Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / Mayor Blangiardi on the opening of the next phase of Skyline

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Mayor Blangiardi on the opening of the next phase of Skyline · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

• 0:15
  Welcome to the One Oahu podcast.
• 0:16
  I'm your host, Brandi Higa, and today is Thursday, October 9th, 2025.
• 0:21
  We're back this week with Mayor Rick Blangiardi.
• 0:24
  Mayor, this is our first time sitting down with you since your birthday. Wow.
• 0:29
  How was your birthday this year?
• 0:30
  Yeah, my birthday was,
• 0:32
  Well, it was remarkable in a way.
• 0:34
  I think what made it remarkable.
• 0:36
  Well, you know, the fact that when you turned 79,
• 0:40
  I couldn't help but think.
• 0:41
  God, the next one is 80.
• 0:45
  And that was, like, startling.
• 0:47
  But I don't feel 79.
• 0:49
  Probably am not acting 79.
• 0:51
  If you at least how I used to think 79 year old people would act.
• 0:55
  I mean, I don't, because I grew up in a generation.
• 0:58
  You know, it's true of my dad and all that, how they worked so hard
• 1:01
  their whole lives.
• 1:02
  They were they were really old when they were this age.
• 1:04
  Right?
• 1:05
  And so here I am in this incredible job that demands of what each and every day.
• 1:09
  And I feel really good and blessed to be here in Hawaii and running around
• 1:13
  all day long in complete denial that I have seven years of
• 1:19
  it's.
• 1:19
  Yeah.
• 1:19
  So telling all that very
• 1:20
  you know, I'm looking at your newsletter for this month's Honolulu Tech Week.
• 1:25
  A lot of festivals, parade, athletics telethon.
• 1:28
  He spoke at the Future of Work conference, the HFD recruit graduation all year.
• 1:33
  Broadband whole week.
• 1:34
  You know what the volume of appearances that you make.
• 1:38
  What's the gas tank looking like these days?
• 1:40
  I'm feeling. Good.
• 1:41
  I'm enjoying this.
• 1:42
  I find it very energizing.
• 1:44
  It's challenging at the same time, but, you know, it's, It's about community.
• 1:49
  It's about.
• 1:49
  It's about, looking at the good things in life,
• 1:52
  you know, all those things you just mentioned.
• 1:54
  I mean, we don't go there.
• 1:55
  I mean, unfortunately, as you all know, from time to time in this job,
• 1:58
  we're doing some very serious stuff and sometimes very, very, very sad.
• 2:03
  But all of that is kind of joyous stuff and having fun, get people excited
• 2:07
  and trying to build a little hope
• 2:08
  in the community and talk a little bit about the future.
• 2:11
  And, you know, so I find that, it's really pretty cool.
• 2:16
  You're also back from this year's Hawaii Executive Conference.
• 2:18
  Yeah. Takeaways from. This year? Yeah, a lot.
• 2:20
  I actually enjoy the conference. I do it every year.
• 2:22
  I mean, Chris, who deserves a lot of credit,
• 2:24
  took over the Hawaii Executive Conference eight years ago with a purpose.
• 2:28
  You know, the theme has always been Rediscovering Hawaii.
• 2:31
  So so the people who are there are by invitation.
• 2:35
  It's pretty much a lot of senior leadership in the city.
• 2:39
  So it's not like a random crowd.
• 2:41
  People there, with intent and purpose and,
• 2:44
  and they bring in really good speakers to address that.
• 2:48
  And it kind of expand our awareness.
• 2:50
  So there are a number of things that stood out about this year.
• 2:54
  A couple of them.
• 2:55
  One was we had a couple of presentations on AI and wildlife.
• 2:59
  I've been involved since we've been here and dealing with it
• 3:02
  and using it and trying to embrace it in the early stages.
• 3:05
  And I know that you and others
• 3:07
  in the communications department are far more advanced than me.
• 3:11
  I continue to be, you know, amazed at it.
• 3:13
  Well, this was in a whole different level as far as being a sit down, really
• 3:17
  listen to people talk about the future of this transformative nature and
• 3:22
  and with demonstrations. So that was remarkable.
• 3:24
  And then it was a really good session.
• 3:26
  Matt Elliott, the new athletic director, and Wendy Hansell, the president really,
• 3:31
  really did a great job of articulating, their positions.
• 3:34
  And they were joined, with Naty Nakamura, who is the speaker of the House.
