:07
  that they knew what to do and they were confident what they were doing.
• 5:09
  And we didn't feel like we had any missing a any, any gaps, if you will.
• 5:15
  Just a question of how severe the storm would get.
• 5:18
  Yeah.
• 5:18
  Like you mentioned, folks without power for long stretches of time.
• 5:21
  Right, right. Very inconvenient.
• 5:23
  Right.
• 5:23
  So for you, in the days following la la, if you just give us some insight,
• 5:27
  what were the meetings like that you took?
• 5:29
  I'm sure you got a lot of texts and phone calls just asking for help.
• 5:31
  We did. And you know, my letter was very good with us.
• 5:34
  I was talking to Shelley Kimura on a regular basis,
• 5:37
  several times a day, trying to get Intel so we could pass it on to people
• 5:41
  because it was a lot of frustration. Right. You know, it's no fun.
• 5:43
  I think people take power for granted.
• 5:45
  Then all of a sudden they don't have it.
• 5:48
  A lot of things don't happen when you don't have it in a given home.
• 5:51
  So what we're doing was a cookie cutter damage assessment.
• 5:54
  We wanted to find out, you know, what we're up against and what we have to do,
• 5:58
  because along the lines of, what we learned again, the Carlos,
• 6:02
  the whole FEMA thing on reimbursements and everything else, really important
• 6:06
  that you processes dot the I's, educate people, help them.
• 6:10
  That's what I saw I saw I saw a real, effort going on across the board.
• 6:14
  And, you know, with respect to our cleanup efforts, damage assessment efforts,
• 6:18
  making sure we had the right information, that knowledge on how to do that,
• 6:22
  and trying to get people power as quickly as possible.
• 6:24
  I can tell you the echo, I know it was a lot of frustration
• 6:28
  because people want to blame somebody, but they're working around the clock.
• 6:30
  They brought in over 100 linesmen from from the mainland,
• 6:34
  and they were, you know, screaming to keep in mind how they deal.
• 6:37
  They deal with the situation on a statewide basis.
• 6:39
  It wasn't just Oahu.
• 6:40
  But they, they got
• 6:44
  not all, but most of the people are as fast as they could.
• 6:49
  And that was the best that we had to offer.
• 6:50
  You know, we are vulnerable out here in all of the ocean.
• 6:53
  We have an aging infrastructure.
• 6:54
  We have a lot of lines up with power lines,
• 6:56
  whereas in other places they're on the ground and so on.
• 6:59
  But even that didn't make a difference because it was the transmission lines
• 7:03
  out in the coal, those it went down
• 7:05
  and they couldn't access that on Sunday because of such a strong wind event.
• 7:08
  So you had the power lines going down from HECO.
• 7:10
  They can't access it. They even try to repair it.
• 7:13
  And so you had was unfortunate.
• 7:15
  Just the wrong things happen.
• 7:18
  Okay.
• 7:19
  Yeah.
• 7:19
  And like you mentioned we had help from Team Rubicon.
• 7:23
  We had help from court. You with Sawyers, we had,
• 7:26
  with our
• 7:27
  South Carolina team that came to help us.
• 7:30
  But, Merritt, like you said, it's
• 7:31
  a busy hurricane season, and we're only at the beginning.
• 7:34
  So what is your message for folks?
• 7:36
  Maybe even your own city workers?
• 7:38
  Sure, because it's easy to get message fatigue.
• 7:40
  Yeah, yeah.
• 7:42
  And that's why, to be honest with you.
• 7:44
  Okay.
• 7:44
  We we we had some early indications it was,
• 7:48
  it was headed further south than it was initially forecasted.
• 7:52
  And, you know, Lula came within 70 miles
• 7:55
  early on, before June, getting near the big began.
• 7:58
  It looked like it would be 330 miles south of us.
• 8:02
  It may be drying out sooner.
• 8:04
  So because of that, I waved off.
• 8:06
  We didn't open up the emergency operation. We didn't want to fatigue people.
• 8:09
  We also didn't want to fatigue the public by going on and trying to hype it.
• 8:12
  I listed some of the local meteorologists and they were saying some things
• 8:16
  that weren't really necessarily consistent
• 8:18
  with what we will hear from the National Weather Service was,
• 8:21
  and I understand they want to be cautionary, protect people
• 8:24
  on our end of it.
• 8:25
  Operationally, we wanted to we wanted to keep it,
• 8:28
  you know, as credible and real as possible so that we're not sending out
• 8:32
  mixed messages or false alarms.
