Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / Mayor Blangiardi on Honolulu City Lights opening night and the Safe & Sound program on O'ahu

Transcript

Mayor Blangiardi on Honolulu City Lights opening night and the Safe & Sound program on O'ahu · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

• 0:15
  Welcome to the One Oahu podcast.
• 0:16
  Today is Thursday, November 27th, 2025, Thanksgiving Day.
• 0:22
  I'm your host, Brandi Higa
• 0:23
  and we’re back this week with Mayor Rick Blangiardi mayor.
• 0:26
  Happy Thanksgiving.
• 0:26
  Happy Thanksgiving.
• 0:27
  Finally, I truly,
• 0:30
  I, I think this might be my favorite holiday.
• 0:32
  I just to spirit
• 0:34
  I look I love I love you all but Thanksgiving always for some reason.
• 0:37
  Maybe it's just the way I grew up, even as a kid.
• 0:40
  Just always had a really special feeling to it.
• 0:43
  And I and I, and I feel that this year I am really very grateful
• 0:47
  and thankful for lots of things.
• 0:49
  And what what are those things?
• 0:51
  Well, it's just you.
• 0:52
  Let's start with you, Brandi. Okay.
• 0:54
  I mean, really, I think the people we're working with,
• 0:56
  the success I see us creating for our city,
• 0:59
  just the essence of this work, you know, the sense of responsibility.
• 1:02
  What if feeling like you're really doing good things.
• 1:04
  I'm grateful that I have my health.
• 1:07
  And my family is all healthy.
• 1:09
  And, you know, that's something I never take for granted.
• 1:12
  Especially the older you get, right?
• 1:14
  And I just,
• 1:16
  I'm. I'm just feeling really good.
• 1:18
  Despite the fact that I know the world is challenging,
• 1:21
  we're certainly facing a lot of challenges locally.
• 1:23
  A lot of people maybe not feeling so thankful this year.
• 1:26
  Understandably so.
• 1:28
  Now is a time for compassion.
• 1:30
  And really, the essence of being a human being and trying to help each other
• 1:33
  and help the people in need.
• 1:35
  So I, I'm, I'm on that wavelength, if you will.
• 1:38
  And it it it feels really good,
• 1:39
  even though I wish things weren't as hard as they are for people.
• 1:43
  I feel like I'm in a position right now, especially as mayor, where I could help,
• 1:46
  maybe improve, has enough authority, and we're trying to exercise
• 1:50
  that to make sure that happens.
• 1:52
  As mayor,
• 1:53
  you're also providing something pretty cool this week in a free concert.
• 1:57
  Yeah.
• 1:57
  Kalikimaka homo happens Friday with the Royal Hawaiian Band.
• 2:01
  What do you want folks to know?
• 2:02
  Well, you know, I guess I get to say I'm playing a part in that, but I have to give
• 2:06
  Clark great, tremendous credit because he did this a couple of years ago,
• 2:09
  and through some help from his friends, if you will, at the Hawaii Theater.
• 2:13
  And it was a great, a great success.
• 2:15
  And, you know, who I've been is so special.
• 2:17
  So I think what I want people to know is that this is, our way
• 2:21
  of wanting to kick off this holiday season,
• 2:25
  to make it as joyous as we possibly can, you know, getting a little bit
• 2:27
  more Christmas this year because of the way Thanksgiving fell so late.
• 2:32
  So that said, this is going to be a really wonderful concert.
• 2:36
  In fact, it will be televised live.
• 2:38
  But we want as many people to come in there
• 2:39
  because I think there's nothing like actually being there.
• 2:42
  But what I really grateful about, the fact that we're going to televise it,
• 2:45
  not just live, but then it'll be our ability to capture it,
• 2:48
  because after the last one we said, boy, we wish we'd captured that, you know?
• 2:52
  And also it's going to be shown multiple times between now and Christmas
• 2:55
  to really get as much out there.
• 2:56
  So I'm just hoping people feel, despite all the challenges, we have,
• 3:00
  good about where we all live together on this day, how special it is,
• 3:04
  and that there's great love here, a great aloha for each other.
• 3:08
  And and this. Just keep in touch with that.