• 3:39
  And so it was a three way panel on talking about legislative support or whatever.
• 3:42
  But I really, for the first time in a long time,
• 3:45
  I felt really excited about the future of the U-H and the athletics department.
• 3:51
  And so, it's good to feel that way.
• 3:53
  I mean, we, we we had a period there where we were just sort of drifting.
• 3:57
  I thought I felt that way.
• 3:58
  I think this direction, this vision, this capability.
• 4:01
  But clearly they can't do it alone.
• 4:02
  They need some support. And that was the whole point of this.
• 4:05
  So hopefully,
• 4:07
  you know, we'll get some additional understanding
• 4:10
  from the ledge about just how important I know that they know this,
• 4:14
  but we need additional help from what we've had in the past, and it has to be
• 4:19
  some kind of a breakthrough financially, especially as it relates to athletics.
• 4:23
  Mara, one week out from the opening of the next segment
• 4:25
  for skyline, what do you want folks to know?
• 4:28
  Well, there's so many things we want them to know.
• 4:31
  You know, there are so many benefits to this.
• 4:33
  And with this, we're really excited.
• 4:35
  You know, candidly speaking, we were disadvantaged
• 4:37
  when we opened up to our stadium because it really wasn't an ideal location.
• 4:41
  The best we could offer is from East Copper late to a stadium in 23 minutes.
• 4:45
  And that was one of the things that we were able to achieve.
• 4:48
  You know, we we we felt that,
• 4:51
  you know, as much as we wanted people to ride it,
• 4:53
  there would be hard to drive ridership under circumstances because the rail of
• 4:57
  the skyline has always been said to be multi-modal in its original origins.
• 5:02
  Anyway, by getting on a bus out of a of stadium didn't really allow us
• 5:07
  to do the express busses and other things that we wanted out of there.
• 5:11
  So it really wasn't a big timesaver.
• 5:13
  But the people who were riding it and we averaged about 3500 a day,
• 5:16
  and I've been out there a number of times talking with them
• 5:18
  all, loved it and excited.
• 5:20
  But we needed to now with this start to bang the drum loudly.
• 5:25
  So let me give some clarity on that.
• 5:26
  First of all, we'll be passing two of the of the three biggest
• 5:30
  employment centers, Pearl Harbor and the airport.
• 5:34
  Now, the airport has a lot of employees, and so does Pearl Harbor.
• 5:38
  And Pearl Harbor, they park on bass.
• 5:40
  The Navy preferred to have them come in on shuttles.
• 5:42
  But anybody who works at the airport or goes to the airport,
• 5:45
  has to pay for parking.
• 5:47
  And it's not cheap and it's a hassle and so on and so forth.
• 5:49
  So there's a great cost benefit to this in that regard.
• 5:53
  The other thing I will tell you, just as I just mentioned
• 5:56
  about from complete a lot of statements, 23 minutes, you can now go from Capella
• 6:02
  to Pearl Harbor in 27 hours, just four minutes.
• 6:05
  It's the next stop.
• 6:06
  And then and then there's another five minutes to the airport.
• 6:09
  So the fact that you could leave it is kind and get to Honolulu Airport.
• 6:13
  International Airport
• 6:14
  dedicated nearly a national airport in 32 minutes consistently.
• 6:19
  It would certainty is an incredible benefit,
• 6:21
  not the least of which is the cost savings of the hassle free and the safety
• 6:25
  and all of that stuff and transporting yourself.
• 6:28
  The other thing that I want to say is that the economics of this really
• 6:31
  now start to work in people's favor.
• 6:33
  You can buy a month monthly pass for about the cost of a gallon of gas
• 6:37
  and a tank of gas. I'm sorry.
• 6:39
  And anybody who's commuting from the West side
• 6:41
  knows that they go through multiple tanks a given month.
• 6:44
  So right there alone, there will be a benefit,
• 6:48
  not the least of which is maybe,
• 6:49
  perhaps even for young couples or anybody who's been in a two car family.
• 6:53
  Good.
• 6:53
  Now for the first time,
• 6:54
  if they work at it or if they work there, or if I don't want to take it
• 6:58
  further in a second.
• 6:59
  But they can actually think about the prospect of maybe having only one car.
• 7:03
  That could be a considerable savings to a young family.
• 7:06
  You know, when you consider car payments being what they are,
• 7:08
  cost of insurance and, and fuel, the end of a given month,
• 7:13
  that very easily could be $1,000 a month that people could save.