• 8:34
  And same time, I didn't want to overtax or burden
• 8:37
  people because, candidly speaking,
• 8:39
  as we were anticipating what they were talking about,
• 8:41
  tropical Storm Iselle coming right behind it,
• 8:43
  even though now that appears as of today's recording fizzled out.
• 8:47
  So we're up against that kind of a thing.
• 8:48
  So I thought we made the calls really good at no time to the public.
• 8:53
  That said, because of what you just said and what we've talked about, this is a
• 8:58
  we're going to through and through this through November and by the way,
• 9:01
  there's absolutely no magic to hurricane season when we start talking
• 9:04
  about what month,
• 9:05
  you know, ending in November, nobody said necessarily has to end in November.
• 9:09
  But we're in this right now with a much warmer ocean and climate here
• 9:13
  that's, you know, conducive to having these storms take place.
• 9:17
  We have to be just on our already alert and just be prepared
• 9:21
  and be prepared to act quickly.
• 9:22
  We're going to try to give people as much of an advance warning.
• 9:25
  But I'm sorry if these things come, you got to pay attention to.
• 9:27
  If you can't ignore it, that's how people get hurt.
• 9:30
  We have a
• 9:31
  real chance to build a more resilient Oahu, though.
• 9:34
  Yeah, the months to come, and we have a chance to tap into our youth.
• 9:37
  Yeah.
• 9:38
  Bloomberg Philanthropies gave us $50,000 to fund youth
• 9:41
  led projects on climate action,
• 9:42
  whether that's hardening buildings or making ourselves more sustainable.
• 9:46
  Yeah.
• 9:47
  But that's potentially dozens of young people that could get thousands of dollars
• 9:51
  for their ideas.
• 9:52
  I wasn't very creative when I was in high school.
• 9:55
  I don't know if you know so.
• 9:57
  And I certainly wasn't versed at all in climate, climate change,
• 10:00
  because when I was going to high school, you know, they were talking about that.
• 10:05
  I mean, it just wasn't even in the vernacular. You know.
• 10:07
  But I have a resident expert with me, our own Ryan Wilson, who shares an office
• 10:11
  with the communications department, really proud of the work that's gone on.
• 10:14
  You know, Bloomberg has proven to be a good partner for us
• 10:16
  in these small grants that we get can really be impactful.
• 10:19
  And it really challenges and gets a community involved.
• 10:22
  And I think with our kids especially,
• 10:23
  although I think eligibility is 15 to 24 on this one, it's
• 10:26
  I wouldn't say kids like young kids, but these are reasonable young adults
• 10:30
  that are going to live in a future that's going to be facing climate change.
• 10:34
  So this is a great way to engage them, get them thinking so much.
• 10:36
  You know, we're Ryan here to give a little bit more insight, to this program.
• 10:40
  So Ryan you're on baby.
• 10:41
  Well yeah.
• 10:42
  Well it's really exciting.
• 10:44
  The youth Climate Action Fund because we get a tap into our youth
• 10:48
  for really creative.
• 10:49
  They have incredible ideas, and they're going to be able
• 10:52
  to use our knowledge here in Hawaii
• 10:55
  to be like a leader for the entire world about how to address climate change.
• 11:00
  And that's a really exciting thing, is that,
• 11:02
  you know, we can show off our wisdom, our knowledge to everyone,
• 11:06
  because there are so many cities
• 11:08
  around the globe that are involved with this program.
• 11:10
  So they're going to be able to learn from us, which is really great.
• 11:13
  The other thing about it is that, we want to get these projects
• 11:18
  going sooner rather than later, like in the next two months.
• 11:21
  We want to be able to issue the money so that those projects are happening,
• 11:24
  are actually occurring like before the end of the year,
• 11:29
  so that they're out there
• 11:30
  creating their projects, doing their thing,
• 11:32
  and making a real difference in climate change.
• 11:34
  This is not like, you know, 2 or 3 years down the line kind of thing.
• 11:37
  Addressing climate change is not a like a planning thing.
• 11:39
  It's like a let's make something happen immediately.
• 11:41
  Yeah, I love that, I love that, and I have to believe
• 11:44
  there's a lot of young people who've had a lot of ideas and thoughts.
• 11:47
  What a great venue to showcase.
• 11:49
  Yeah, I love the fact that, you know,
• 11:51
  as island dwellers and given the fact that we're the most isolated
• 11:55
  people on a planet, when, you know, you look at the, the geography of things,
• 12:00
  we should be a leader because that isolation that vulnerability,
• 12:05
  and the fact that we are resilient as a people should lend itself
• 12:09
  to us doing these groundbreaking things, and it's conducive to that.