• 3:12
  Across the street from the Blaisdell is might gang off show Aloha display
• 3:15
  since there's construction going on here on the Flossie grounds this year,
• 3:18
  but Micah agreed to donate again.
• 3:20
  Those displays are going to be huge movie screen, all of that.
• 3:24
  Can you talk about the relationship?
• 3:26
  Mike?
• 3:26
  Getting love is really an exceptional human being.
• 3:28
  I don't know if I've met anybody as generous like I've known.
• 3:31
  People write a lot of checks for different things of philanthropy and big checks.
• 3:36
  But this is sort of an act of wanting
• 3:39
  to make the season as joyous as possible, you know?
• 3:43
  And so he made a lot of investments in, literally,
• 3:46
  I don't know how much, but it's over $1 million.
• 3:48
  And in lighting everything when we had a show aloha thing out of the stadium.
• 3:53
  But now that doesn't exist for Mike to dedicate not just all of the lights,
• 3:58
  all of the manpower, all the installation,
• 4:01
  the generators themselves, the power to just give it.
• 4:04
  Its all in the spirit of wanting kids and families have Christmas years.
• 4:09
  Some see the generosity in his heart, the motivation to do that because it's
• 4:14
  not cheap.
• 4:15
  I've even said to him, how could you afford to possibly do this?
• 4:19
  And look, and they've been at it.
• 4:20
  They started early, just preparing Thomas Square.
• 4:24
  And just so happens you're right, because we're going to knock
• 4:27
  down the Seagull school and fix the garage some decades later.
• 4:32
  But it should have been done.
• 4:33
  We've already relocated the school.
• 4:35
  We've lost about two thirds of our campus.
• 4:37
  And that will be true for the next couple of years.
• 4:40
  The very fact that, Mike had stepped in and augment.
• 4:43
  Well, we'll have some of it here.
• 4:45
  Obviously, we our tree what we we have limited for.
• 4:47
  So we have really the the part that's fronting South King Street.
• 4:52
  So you know, at the end of the day,
• 4:55
  this is about making people happy.
• 4:57
  You know, we just get them talking about Thanksgiving.
• 4:59
  And I want to say I've spoken with Mike a few more a few times about this.
• 5:03
  It just comes from the right place.
• 5:05
  So if you know, if this is a long time ago and It's A Wonderful Life
• 5:09
  with James Stewart, you know, Jimmy Stewart and stuff in that,
• 5:12
  I think they try to capture a movie like that.
• 5:16
  This is like that.
• 5:17
  It's really pure.
• 5:18
  It's, you know, you don't get to say that very often.
• 5:21
  He doesn't want anything for this
• 5:23
  other than the thrill of seeing kids and families just, you know,
• 5:27
  the wonderment of Christmas, how little children's eyes light up when they see,
• 5:31
  you know, the trees and the lights and whatever.
• 5:33
  And honestly, I honestly, I don't believe
• 5:37
  that Thomas Square has ever looked like this.
• 5:40
  And I've been seeing,
• 5:42
  you know, lately they've been testing some of it, just parts of it going on.
• 5:46
  It's going to be really, it's going to be special.
• 5:49
  And I. Oh, my God, great guy.
• 5:50
  I don't even know how to say thank you.
• 5:52
  I don't know, there's no bigger mahalo.
• 5:54
  There's I he is just I stand back and just this is about goodness and people.
• 6:01
  That's what this and it really that's really the spirit of our holidays.
• 6:04
  But also when you see somebody do something extraordinary
• 6:06
  because they have the capability to do that
• 6:08
  sometimes people capability, they don't do that.
• 6:11
  But you know, and when somebody does and they're that generous,
• 6:15
  you know, you really can't do enough of them.
• 6:18
  And then
• 6:18
  Saturday's opening night for Honda City Lights.
• 6:21
  What is special about this year?
• 6:23
  This year is very special for me.
• 6:24
  First and foremost, I'm going to make the announcement.
• 6:27
  My daughter Laura will be here and she arrives tomorrow with her
• 6:30
  four daughters, my four granddaughters and her husband.
• 6:34
  You know, her daughter was born here and was lived here for a few years
• 6:37
  before I took her away to Seattle.
• 6:38
  But she's always stayed connected to Hawaii and
• 6:41
  unfortunately, I haven't been able to get up to Seattle to see them.