• 7:16
  So I mean, there's benefits there.
• 7:19
  It's certainly going to be a real stimulus.
• 7:20
  It's the odd,
• 7:21
  the thing that I really want to say that I don't know if a lot of people
• 7:25
  really have thought about this, because we've talked so often,
• 7:29
  because we built it from west
• 7:31
  to east about the ride into town thinking sort of a one dimensional
• 7:35
  where this is really going to be terrific is when people coming home from work.
• 7:39
  First of all, the ride into work is tiring,
• 7:41
  is exhausting as it can be in the mornings.
• 7:43
  Because what if you live on that west side?
• 7:45
  If you're coming from as far away as Couple Way,
• 7:47
  you know you resign yourself to a very uncertain commute.
• 7:51
  So just the fact you were going to be able to add certainty in the time.
• 7:53
  So I want to talk about that in a second, is going to be a big benefit.
• 7:58
  But it's the ride home from work at night when you've been tired.
• 8:01
  It's been a long day, and I'm not even sure
• 8:03
  what might be happening on, on on H-1.
• 8:06
  You know, and so,
• 8:08
  you know, the fact that they can say, hey, I can be there.
• 8:10
  And then then you add to this the fact that our time periods,
• 8:13
  we're expanding now, seven days a week, 365 days
• 8:17
  a year, from 430 in the morning to 10 p.m., 4:30 a.m.
• 8:21
  to 10 p.m.
• 8:23
  that is that just covers pretty much everybody who would be doing that commute.
• 8:27
  And it's,
• 8:30
  it's going to be a really incredible benefit.
• 8:32
  And it's 365 days a year, like I said.
• 8:35
  So it's,
• 8:37
  there's just so much that's about to happen
• 8:41
  that is is revolutionary, if you will, that we really,
• 8:46
  really haven't had up until now.
• 8:48
  I think the public will begin to see that and feel that
• 8:52
  hopefully the word of mouth, will help build our ridership.
• 8:56
  We set out a goal to go from 3500 day to 25,000.
• 8:59
  I think people can anticipate seeing us really try to educate the public.
• 9:04
  We have, embarked on an unprecedented,
• 9:07
  marketing campaign for brand, brand,
• 9:10
  brand recognition of skyline always on time.
• 9:13
  We hear it all the time. Yep.
• 9:15
  Always on time.
• 9:16
  It's important, though, because what we've had with anybody who's,
• 9:19
  like I said, has to live out there using yourself to just commute
• 9:23
  each and every day, which, is lengthy except for maybe certain days of the year.
• 9:27
  Not the mileage of the time, but then the fact that you can borrow
• 9:31
  train station now, and let's just say you just missed the train just by a minute.
• 9:36
  There's another train coming in nine minutes.
• 9:37
  There's redeploy there.
• 9:38
  If you missed it by five minutes, let's just say for some reason
• 9:41
  there's 1 in 5 minutes. Then add to that.
• 9:45
  But now I'm going to include because again,
• 9:48
  going back to multi-modal is express bus services from Lagoon Drive.
• 9:52
  So when every train comes in, every ten minutes would be three busses there
• 9:57
  with dedicated lines, one to University
• 10:00
  of Hawaii, one stop express bus.
• 10:03
  There'll be another line there to to
• 10:08
  downtown, two stops in one to Waikiki.
• 10:10
  And I take the numbers 14. I might be wrong.
• 10:13
  I actually think I saw a number less than that.
• 10:15
  But I think it's 14 stops.
• 10:17
  But in Tacoma, Roger Morton and John Noguchi,
• 10:19
  they've already done the time trials on what that does.
• 10:22
  That actually cuts out about 45 minutes.
• 10:25
  The very fact.
• 10:26
  Yeah.
• 10:26
  So so there's a lot of people that we want to take
• 10:30
  beyond just Pearl Harbor in the airport.
• 10:33
  And that also, by the way, includes travelers, which I talk about employees.
• 10:37
  But, you know, now, I just came back, as you said, from a conference,
• 10:41
  you know, well, we're all due respect to the parking structure at, at the airport.
• 10:47
  It's not cheap, right?
• 10:48
  You know, and and so there's a real cost savings there.
• 10:51
  You don't have to even take your car.
• 10:52
  You have you've take a weekend trip with more.
• 10:54
  So that you're going to be gone for a week.