• 12:11
  Just other survival. Right?
• 12:13
  I think there's other people coming up
• 12:15
  are probably much more versed than we ever were.
• 12:18
  We're younger and they probably have a lot of good ideas going,
• 12:20
  and it's a great chance to bring those ideas to fruition.
• 12:23
  So one of the reasons that we got involved with this was because of the Honolulu
• 12:27
  Youth Commission.
• 12:28
  We just swore in a bunch of new youth commissioners, last week,
• 12:33
  and all of them are really excited and passionate
• 12:37
  and enthusiastic about climate change and dealing with that.
• 12:41
  And so you can hear them talking about it with this really in-depth knowledge
• 12:46
  and awareness of the topic and this passion to actually do something about it.
• 12:50
  And that's why this is so like, oh, I agree, incredible opportunity.
• 12:54
  You know, years ago when we were working together in Hawaii
• 12:56
  News Now, one of the last things we did was I raised a bunch of money.
• 13:00
  We did those three documentaries on climate change.
• 13:03
  We did that not traditional
• 13:05
  to try to showcase programing, to get ratings, if you will.
• 13:09
  We did it because we really felt that there was
• 13:12
  a lot of information out there that needed to be shared,
• 13:15
  and it was seemingly nobody really doing it.
• 13:17
  And we thought we would create these three 90 minute documentaries, which were what
• 13:21
  ended up being award winning documentaries to use as a curriculum in the schools.
• 13:25
  In fact, what was one of the things when we completed them,
• 13:28
  we sent them out to the deal.
• 13:29
  We were sent to all the private schools.
• 13:30
  It was all designed to educate, inform, and, and do that.
• 13:35
  But by the way, when I was raising the money, and I would say to them,
• 13:41
  I said, look, you and I are talking to adults, the CEOs in town.
• 13:44
  I said, you, we can have a conversation about climate change.
• 13:47
  I guarantee you,
• 13:48
  it's one kind of conversation based on where you are in life, what you've been
• 13:52
  exposed to, what you experience, what you think this is all about.
• 13:55
  So you sit down and have a conversation with a young kid about climate change
• 13:59
  and listen to what they say.
• 14:00
  That's a very different reality,
• 14:02
  because the future that they're looking at is very much threatened by this.
• 14:06
  And that is more than just scary, that the harshness of that reality
• 14:10
  that this is upon us.
• 14:11
  It's got people thinking, young people thinking
• 14:14
  in ways that you and I never had to.
• 14:15
  And honest to God, every time I said that they had like an epiphany,
• 14:19
  they said, how much you need?
• 14:20
  You know, it was
• 14:21
  it was a little bit like that because I found that to be very true.
• 14:24
  I was talking to school kids, and we got in there
• 14:27
  and there was very genuine fear, but it was like, okay,
• 14:30
  what we can do about it, but what can we do about it?
• 14:33
  So this is a great thing about that. That's exactly right.
• 14:36
  And it really empowers them, because we're giving away up to $4,999.
• 14:41
  People can apply now.
• 14:43
  They can go to a resilient O'ahu dot org, but it addresses
• 14:46
  exactly what you're talking about.
• 14:47
  Mayor, the sense of helplessness. Yeah.
• 14:50
  And now young people can take real action, right.
• 14:53
  And nobody wants to feel helpless.
• 14:55
  And we certainly owe it to
• 14:56
  we talk all the time here the things we're doing today
• 14:58
  and the benefit has for future generations.
• 15:01
  Well, for all the technology that we're investing in and trying
• 15:04
  to improve and things that we're doing and housing and skyline
• 15:07
  and I just all these things that work towards the future,
• 15:10
  this is awesome on the agenda, very much so, is to try to leave us in a place
• 15:16
  or create this year for the city itself,
• 15:19
  the best we could possibly do, given the almost rub against.
• 15:21
  So I'm bravo on this.
• 15:23
  Thank you to Bloomberg.
• 15:25
  I appreciate personally all your work on this, Ryan,
• 15:27
  but I'm really excited to see what these kids come up with.
• 15:29
  I think we're going to see some really cool stuff. It's going to be incredible.
• 15:32
  Yeah.
• 15:32
  So right.
• 15:33
  Any key deadlines, details that you want folks to know about.
• 15:36
  So the deadline is September 7th. That's soon.
• 15:38
  That's really soon. So apply immediately.