• 6:43
  And she's come down. She's come down every year
• 6:46
  bringing the family to me, which really means a lot.
• 6:49
  But to have her here this year, for City Lights, because,
• 6:52
  you know, they follow the stuff on Instagram where she was telling me
• 6:55
  she saw the parade and how cool everything was.
• 6:57
  She said, you know, and so that's going to make it special.
• 7:00
  But I also feel as we get ready to,
• 7:03
  wind up a fifth year,
• 7:05
  I really feel, the momentum of all that we worked on.
• 7:09
  I said last year at the state of the city in March, we really first quarter was in.
• 7:14
  We said, we're going to shift in this next term from planning to execution.
• 7:19
  And, a lot of that is now starting to manifest.
• 7:22
  And, you know, and again,
• 7:24
  from my vision or perspective, I can see the path forward on something.
• 7:28
  So even though people can't see,
• 7:29
  we know it's the things that are falling into place.
• 7:32
  It's very gratifying.
• 7:33
  I'm very proud of our team.
• 7:36
  And I'm, I'm humbled by their passion and their commitment.
• 7:39
  Nobody's letting up.
• 7:40
  In fact, we've we've upped the game.
• 7:42
  So we told everybody we're going to do that.
• 7:44
  And everybody's responded very well.
• 7:45
  You know that you work with all of us.
• 7:48
  I'm encouraged by that.
• 7:49
  I'm inspired by that.
• 7:51
  And I'm also very grateful for that because, you know,
• 7:54
  at the end of the day, we're trying to drive performance
• 7:58
  and overcome obstacles and solve tough problems.
• 8:01
  That kind of work. It's meaningful.
• 8:04
  Yeah.
• 8:04
  I think it's pretty cool that the daughters, Laura is raising,
• 8:07
  the granddaughters that you're raising.
• 8:09
  You get to see something cool this year and that,
• 8:12
  you know, you seen it on the news.
• 8:14
  Carissa Moore returning to the pro tour.
• 8:16
  She added mom to her resume and now we can soon say
• 8:20
  mic breaking news on the one I hope I guess.
• 8:22
  Yeah. Some more.
• 8:23
  Yeah.
• 8:23
  Well, you know, I have to tell you brand that would have loved to have UMC it.
• 8:26
  I have to be honest with you.
• 8:27
  But we had the chance to have
• 8:28
  Carissa do it this year and we like to be able to do that.
• 8:32
  And she is unique.
• 8:33
  You know, first woman to win a gold medal in surfing.
• 8:35
  I mean, and I'm very pleased as a as a stand up
• 8:39
  member of the community, as somebody who really has represented excellence
• 8:44
  on a not only a world class stage and in Olympics are so unique.
• 8:47
  It's so like almost like
• 8:50
  beyond the wall.
• 8:51
  I mean, you're right, it's just it's just the best of the best.
• 8:53
  And for her to be able to do that. And so it's going to be fun.
• 8:56
  I think that's what this is all about.
• 8:58
  You know, just people coming together.
• 9:00
  And I know at times there as well, and as a guest along with a lot of other people.
• 9:05
  So this is, you know, this is what we do during the holidays.
• 9:07
  You come together, you know, family comes together, you know, friends
• 9:11
  come together, people who really love this place, who care about it.
• 9:14
  We all come together in the same spirit.
• 9:17
  It's that's that's the magic of the whole thing.
• 9:19
  You mentioned that I know Thompson.
• 9:21
  This year we do, pay tribute to the 50th anniversary.
• 9:26
  Right?
• 9:26
  And I know that you got a chance to go and check out the wreath contest.
• 9:29
  You already gave your mayor's award.
• 9:31
  What were you most impressed with this year when it came to that wreath
• 9:34
  contest?
• 9:35
  Well, you know, I always smile because you can tell it's,
• 9:40
  that a lot of work has gone into every one of them.
• 9:42
  Even the ones that aren't as competitive with the really outstanding ones.
• 9:46
  Like this year really was pretty easy to select.
• 9:49
  The one I, the woman, as I understood it, worked for over two years on.
• 9:54
  I mean, that labor of love I mean, think about that.
• 9:57
  I mean, I don't think I've ever worked.