• 10:56
  And, you know, let's say you're single, you know,
• 10:59
  we take you up, we take your car to the airport.
• 11:00
  That's costly.
• 11:01
  So these are a lot of benefits.
• 11:04
  They're going to happen. Right I think one of the biggest ones.
• 11:06
  So really it's about coming home for you know when people
• 11:10
  if they can say, look, I know I can meet you for dinner
• 11:13
  next time or I'll be home for dinner or kids
• 11:16
  practicing or, or I'll be able to, you know, there are parking, right?
• 11:20
  I'll be able to pick, to be able to do that is a real quality of life issue.
• 11:25
  And I think that that's probably what I think
• 11:28
  as people now start to expose themselves, because that's a realize
• 11:32
  in, on the, on the real line
• 11:35
  how not only the efficiency of it, but how it adds to the quality of your life.
• 11:39
  And the last thing I would say, it's also very safe.
• 11:42
  Not only is it air conditioned and free Wi-Fi
• 11:45
  esthetically really surprising anybody who's rode on it, you know,
• 11:48
  because you up there with me, you know, the view plane is terrific.
• 11:51
  So this is that about good stuff?
• 11:54
  And it sounds
• 11:57
  it sounds
• 11:58
  great to say that because quite honestly, since 2011,
• 12:01
  I think the rail project has been nothing
• 12:04
  but a punching bag, you know, and even even yesterday or this week,
• 12:08
  it was, somebody wrote a really sour letter to,
• 12:12
  I don't know, it was published in the Star Advertiser, just, you know, just a story
• 12:16
  from Kailua, ironically enough, to say, I'm going to probably ride, ride this.
• 12:21
  We have to overcome all that cynicism of years
• 12:24
  and it just human nature in some ways, sometimes is just tends to be skeptical.
• 12:29
  I think that we feel that from the leadership challenge
• 12:31
  when we try to improve things, try to overcome that skepticism.
• 12:35
  Well, I think there's a lot of skepticism that needs to be overcome.
• 12:39
  I think the proof, as they say, is in the pudding.
• 12:41
  You know, the proof is in the product.
• 12:43
  Everybody we've talked to and all the research we've done ongoing
• 12:46
  because of the efficiency of people like who've been writing it,
• 12:49
  have been really surprised by it and really like it.
• 12:52
  Me, you know, so it's about building ridership.
• 12:55
  We may not start out at 25,000.
• 12:57
  I want to go on record as saying this, but we're going to do everything we can.
• 13:00
  I think people will see that
• 13:01
  to build that ridership, because we plan on being everywhere.
• 13:05
  Hopefully you won't be able to look at any screen that you're going to pick up
• 13:08
  and you're not going to see skyline always on time, talking about all the benefits.
• 13:13
  So that's where it's very exciting because this is historic.
• 13:16
  We are doing something unprecedented a long time
• 13:20
  in the making of high quality and high value for people.
• 13:24
  And, you know, you don't get to do that all the time.
• 13:26
  And I say that with certainty.
• 13:28
  And not only that, it's very efficient.
• 13:30
  You know, we've kept the prices down.
• 13:31
  So I will say it again, you can buy a month pass and ride
• 13:35
  that every day for the same price of a tank of gas.
• 13:40
  If you live in on the west side, that is a huge economic savings.
• 13:44
  We said, talking about all the benefits and when it comes
• 13:47
  to taking care of our community beyond transportation,
• 13:50
  we've also turned a couple of skyline stations into food access hubs.
• 13:53
  Yeah, and I know you were out there for one of those days.
• 13:56
  Can you talk about it?
• 13:56
  Yeah, I want to talk about that because it's a project we really,
• 14:00
  you know,
• 14:00
  we we actually want to grow some food at the stations,
• 14:03
  but we also we're going to work with the food bank.
• 14:05
  I'll tell you what is really sobering.
• 14:07
  You know, during Covid we all witnessed those long lines.
• 14:10
  Again, that was unprecedented.
• 14:13
  And, and there was a lot of talk at the time,
• 14:15
  as you remember, about the models of cars that were pulling up.
• 14:19
  People were surprised,
• 14:20
  you know, because of, you know, it was a lot of people in need.
• 14:24
  And, and across the board and a lot of associate
• 14:27
  socio economic brackets.
• 14:30
  That said, I was talking with Amy.
• 14:33
  Was that the director of, she was saying demand for food
• 14:37
  right now has greater than it was during Covid.