• 15:41
  And if you know somebody in your community,
• 15:43
  if you know a kid, somebody from 15 to 24,
• 15:46
  so could be college age, it could be somebody who's recently graduated.
• 15:50
  Let them know about this,
• 15:51
  because we want
• 15:52
  to get this into the hands, into the minds of as many people as possible.
• 15:56
  Go to resilient oahu.org to say, I want to say that again, because
• 15:59
  sometimes giving out websites and stuff, I think it's resilient.
• 16:03
  Oahu resilient. Oahu dawg.
• 16:05
  Really simple.
• 16:06
  Lots of information there.
• 16:08
  Please, if you in what you say go for it.
• 16:10
  There's a great opportunity. You never know.
• 16:12
  And it would be
• 16:13
  exciting for us to embrace your ideas and who knows what comes with that.
• 16:17
  So it's a good opportunity. Yeah.
• 16:19
  And what kind of you know, September 7th is really soon.
• 16:21
  So what kind of ideas are we talking about here?
• 16:22
  Because I don't know if I'm going to be able to. Not me.
• 16:25
  I don't know if people are going to be able to come up with an idea
• 16:27
  by September 7th.
• 16:28
  On how we're going to, you know, stop a global warming, stop erosion.
• 16:31
  You know, what kind of ideas are you talking really good point.
• 16:34
  Brandi.
• 16:35
  You know, the thing is that there isn't really a structured idea about,
• 16:40
  okay, you must meet these qualifications for a project.
• 16:43
  We're hoping that you'd come with a whole bunch of different ideas,
• 16:46
  but just a couple examples of what that might look like
• 16:49
  would be a community garden.
• 16:51
  Maybe you want to work on a low E or rehabilitate a fish pond, or.
• 16:55
  This is a really interesting one that they did down in Australia.
• 16:58
  A young person put together documentary on the seven seasons of Australia.
• 17:03
  And it's not broken down into four seasons like winter, spring, summer, fall,
• 17:07
  like we have up in the Northern hemisphere and, you know,
• 17:09
  traditional Western cultures.
• 17:11
  They broke it down into seven.
• 17:13
  And so it was really a thoughtful approach
• 17:16
  to resiliency, climate change, all of those kind of aspects.
• 17:19
  So if somebody has an idea about, oh,
• 17:21
  I want to put together documentary about Native Hawaiian intelligence
• 17:24
  and wisdom and knowledge about climate and addressing that kind of thing,
• 17:28
  that could be a qualifying project.
• 17:30
  Let's just say, you know, Brenda, I think we share Ryan on the show more often.
• 17:33
  I'm learning more stuff about this guy, about this.
• 17:35
  And and I thought I would this is great.
• 17:38
  Yeah. No, that's yeah.
• 17:39
  It doesn't have to be, you know.
• 17:41
  Well, it can't really be. I don't think it's short notice.
• 17:44
  And nobody's walking around with these ideas in hip pocket, but
• 17:47
  I think there's genius and simplicity, but things that have an impact,
• 17:51
  and everybody can do things that contribute towards climate change.
• 17:54
  I think it's a chance to celebrate these kind of clever ideas
• 17:57
  that could make a big difference if done not just by the individual,
• 18:00
  but in the collective.
• 18:01
  But it's up to for individual to showcase a good idea that could catch on.
• 18:05
  You know, mayor, the Honolulu Liquor Commission voted to appoint Jason White.
• 18:10
  Yes. As its next administrator.
• 18:12
  What do you like about Mr..
• 18:14
  As a leader, his decision maker, he wants this challenge.
• 18:17
  You know, we use an executive search firm.
• 18:19
  Was it easy to find a candidate, a liquor commission?
• 18:23
  And I've learned, especially since I've been in office,
• 18:25
  you know, the work that they do is far reaching.
• 18:29
  You know, the commissions involved with legal, those of bars and restaurants
• 18:34
  and, you know, all kinds of places that serve alcohol in, you know, in
• 18:39
  bar rooms, all kinds of things, liquor commissions involved with.
• 18:42
  And and so we need to have a really strong leader in there.
• 18:46
  As we've look to regain public trust, there was some things that went on over
• 18:51
  in the past with the liquor commission and investigators and different things
• 18:55
  that happened that, wasn't conducive to building public trust.
• 18:59
  They felt people felt there was abuse there, maybe in some cases negligence.
• 19:04
  And, we've got to get that ship right.
• 19:07
  And we've been at work on that over the last several years.