• 9:58
  I don't have the patience.
• 9:59
  I can't even do a crossword puzzle
• 10:00
  or you know, whatever, you know, that that kind of patience.
• 10:05
  It's a really producer, but all of them, you can see the creativity.
• 10:09
  You can see they worked really hard.
• 10:10
  The attention to detail.
• 10:12
  I almost don't like picking one.
• 10:14
  We had to do that. But but they're all to be admired.
• 10:17
  And so they're down there in the lane and people can go through.
• 10:19
  And it's just again, in the sense of what we're talking about, the word
• 10:23
  spirit, right? It's kind of a theory, all right.
• 10:25
  It has different meanings for different people.
• 10:28
  But at the end of the day,
• 10:31
  you see people try
• 10:32
  to express themselves in this way.
• 10:36
  It's really very cool.
• 10:37
  I used to see it for it is.
• 10:39
  And that's true of the Christmas trees downstairs, too,
• 10:42
  which they were working on right up to the last minute,
• 10:44
  you know, to make them as perfect as they can get.
• 10:47
  I love I love that that's what this this is where we are right now.
• 10:51
  And I think actually, this is great, too, because it keeps us grounded.
• 10:54
  Right? I mean, there's the world isn't easy.
• 10:58
  I've said that earlier.
• 10:59
  And certainly we feel that in Hawaii as well.
• 11:01
  We're not isolated from that.
• 11:02
  And there's a lot of strain and whatever factor, we can take time out
• 11:06
  and remember these kinds of things
• 11:08
  and engage in these kind of things for the good of our souls, if you will.
• 11:13
  Is a good thing.
• 11:13
  I'm it's just it's it's really an honor to be part of this,
• 11:18
  you know, and I know mayors before me have.
• 11:20
  And they'll be mayors after me.
• 11:21
  It's just part of a great tradition that the city does.
• 11:24
  And I want to make sure whatever we do, we add to that, that,
• 11:27
  you know, we just make it as best we can.
• 11:31
  Mayor, you recently honored this year as manager of the year
• 11:34
  and Christopher Clark from DTS, and this year, City
• 11:37
  Employee of the year and Captain Kevin Kelly on.
• 11:40
  What can you say about those men?
• 11:41
  Well, you know, Kevin Kelly, wasn't there, but, Chris was and,
• 11:46
  he was really emotional, and I don't think he would mind me saying this.
• 11:49
  He had tears in his eyes.
• 11:51
  He was so moved. And so
• 11:53
  that just felt so good to see somebody get recognition like that.
• 11:56
  And it really meant so much to him. And,
• 11:59
  I was just really pleased and, and clearly from everything
• 12:03
  I was able to learn about him, he deserved it as well. So.
• 12:06
  Bravo.
• 12:06
  Chris was a nice, really nice mom, and I was really pleased that
• 12:10
  he could be recognized like that in front of his peers and everybody in there.
• 12:13
  And, I know it meant a lot to him.
• 12:16
  Mayor, this year it's been a few weeks, actually,
• 12:17
  since we sat down with you, but this year's Veteran's Day
• 12:20
  fell during the government shutdown.
• 12:21
  So smaller ceremony, different venue, but more intimate, but just as moving.
• 12:27
  Yeah, very much so.
• 12:29
  You know, and I was really want to give Colonel Cruickshank a Cruickshank.
• 12:32
  We'll have know forever.
• 12:33
  He's going to be tiring as the head of the vet center, for 20 years.
• 12:37
  But he had an illustrious career,
• 12:39
  got injured badly during Vietnam.
• 12:41
  I've known, as he and I share a football background.
• 12:44
  Although I think I played before him, but he always talks about it.
• 12:47
  He was aware, but he,
• 12:50
  the people that come to that ceremony, you can tell the, the respect
• 12:55
  for all of the sacrifice and what and, and and so,
• 13:00
  yeah, it was, was was really good.
• 13:03
  I look, you know, the heels of our having become a purple hot city this year
• 13:07
  and show our opportunity to show some respect back.
• 13:10
  And so the especially gratifying for me because I think we were able to establish
• 13:15
  not only with the audience there and the people I spoke
• 13:18
  to who I had not seen since we did the Purple Hot City.