• 14:40
  So we've got to pay strict attention to that.
• 14:43
  We know, we're disadvantaged again.
• 14:46
  We're importing 95% of our food here.
• 14:48
  And the cost of food and what's gone on.
• 14:50
  And if you saw the droughts
• 14:52
  with the farmers and their prices going up, it's not going down.
• 14:55
  This is an ongoing challenge.
• 14:56
  And so many people in our Alice population, people who are working,
• 15:00
  living paycheck to paycheck, you know, those kind of variables
• 15:04
  when suddenly something jumps, you know, 30, $0.40 even is is not incidental.
• 15:09
  It's significant.
• 15:10
  So I love the fact that we're going to do that.
• 15:13
  I was out there and
• 15:15
  and talking to the people on the lines, just trying to mix and mingle.
• 15:19
  And they were so, you know, it's just joyous.
• 15:22
  People are so appreciative. They feel so respected.
• 15:24
  They feel like we're helping.
• 15:26
  It's it's a good thing.
• 15:27
  And so we're going to do everything we can
• 15:29
  as we have in the past, but now even more so capitalizing
• 15:33
  on, on, on this new that this new destinations, these stations
• 15:38
  and make it easier for people
• 15:39
  to get some food and working with the food bank in their mission.
• 15:43
  But just again, it's a quality of life thing
• 15:45
  that we're trying to do everything we can to better serve the public.
• 15:48
  And this is just one thing, but I really want to give a lot of credit
• 15:52
  to the food bank because,
• 15:54
  the the
• 15:55
  challenge right now is we're concerned because the federal cuts,
• 15:58
  we're having this energy, the government's still still in lockdown.
• 16:01
  It's costing the state some $8 million a day.
• 16:04
  We know it's going to be a, there's already been a change in the Snap
• 16:07
  benefits, which are really food stamps, you know, and and that's going to create
• 16:11
  a lot of turmoil already has begun to feel that way.
• 16:16
  So this is really important stuff.
• 16:20
  We now have a PV system fronting the all the way clubhouse,
• 16:23
  which means in less than a year, we've seen major
• 16:26
  sustainability upgrades at all the way the Blaisdell parking lot.
• 16:30
  Yeah.
• 16:31
  And out over at Kapolei. Holly.
• 16:34
  So to what do you credit the success and the speed of these projects
• 16:38
  that we've seen in the last ten months?
• 16:40
  Let's give a lot of credit to DDC
• 16:42
  and Alan Lee, especially, and our partners at Johnson Controls.
• 16:45
  And, you know, because I've seen these projects
• 16:47
  come together, I've gone now to a couple of the,
• 16:50
  the blessings.
• 16:51
  If you will.
• 16:52
  You know, and I looked right down where I live.
• 16:54
  I happen to look right there that in the garage at the place every day
• 16:58
  I see it.
• 16:59
  But I think it's so cool that I created shade underneath.
• 17:02
  I think, you know, it has a lot to do with this.
• 17:04
  Predates us coming to office.
• 17:06
  But there's been a real commitment to clean energy by the city.
• 17:09
  It was ongoing.
• 17:10
  We started just this is one of those places where we took the hand off
• 17:14
  and try to run it faster, run it harder, you know, like a relay race.
• 17:18
  And I think we've picked up the pace, because we've raised the bar
• 17:21
  and expectations and, the doing it and,
• 17:24
  and and I think you'll, we'll see more.
• 17:27
  If I'm not mistaken,
• 17:28
  we now have something like 60 installations to the city and county.
• 17:32
  What we've all designed to cut down the cost of electricity again.
• 17:37
  Just a really an indirect benefit
• 17:40
  back to the public, because if we were to run the Blaisdell,
• 17:44
  you know, more efficiently, then that keeps us from having
• 17:49
  to ultimately raise rates or whatever else and pass on to a consumer.
• 17:53
  Right? So this is all good stuff.
• 17:54
  Student mentorships are something this administration has made a priority.
• 17:58
  And we recently hosted students from local high school,
• 18:01
  as part of our not all of you all know Learning Leaders program.
• 18:03
  Can you talk about the students that you took on that day?
• 18:05
  Yeah, we had a couple of really fascinating young men.
• 18:09
  You know, I was surprised.
• 18:11
  I had a couple because I thought,
• 18:12
  who wants to subject themselves hanging around the back because it's much,
• 18:16
  far, far cooler to hang around the HPD.