• 19:11
  We've we've got some really good board members, on the, on the commission.
• 19:15
  And, this is a situation where,
• 19:19
  we're hoping that we'll get on the right track.
• 19:22
  We we unfortunately
• 19:23
  took an abrupt resignation, in part because of the challenge of the job.
• 19:27
  And so we had to kind of start over a little bit, but also,
• 19:31
  we knew what we were, what what we were looking for.
• 19:33
  Not so much. Whoo!
• 19:34
  What we needed. So we want somebody.
• 19:37
  Oh. Brings it back around a background like Jason does.
• 19:40
  Another announcement
• 19:41
  that has come out of our office right in our office this past week.
• 19:45
  But as a city, we've put up permanent reminders.
• 19:48
  But as Purple Heart Month ends. Yes.
• 19:50
  What do you want people to take away with them?
• 19:52
  So that this month is more than just one small thing that we mentioned every. No.
• 19:56
  I think, you know. Well, first of all, we put those signs up last.
• 19:59
  You put these signs up and we became a Purple Heart city.
• 20:02
  And that went over tremendously well.
• 20:05
  And our military community, our active military community,
• 20:08
  but also not so many retirees who we have here.
• 20:10
  And I went to a number of different events over the year.
• 20:12
  And it was really,
• 20:16
  we received a lot of a lot of praise and gratitude, about that.
• 20:20
  So we expand out a little bit more to give it a little bit more visibility.
• 20:24
  We, as we're putting up three more signs.
• 20:26
  But we've kind of taken what has been around
• 20:29
  for a long time for, for license plates.
• 20:32
  The back, of course, I think it's been 35 years and we've now upgraded them.
• 20:36
  We've updated them.
• 20:38
  There are statically well, it looks good.
• 20:40
  It actually has a purple Heart metal on it.
• 20:43
  It says combat victim on.
• 20:44
  There is a kind of thing,
• 20:46
  I think if I were a Purple Heart recipient of a very proud to display my card
• 20:51
  because it's really respectful, it's artistic for a better way to say it.
• 20:54
  I'm hoping that everybody who gets behind cars with these kind of plates are them.
• 20:58
  And, you know, it's a variety of plates.
• 21:00
  And also you want those things.
• 21:01
  It just reminds people, you know, and so,
• 21:05
  we want to honor those those Purple Heart recipients.
• 21:08
  And we have and we got another Harley.
• 21:10
  Come up in just a few months on Veterans Day.
• 21:12
  And, you know, so throughout the year.
• 21:14
  So I feel really good about this is a good look at license plate.
• 21:17
  I think people are going to like seeing it.
• 21:19
  Yeah.
• 21:19
  No new combat wounded specialty plates, new signs going up Brian.
• 21:23
  Anything to that I know,
• 21:23
  I know, you talk often with our friend Colonel Cruickshank.
• 21:26
  Oh, well, I mean, he just calls in.
• 21:29
  Is a effusive about his praise
• 21:31
  for mayor and his support for military and our military heroes.
• 21:35
  He's looking forward to Veterans Day.
• 21:37
  But really, ultimately, it's just about how much respect
• 21:42
  Colonel Cruickshank has for what the mayor has done to support our military
• 21:46
  and our veterans, because mayor recognizes the sacrifices that they have all made,
• 21:51
  whether or not your current military member and you have
• 21:55
  to be away from your family on deployment or you have to move all the time, I mean,
• 21:59
  to be able to acknowledge these men and women and the sacrifices
• 22:02
  they make in a little ways like this is really important.
• 22:05
  Yeah, well.
• 22:07
  Thank you.
• 22:07
  I'm, my only thing in all of this was we were determined
• 22:11
  when we came into office to establish a strong for the military,
• 22:15
  and we began doing that.
• 22:16
  As it turned out,
• 22:17
  the very first year, because of Red Hill, that really joined us closely,
• 22:21
  with the Navy.
• 22:22
  But then, subsequent landfill pursued other things we were doing.
• 22:26
  We wanted to honor and respect them.
• 22:28
  And candidly speaking, in that kind of an effort, that's what
• 22:31
  we discovered, that there are things called thing called the Purple Hut City.
• 22:35
  And Hawaii was not one, Honolulu was not one.
• 22:38
  I would have thought we'd be at the top of the list
• 22:40
  for all the military here, the military installations we have,
• 22:43
  we have the second largest military presence
• 22:45
  live anywhere other than Washington, DC.
• 22:47
  The history of this place was, well, I don't have to recite all of that.