• 13:23
  That that day of recognition, just how much it meant to them.
• 13:25
  And as I said earlier, there's no compromise.
• 13:27
  And I said, look,
• 13:29
  I have great respect for the military and always have.
• 13:32
  I've made that clear in some of my statements of late.
• 13:35
  And I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm proud and pleased to be able to say that.
• 13:40
  And so I thought the Veterans Day this year, it was, very meaningful.
• 13:45
  And, you know, you could say that over and over again.
• 13:47
  I don't want to sound cliche,
• 13:49
  but this one was times
• 13:50
  when you really recognize people doing extraordinary things, you know,
• 13:54
  and we said it before, and especially with the people who served.
• 13:58
  And you have been injured or lost their lives.
• 14:01
  I think about that, in fact, what people were to put on the line,
• 14:04
  that's not to be taken for granted. I talked about that all the time. Right.
• 14:07
  Even our own first responders.
• 14:09
  This is about courage.
• 14:10
  This is about people who are really, in so many ways, selfless
• 14:14
  in a world that sometimes is far too ego driven.
• 14:17
  In their last week, you are out and I and I to talk about the Safe
• 14:20
  and Sound program, a program that seemed success.
• 14:23
  The parks, even the beaches as you drove out to.
• 14:26
  And I, looking a lot cleaner, safer.
• 14:28
  And the spaces are being revitalized.
• 14:30
  Can you talk about that program?
• 14:31
  Yeah. I want to credit the community first and foremost.
• 14:33
  You know, I got criticism a year or two ago.
• 14:36
  I forget what it was.
• 14:36
  And I challenged the community to take back its community.
• 14:39
  And somebody thought I was trying
• 14:40
  to instigate vigilante behavior, and that was that was not my intent.
• 14:44
  My intent was that, I know from years, years, I go way back,
• 14:50
  you know, going out to white.
• 14:51
  I back when I was a young football coach and Larry Guido's was coach of Wayne.
• 14:55
  I we should do all this stuff.
• 14:56
  I got oriented in the kids we brought in from the West Side.
• 14:59
  And in all my years of living here, I that to know that.
• 15:02
  Yeah, there's some tough situations and there were violence out there.
• 15:05
  We had crimes and stuff, all of which is subsiding.
• 15:08
  But I, you know, that that represented a very small minority
• 15:12
  and that that that place out there, those places.
• 15:14
  Why did I not a my full of great people
• 15:18
  and so many Hawaiian families over all, embody everything
• 15:21
  that you would like to think about what it means to be Hawaiian, really good.
• 15:24
  Trying to race. Yeah, all that good stuff. Right?
• 15:27
  And that that was the essence of where I was coming from.
• 15:29
  Because, you know, the good should overcome bad.
• 15:32
  Okay. So we needed them and they've shown that already.
• 15:35
  They have responded. But now we're helping too.
• 15:37
  And a lot of other people are helping.
• 15:38
  And so yeah, they've cleaned it up.
• 15:40
  And now we're going to take the crime prevention wait and see.
• 15:43
  We know it's been successful Steve, what was the biggest undertaking
• 15:47
  of its kind?
• 15:47
  We've done really well in Waikiki with safe.
• 15:50
  And so we've done really well.
• 15:51
  What we see in Chinatown. We've, you know,
• 15:55
  we've been a lot of arrests.
• 15:56
  We've had zero times with the bad guys.
• 15:58
  Unfortunately, with the wedge judiciary work, some characters reappear
• 16:03
  far too often, but we're trying to show respect to the rest of the public.
• 16:06
  I think because public safety is really big.
• 16:09
  Safety has been a big issue out there.
• 16:11
  This is our effort.
• 16:12
  In addition to the fact we're going to invest about $4.5
• 16:14
  million into a whole program specifically, and only for the West Side.
• 16:18
  Honolulu allows us to do transitional housing with police.
• 16:21
  The police, if they pick up somebody, of course, picks up somebody on 24,
• 16:24
  seven can take them in there.
• 16:26
  I spoke to the other day about we have as many families
• 16:29
  as we in our home news outlets.
• 16:31
  So the the we do single men, which everybody thinks
• 16:34
  typically had actually, I used to think the same way
• 16:37
  that that among the chronic homeless was nothing full of a bunch of single guys
• 16:40
  who just lost their way through drug addiction or mentally ill or whatever.