• 18:19
  Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That's right.
• 18:22
  Oh, that's tough.
• 18:22
  But anyway, we had a couple of good young guys.
• 18:25
  It just so happened that they had to do a speaking engagement,
• 18:28
  at the Japanese, Chamber of Commerce.
• 18:32
  Not checking out the cultural center.
• 18:33
  I'm sorry.
• 18:35
  I think I did the Chamber of Commerce tour that is coming up this week.
• 18:39
  Anyway, and so I took them and, you know, on the way down and just kind of,
• 18:44
  you know, getting to know them a little bit and bright
• 18:46
  young guys, the other lady who I got to ask where they're thinking
• 18:49
  about going to college once at Harvard, the other said Brown.
• 18:51
  Well, okay. Pretty good.
• 18:53
  And then we take him in there.
• 18:54
  And to my surprise,
• 18:57
  if we were there to report on the county, it was on the future workforce.
• 19:01
  Really interesting topic, especially of young people with us.
• 19:04
  So, but they had given us a really strict template, if you will,
• 19:08
  that they wanted the other counties in our and ourselves to fill in.
• 19:13
  It really wasn't so much about the future.
• 19:14
  The tomorrow's a lot of historical data.
• 19:16
  But anyway, we there to be compliant and and the audience was really engaging and
• 19:22
  and so that was one of the young men.
• 19:23
  His name was Darian Van Winkle.
• 19:25
  I remember that because he joked about his name being Van Winkle and,
• 19:31
  and, you know, so they asked us for questions.
• 19:33
  And despite the big crowd and the topic of conversation,
• 19:38
  nobody was asking any questions.
• 19:39
  This young man raised his head.
• 19:41
  It's a very poignant question
• 19:42
  about the future, about the ability to come back, here.
• 19:46
  But instead of what I actually the audience was it was so well
• 19:51
  articulated, the audience actually applied and thought, wow, here it is.
• 19:55
  I felt
• 19:56
  it was that way because dragging these two young kids to this speaking engagement,
• 20:00
  I don't know what, hopefully what they might get out of it or whatever.
• 20:02
  And I felt bad when we came in.
• 20:03
  They assured me to the front, we took them to the back and then this young kid,
• 20:08
  you know, there was a lot of business people in the room.
• 20:10
  Don't get me wrong, this young high school kid,
• 20:13
  he raises his hand and ask a really brilliant questions.
• 20:15
  The audience just really I was so proud of them.
• 20:18
  So I, I told him that on the way back. That was cool.
• 20:21
  So for me and then the feedback I had from not only the teachers who brought
• 20:25
  the kids and other departments they had, everybody just had a great experience.
• 20:29
  And we we love doing that.
• 20:30
  And and look,
• 20:31
  when you consider the percentage of kids there are these two young men
• 20:34
  planning on going off to college.
• 20:36
  But it was a large percentage of young people graduating high schools
• 20:39
  who are not going to go to college, who all of a sudden
• 20:42
  now they're going to set to figure out what their life is going to be about.
• 20:45
  And that's a really, you know, important part of their lives.
• 20:49
  And so anything we can do to try to showcase
• 20:53
  how working for the city is a great thing,
• 20:56
  and recruit them or maybe even give them some direction in life a little bit,
• 20:59
  because some of this
• 21:00
  mentoring that took place might have, you never know from a conversation
• 21:04
  how you might impact somebody or what idea you might, you know, generate.
• 21:07
  So, I, I'm proud of our team.
• 21:10
  I sat in the room at the conference when we first met for orientation.
• 21:14
  We had our guest speakers from a number of, of the key departments
• 21:17
  that they were going to be assigned to and how they spoke to them.
• 21:20
  I mean, I felt proud of our team because you could feel the mentoring
• 21:23
  in the room and and the kids were so receptive.
• 21:27
  There was I was watching them listen to the speakers.
• 21:29
  So good.
• 21:30
  And so this is a good thing where they who I school go meals.
• 21:34
  Sticking with that, Monday was actually National Coaches Day.
• 21:38
  Yeah.
• 21:39
  For you, who is the best coach you've had?
• 21:42
  And why? Wow. Great question.
• 21:44
  I always come back to that approach because they changed my life.
• 21:47
  I mean, Larry's decisions about me when I was a young player
• 21:50
  and then and then I had to leave Hawaii, I played it for two years.