• 22:50
  Everybody knows it was that we weren't doing that.
• 22:53
  It would have Punchbowl and Veterans Veterans Cemetery.
• 22:58
  So in all of that. Right.
• 23:00
  You know, and so we couldn't get this done fast enough with Colonel Cruickshank.
• 23:04
  Ed's good friend of mine for many, many years was the driving force to help
• 23:08
  make it happen.
• 23:08
  All we were doing, honestly, was trying to show respect and
• 23:13
  and and to quite honestly do what we're supposed to do.
• 23:17
  This city should have found a way to show this kind of respect
• 23:21
  to not only our veterans, but especially those who were wounded in combat.
• 23:24
  This this sort of does that.
• 23:26
  And, I'm proud of that.
• 23:28
  I'm really very pleased to be able to do that and get it done.
• 23:32
  And it's particularly fitting with the 100th Infantry Battalion.
• 23:35
  Right. The Purple Heart Battalion. Yeah.
• 23:37
  And that is the 250th birthday of, of America, which I know went off
• 23:42
  a little bit less than what we thought, let's say 50 years ago.
• 23:45
  We had the bicentennial, but it's sort of like,
• 23:47
  you know, seriously, in this crazy world we're in right now
• 23:50
  with all the Partizan politics, all the other rhetoric, we still all of us
• 23:54
  need to remember that we live in a great country.
• 23:56
  Anybody who's not from here when they come here, we saw it during the World Cup.
• 24:00
  To the other European Americans.
• 24:02
  It was like they discovered something and what we had heard is and true, we do.
• 24:06
  People just don't realize it.
• 24:07
  And so is a great country, has great people with brave people, people
• 24:12
  who are wounded protecting our country deserve to be recognized.
• 24:15
  It's as simple as that. You.
• 24:17
  Yeah.
• 24:17
  Well, Sidner
• 24:18
  I'm going to take advantage
• 24:20
  of the fact that Ryan Wilson you have to ask him a question
• 24:22
  so that you have time to think about your answer. Okay.
• 24:24
  But I like it when he goes first.
• 24:25
  I know, you know, because he's very smart.
• 24:28
  We we both is. He's he's quick.
• 24:30
  He is.
• 24:31
  So this week, went back to school, which officially means
• 24:35
  everyone is back to school.
• 24:36
  So growing up, Ryan Wilson, who was your favorite teacher and why?
• 24:41
  Oh, my favorite teacher.
• 24:43
  That's a really good question.
• 24:46
  In elementary school, I know now I'm thinking back
• 24:50
  to high school, but there are more to this right out there.
• 24:53
  I can't remember his name.
• 24:54
  Wow, I know, I know, it's really bad, but he was.
• 24:59
  I regret asking, right, I guess, but I have to tell you this.
• 25:02
  This is an interesting thing. You know what?
• 25:03
  I really liked about him was that he was the one.
• 25:06
  I pointed out Theodore Roosevelt to me and his significance
• 25:10
  as a president in the United States and what he did and the thing that that is
• 25:14
  so fascinating about that is that Mer reminds me
• 25:17
  of Theodore Roosevelt a lot, because I just saw him here.
• 25:21
  Look over at us.
• 25:21
  There is a photo is I do I remind you of him?
• 25:25
  My bodily thing is that God knows what statues?
• 25:29
  Yeah. No, it's just here.
• 25:30
  How much is it? You know.
• 25:32
  Well, yeah, he's a different kind of a guy, right?
• 25:34
  Yeah. Thank you. That's a great compliment, Ryan. Thank you.
• 25:38
  You know.
• 25:39
  Really? Brandy. Brandy. Really good.
• 25:42
  I had nuns for k 1212.
• 25:45
  The best teacher. Some would say so. The best teachers.
• 25:48
  And I'm almost afraid to sing about one of them
• 25:50
  because I think they're all in heaven by now.
• 25:52
  And, you know, those are the.
• 25:54
  That was an era when they all wore the habits,
• 25:57
  you know, today and unnecessary wear have is how they ever see that.
• 26:00
  And the nuns that I had were the Sisters of Saint Joseph in the Boston area.
• 26:04
  I went to school in Cambridge my whole life.
• 26:06
  But and that particular group of women
• 26:10
  that I had my high school and grammar school were next to each other,
• 26:14
  and they shared a convent.
• 26:15
  There was a lot of them. Okay.
• 26:17
  They were very strong women.
• 26:19
  I think at that time when the church well, what it took to be a nun,
• 26:23
  you had to be very strong and principled because there's a lot of sacrifice.