• 16:44
  Yeah, some women, but mostly men.
• 16:46
  No. And I hold out a little bit.
• 16:48
  We have families and only that in this past two years now,
• 16:52
  we've opened up for families, shelters for families,
• 16:56
  you know, and, the conjunction, that's why we bought Waikiki Vista.
• 17:00
  We did the project with Family Promise.
• 17:03
  And in Waipahu we were out.
• 17:05
  Hola.
• 17:06
  And there's another one, you know, just so we're doing everything
• 17:10
  we can to reduce crime and help people who, economically and hard way.
• 17:15
  And there are other things going on out there as well.
• 17:18
  But this effort here now
• 17:21
  is, along with the help of the community is precisely about that.
• 17:25
  And trying to make it a really good and safe place to live. And,
• 17:30
  I'm really pleased to see the community response.
• 17:33
  And I'll be out there in a couple of weeks with some of the Christmas stuff.
• 17:36
  And that's also part of what I've seen over the last over
• 17:38
  many years, even since I've been in office especially,
• 17:41
  I've done walks out there with the community and
• 17:44
  and, got to know the past is out there.
• 17:47
  Like I said, there's a lot more good out there, and that's where I was coming from.
• 17:50
  Let's not let the bad overtake us, you know?
• 17:54
  And we need to help, too, because, you know,
• 17:57
  that's what HPD is about, is to protect and serve.
• 18:00
  So, we got legal enforcement, law enforcement, this program
• 18:04
  working with the with the collaboration
• 18:05
  between the prosecutor's office and the chief of police, really important.
• 18:10
  Major Beckley out there, Gil Beckley is tremendous.
• 18:12
  I said the other day, my comments.
• 18:13
  I could not have any more confidence in somebody because she's from there.
• 18:17
  She loves it.
• 18:18
  And this is about, you know, making it right as it should be.
• 18:22
  And as we see now,
• 18:24
  we've clean up all the stuff from the beaches where you drive down
• 18:27
  now, you know, looking at that,
• 18:29
  it's such a beautiful place out there.
• 18:31
  It's just. And, it deserves to be protected.
• 18:34
  It deserves to be loved.
• 18:36
  It should not be spoiled.
• 18:38
  And we're not going to let that happen.
• 18:39
  I think we're at a point of no return.
• 18:40
  I think we were to a tipping point now, and we've seen it.
• 18:43
  And women know when we clean up it out there.
• 18:45
  The community has held that they've held their ground and we've had some incidents.
• 18:48
  People try to come back in, but they've held their ground out there and and,
• 18:55
  and that's what I think is going to happen when I another clear my way.
• 18:58
  And so I'm excited about that.
• 19:01
  Something similar happened recently.
• 19:03
  I know that you mentioned Waikiki, but I one of the pavilions,
• 19:06
  if you can just talk about what happened. Yeah, we had these lurkers.
• 19:08
  You know, this thing is really frustrating.
• 19:10
  As I said earlier about the, you know, they they've been arrested
• 19:13
  countless times.
• 19:14
  They have long rap sheets, misdemeanors, occasionally.
• 19:16
  Every now and then they'll step in to commit a felony.
• 19:18
  And we've been able to put them away,
• 19:21
  in the causeway, they they come back.
• 19:23
  They're chronic.
• 19:25
  I don't have any patience for these characters.
• 19:27
  And so, I think I don't even think it's a disrespectful word.
• 19:31
  Not that I really even care about that, to be honest with you, but they kind of
• 19:34
  used to hang out those tables and lurk, drink and drink your post.
• 19:38
  And I supposed to be drinking in Waikiki.
• 19:39
  But more than that, the behavior, you know, harassing tourists walking by
• 19:43
  and lewd behavior sometimes, you know,
• 19:48
  urinating on all that.
• 19:50
  I mean, it's just unsightly, especially the like.
• 19:52
  So I was reluctant to take away the tables.
• 19:55
  I didn't want to give in.
• 19:56
  This is about good versus bad. Again, right?