• 21:56
  I started for two years as a defensive captain in 66.
• 21:59
  But I had a family issue that was an emergency.
• 22:02
  My mom got really, really sick, so I had to go back.
• 22:05
  She knew the circumstances.
• 22:06
  I wasn't some kid that showed up here and quit. And,
• 22:10
  and then I was I went back, graduated.
• 22:13
  I wasn't thinking candidly.
• 22:14
  I didn't go back to Hawaii. It just seemed like this was a
• 22:17
  a very incredible first two year chapter in my life.
• 22:20
  And then in 1971, I was coaching at the University of Connecticut and,
• 22:24
  Coach Price just to check in with me every now and then he said,
• 22:27
  what are you doing? I said, well, I'm coaching you in Connecticut.
• 22:30
  I'm planning on going to graduate school, get my masters.
• 22:32
  And he said, when you come back and coach was me. And,
• 22:35
  but you coach varsity linebackers and I usually just finish his matches
• 22:40
  in the same program that I got mine in education administration.
• 22:43
  It's a great program.
• 22:44
  And and so he invited me back.
• 22:46
  And then when he became the head coach, he promoted me to be who he was.
• 22:50
  I became the defensive coordinator and his associate head coach.
• 22:54
  All those years of coaching
• 22:55
  at up to six years and the seasons we had, we had really good teams.
• 22:59
  But his decisions were on both.
• 23:01
  When I came here as a how we kids 60 years ago in 1965,
• 23:07
  and then the putting me in the starting line
• 23:08
  up in his defense, and, and then they invited me back to coach
• 23:13
  and then promoting me and all that that did for me
• 23:16
  at that time, from the standpoint of a foundation,
• 23:20
  as part of my transition from a kid who grew up in a bilingual household
• 23:23
  6000 miles away to Hawaii, and all the mentoring that he gave me and
• 23:28
  one of the things I never talk about it as a he was very good in judo.
• 23:32
  And so he challenged me early on.
• 23:35
  And so I actually, that was the other thing.
• 23:38
  I got cut short by one,
• 23:41
  he used to bring me to his dojo.
• 23:43
  I trained for two years,
• 23:44
  I competed, I was I actually got to be pretty good at it, but,
• 23:48
  but you saw so beat my brains and when we were doing it, and,
• 23:51
  but it was just he just was so pivotal to me
• 23:55
  and coaching me, not just on the field or for that,
• 23:58
  exposure to the martial arts and all that that afforded us in training.
• 24:02
  But then in working with him and coaching and the life lessons because, you know,
• 24:05
  he he's a very educated guy. He's got a couple of PhDs.
• 24:08
  A lot of people really underestimate Larry,
• 24:10
  really one of the most accomplished people I've ever met,
• 24:12
  but the least of which was
• 24:13
  he was a force of nature in those years who's so physical, so tough.
• 24:17
  He was a former heavyweight boxing champion in Europe, you know what I mean?
• 24:20
  And the Army played the whole bow effect while I was playing for him.
• 24:24
  He had actually had a trial with the Los Angeles Rams.
• 24:27
  You know, George Allen came down. And
• 24:29
  so Larry's very accomplished.
• 24:30
  And so to be up close and personal to such an incredibly accomplished
• 24:35
  and gifted human being from the city,
• 24:38
  and his drive was so incredible.
• 24:41
  I mean, he just reached well, he started the NFL boxing
• 24:44
  champion, multiple post-graduate degrees.
• 24:47
  I mean, that's a life of rare achievement.
• 24:50
  And to have the influence he had on me has it permeated
• 24:53
  every every part of who I am, you know? And,
• 24:57
  and so I owe him a great deal.
• 25:00
  And I always, whenever I have the opportunity, what's great reverence
• 25:04
  appreciate the opportunity to speak about him because he,
• 25:06
  you know, he made all the difference in my life.
• 25:10
  On that note, things are getting real over in
• 25:12
  Hall of of the swap meet moving locations, and there's a farewell concert
• 25:15
  planned ahead of the demolition of Aloha Stadium.
• 25:19
  Yeah, I know, what's. Your favorite memory or memories?
• 25:21
  I guess we had a lot of them. We had some great games.
• 25:24
  And then when I was coaching, I remember when you
• 25:26
  we beat San Jose State when they were ranked
• 25:27
  ninth in the nation, they just beaten Stanford.
• 25:29
  Yeah.