• 26:27
  Right.
• 26:27
  And anyway, half of them had Irish brogue, so they came from Ireland.
• 26:32
  So that made them even more old world, you know.
• 26:35
  And so I had one of those educations where it was a which one I liked the most,
• 26:39
  I think who, who did I fear the most was because, it was such a mess, too.
• 26:45
  They used to whack us upside the head.
• 26:46
  We were being stupid and those things, but they could.
• 26:50
  They could for they they were there to straighten this out.
• 26:53
  I can still remember my mother saying to them, you know, he's all yours.
• 26:57
  Do us have what you will?
• 26:59
  We just don't want a juvenile delinquent
• 27:01
  when he grows up or something to that effect.
• 27:02
  I think all of our parents felt that about all of us as kids.
• 27:06
  I ended up going to school
• 27:07
  an incredible group of kids, both grammar school and high school,
• 27:10
  that I was humbled by the success that they created.
• 27:12
  And all of us were that generation.
• 27:13
  We were the first in our families to go to college.
• 27:15
  And, you know, our parents, we were living out their dreams
• 27:18
  because most of our parents were the first generation of immigrants.
• 27:22
  And these are all the kids that I went to school with,
• 27:23
  not just in my family, but the time that they were born.
• 27:26
  I was born in 46.
• 27:28
  When they were born in 1920 was kids.
• 27:31
  They had, you know, they had the Great Depression
• 27:34
  and they were sons and daughters of immigrant families,
• 27:36
  both with depression when they're only like eight, nine years old.
• 27:39
  And a few years after that, you know, they were going through World
• 27:41
  War Two and just you were 10 to 23, 24.
• 27:45
  They'd grown up to a depression and an immigrant family and, and,
• 27:48
  and husbands and brothers and fathers had fought World War two and and they were
• 27:54
  if we got a 24 year old kid today, we think of them as being so young.
• 27:57
  And that was that generation.
• 27:59
  So as we came along as their sons and daughters and
• 28:03
  and they had dreams, but we were the ones who were going to live those dreams.
• 28:07
  And we were really compels, you know, so to, to, to honor our parents
• 28:11
  and to
• 28:12
  and to be who they wanted us to become, which was really why our grandparents came
• 28:16
  from the old country to begin with, was all about seeking a better life.
• 28:20
  So when I think back about those nuns, they played a facility
• 28:23
  with the Catholic school.
• 28:24
  I go, super!
• 28:25
  But those lives were pivotal because they, they, they got us.
• 28:28
  First of all, they got us to believe perhaps, maybe that,
• 28:33
  that we were better than we might have thought we were because other people
• 28:36
  he was walking around with come the settings that we came out of with,
• 28:39
  you know, self, you know, self-esteem.
• 28:42
  We had to develop that, you know, because it wasn't like
• 28:45
  I didn't go to school rich kids. I went to school, had blue collar kids.
• 28:48
  Everybody was, you know, and so those lines were like, oh, this is yeah, yeah.
• 28:53
  It was like that was going home.
• 28:55
  My mom was a break from the nuns.
• 28:56
  You know, she really disciplinarians the teachers,
• 29:00
  the counselors, a leader is really teachers do not get enough credit.
• 29:04
  Yeah.
• 29:04
  Mayor, speaking of school, you watch football back on campus?
• 29:09
  Yeah. They open the year at Stanford. Yeah.
• 29:11
  The team they beat last year? Yep. Would you predicted? Yes.
• 29:14
  What do they need to do again this year.
• 29:15
  Well, successful you know I think have to build on this success.
• 29:18
  And I think that you know that was a long time coming that 94 season last year.
• 29:21
  I'm so glad they opened up so far behind Cal in that bowl game.
• 29:24
  Everybody said okay, the bubble got burst and they put the brakes on that came back
• 29:28
  and they won.
• 29:29
  The game come from behind in great fashion, right?
• 29:31
  They've kept a lot of kids. They've lost some kids.
• 29:33
  But every football team in America goes through that.
• 29:35
  They've done a pretty good job recruiting a good, good
• 29:37
  seasoning with the coaches eyes.
• 29:39
  The anticipation by the community is better than it's been, you know,
• 29:42
  understandably, because people want to be associated with winners.
• 29:46
  Their conference has gotten realigned and they've got a schedule that, despite
• 29:49
  Stanford, is not
• 29:50
  literally lighting the world on fire, in football like they used to.