• 25:30
  Good team I mean I think half of the team went to the NFL that year.
• 25:33
  I don't know how this is during a different time. Right.
• 25:36
  This is pretty wack. Why was even in the Western
• 25:38
  for the conference said I mean think about that Dick.
• 25:40
  Tony had even shown up and anyway.
• 25:42
  But, I let's go back to opening night.
• 25:46
  You know, because I was there and unfortunately, we got killed that night
• 25:49
  play Texas and I the have a leaners and we weren't really sure
• 25:54
  couldn't tell much from the film, but that yeah, they went on and won the na
• 25:57
  I a national championship with some really incredible athletes.
• 26:01
  But we got beat.
• 26:03
  But it was just the going from the old stadium. I
• 26:08
  just realized that because the old stadium
• 26:11
  we went to the last game, well, we went to last game, we won 8 to 6, beat
• 26:13
  the University of Utah, and it was a really close game.
• 26:17
  And so but to go from that, that where I played
• 26:20
  and coached for several years,
• 26:24
  and all of that represented to the.
• 26:26
  So I mean, you know, again, I remember 1975, the opening of our stadium,
• 26:30
  50,000 seat modern stadium was a just like we talking about the real
• 26:34
  a while ago was was a mind blower, you know, I mean, it really was like,
• 26:38
  wow, you know, and Governor Burns had been a great champion of that.
• 26:41
  And so much was being said
• 26:43
  while it was under construction about the future home of the Rainbow Warriors.
• 26:47
  Unlike now, now you're talking about, well, we're building a rugby, soccer,
• 26:51
  whatever.
• 26:52
  You know, a facility has been subordinated in that equation.
• 26:55
  But that was not the case at the time.
• 26:57
  They built a stadium, had a duality to it, football for the football team
• 27:02
  and and for baseball because the island has been a successful franchise.
• 27:06
  But we had a lot of great sports guys in town, one of whom
• 27:09
  I hold great reverence for Mickey Alexander and, and
• 27:13
  and they really believed that Hawaii had an opportunity.
• 27:16
  The world changed to be a major league Baseball state
• 27:18
  because the success of a Triple-A franchise.
• 27:20
  So they built this thing, anticipation of either Major League Baseball,
• 27:25
  would expand to Hawaii or perhaps
• 27:27
  a Japanese team would come here and another one of them happened.
• 27:31
  But you could understand what to think it would be
• 27:33
  because they had vision and they were thinking about possibilities.
• 27:36
  And even though it didn't happen, what great vision, you know,
• 27:39
  but the fact that they built a 50,000 seat stadium coming out of
• 27:43
  how bad the term my palace was, you know, what a great history.
• 27:48
  Don't get me wrong.
• 27:50
  That was really exciting times.
• 27:51
  And here we are now.
• 27:53
  And I actually opened up the irony.
• 27:55
  As I said today, we were disadvantaged by going the ocean as because
• 27:58
  it's been closed for five years and it's not really, you know, I mean,
• 28:01
  I know the swap meets been there, but it's not been like the destination.
• 28:04
  It was before.
• 28:06
  But what they're talking about constructing now,
• 28:08
  once they begin this demolition and what will begin
• 28:11
  really development of a 98 acre parcel of land and an incredible place.
• 28:15
  And in the midst of it will be this this 23 acre
• 28:18
  stadium and multi-purpose facility,
• 28:21
  is a very exciting concept for the future.
• 28:25
  Well, mayor, this is the one or I hope, I guess so, for one final thought.
• 28:28
  Well, I have so many of them.
• 28:30
  First of all, you know, the clock is ticking very fast here, and,
• 28:35
  we, we talked to our team often here about how many days we have left.
• 28:38
  We're now on the 800 days, excluding the weekends and the holidays,
• 28:42
  and we want every day to come.
• 28:43
  And so as I see these things now starting to come
• 28:46
  to fruition, with much more going on, you know,
• 28:50
  it's exciting because we said at the start of our term,
• 28:53
  the second term, we're going to shift from planning to execution.
• 28:57
  And, and so, we do a lot of stuff in the pipeline.
• 29:01
  It's not just skyline, that's going on.
• 29:03
  There's just a lot of different things. And,
• 29:07
  we're excited about that.
• 29:09
  Mayor, thank you for your time. Thank you.
• 29:11
  And mahalo to all of you for listening.
• 29:13
  And until next time, Aloha.