• 29:55
  At the end of the day,
• 29:56
  it's a name recognition late, you know, good name recognition.
• 29:59
  School for the Pac 12 sec.
• 30:01
  I think they they beat Stanford in the opener on the road.
• 30:05
  I think the, score, I don't up.
• 30:08
  I'll tell you this.
• 30:08
  I predicted I, I said I expect them to win the championship this year.
• 30:12
  I expect them to be conference champs.
• 30:13
  And I know this.
• 30:15
  They expected of themselves to.
• 30:17
  And the fact that this team can believe that it's going into the season
• 30:20
  with that goal and not just saying it either,
• 30:23
  because for so many seasons prior to becoming after losing seasons
• 30:26
  as idealistic as you might be, you haven't really had that platform.
• 30:30
  It just becomes an aspiration.
• 30:32
  Now you coming off a successful platform, you already saw what you could do, yet
• 30:36
  maybe the kids returning
• 30:37
  now that's very credible in their minds and they've worked really hard.
• 30:41
  You love to watch them practice. They practice hard.
• 30:43
  They're well coached.
• 30:45
  This is the one
• 30:46
  or who podcast a focus on podcast audio.
• 30:49
  But Merritt, if you can get us a picture, Ryan Wilson sitting next to you,
• 30:52
  you had to play football today. What position?
• 30:54
  What a right, right, right, right.
• 30:56
  If I could be a defensive back, he.
• 30:58
  Yeah. Kick it. Camera you. Yeah.
• 30:59
  We'll get you tough over in the weight room.
• 31:01
  We'll get rid in the weight room. We go with you up there.
• 31:04
  Yeah, yeah.
• 31:04
  You guys a great how you you tell you right now if you were a cornerback.
• 31:08
  Well you'd be making some good money, man.
• 31:10
  Yeah. Like Witherspoon.
• 31:12
  Oh yeah.
• 31:13
  How about how Witherspoon is one deal?
• 31:15
  How about Gonzo the Gonzalez from the Patriots
• 31:19
  I mean you know and they're talking the highest paid defensive back ever
• 31:22
  I mean the whole is actually defensive football though.
• 31:25
  That's what I really like about it.
• 31:27
  They they pay the defensive guys big time money now.
• 31:30
  Because you know why.
• 31:32
  Because offense sells tickets but defense wins games.
• 31:36
  And that's the other reason why I would be inside the defensive football.
• 31:38
  Because because that's how you win the game is a great defense.
• 31:44
  This is the one on a whole podcast.
• 31:45
  So for one final thought or final thought on this thought of happiest
• 31:48
  football season, firstly, I think everybody else is too.
• 31:51
  I've had so many people.
• 31:52
  Many a woman said to me, hey, I'm glad this football season ended up well.
• 31:56
  I want to support you. It's not just you.
• 31:58
  Everybody loves watching pro football.
• 31:59
  The high schools already going.
• 32:01
  People like it.
• 32:01
  It's that time of the year and I think it adds a little bit of joy.
• 32:04
  And and so I just want everybody to feel positive here
• 32:09
  these next four months as we get into Labor Day next weekend.
• 32:12
  Well, question if you were to divide the year in thirds is the fastest
• 32:15
  third of all right.
• 32:16
  So we're about to get into that number ten. Yeah.
• 32:19
  It was say that you know it really it goes from you know Happy Halloween
• 32:23
  to Happy Thanksgiving
• 32:24
  in a nanosecond to a merry Christmas you know and happy New Year.
• 32:27
  So let's have a great fourth.
• 32:29
  Had a hell of a year. We've had some real challenges.
• 32:31
  More to come. As we've talked about with the weather.
• 32:33
  Everybody stays alert.
• 32:34
  Everybody says prepare.
• 32:35
  I promise the city will be ready for this.
• 32:37
  But let's not forget about where we live.
• 32:39
  We live in a great place in Hawaii.
• 32:41
  And and let's just hang in there together.
• 32:44
  And, that's the lives we all want to live and and support each other.
• 32:48
  Well, Ryan, mayor, thank you for your time.
• 32:51
  Thank you.
• 32:51
  And next week, we'll sit down with the director for the city's
• 32:54
  Department of Environmental Services, Roger Babcock.
• 32:57
  From treating our wastewater to expanding a program on food waste,
• 33:01
  even what to do with debris following storms like the Kona, Lowe's or Lolla.
• 33:04
  Doctor Babcock joins us next week right here on the One Oahu Podcast.
• 33:08
  Mahalo for listening. And until next time. Aloha.