• 19:58
  I thought, but as it turned out,
• 20:03
  because of the reoccurrence of these guys, we decided, okay, we'll just
• 20:06
  eliminate the tables and I just start and migrate back to that area.
• 20:09
  We're going to deal with that
• 20:10
  because of some things we can do from a landscaping standpoint or whatever.
• 20:13
  I don't want them down there.
• 20:15
  I don't because, you know, I I'd be the first to say, hey, this is public space.
• 20:19
  Everybody is entitled to it should be able to use it.
• 20:22
  It's beautiful.
• 20:22
  I mean, it's one of the most beautiful places in the world.
• 20:24
  If you think about Waikiki, it should not be spoiled like that.
• 20:28
  So we're playing hardball with them.
• 20:30
  We're trying to move the church, feeding,
• 20:33
  to a whole new location.
• 20:35
  I think we've had some success.
• 20:37
  I've been frustrated by that because that's been part of a reason why,
• 20:41
  they're down there.
• 20:42
  It's just sort of a fight for us.
• 20:45
  It's a few characters.
• 20:48
  It's not a tremendous amount.
• 20:49
  It's a scalable problem.
• 20:51
  At some point we're going to overcome that, but we're on top of it.
• 20:55
  You know, the one thing I can tell you is we pretty much know who's down there.
• 20:59
  Waikiki, the homeless and and, homeless service providers
• 21:02
  know that the Waikiki bid's done a great job on that.
• 21:06
  The numbers are way down, but they're still there.
• 21:09
  We do fight the fact that we get an infusion
• 21:11
  of people flying in from the mainland. They go to Waikiki.
• 21:14
  They can. They can sleep on the beach. So we have those numbers.
• 21:17
  It we're constantly battling.
• 21:19
  But I actually think, and when I talk about
• 21:21
  getting functional control, when I'm getting on top of it,
• 21:24
  I can tell you right now, police are not putting up with these guys.
• 21:26
  So, you know, we're gonna we're going to we're going to go through that course.
• 21:29
  I wish we could get more help from the judiciary.
• 21:31
  I wish they could see the fact that these people
• 21:34
  are just making life miserable for a lot of people, and they're a danger.
• 21:36
  They're a danger to people, you know?
• 21:38
  And look, these guys are addicted. They're.
• 21:40
  They're sometimes out of their minds.
• 21:42
  They're they're drunk.
• 21:43
  They're, you know, it's it's not cool.
• 21:45
  And I just wish we could find a place to put them
• 21:49
  and, and, you know, and we're going to try we're going to be a little bit
• 21:52
  more aggressive on the rehab part,
• 21:55
  kind of coming
• 21:56
  into our own now on our ability to pick up people and voluntarily,
• 22:00
  in the courts are on our side on that.
• 22:02
  And we have now the treatment centers.
• 22:04
  We can maybe we could stabilize some music guys.
• 22:06
  We'll see if I can promise you,
• 22:08
  as I say this, as mayor of zero tolerance for this stuff,
• 22:11
  there's there's no, there's no forgiving me on this
• 22:14
  because the it's just habitual and and and the and what people don't know
• 22:20
  is the kind of attitudes behind it because we get up close and personal
• 22:23
  with these guys, you know, and it's not a nice conversation.
• 22:26
  And if people could hear that, they would understand it.
• 22:28
  You know, it's more that hostile.
• 22:30
  They're even threatening and everything.
• 22:32
  And, you know, you just you got like, hey, you don't get to be like that.
• 22:35
  This is not how the world works.
• 22:37
  So that's where I'm coming from on that.
• 22:39
  And I've empowered our police department.
• 22:41
  I've raised the bar on my own expectations,
• 22:44
  in the spirit of public service, such as for the church,
• 22:46
  for local people, to you, nobody has to subject themselves to that, you know.
• 22:50
  And so, you know, and somebody just walking their wife
• 22:53
  down the sidewalk or with the kids and some guy's making some lewd comments,
• 22:58
  nobody should get away with it.
• 23:00
  Nobody.
• 23:01
  And I want.
• 23:02
  Mayor, I want to bounce back to kind of a feel good story, but you were
• 23:05
  there as a community.
• 23:06
  Came together the other week, to rebuild the home of Carmona
• 23:11
  Kalama, the son of fallen officer colleague Kalama.
• 23:15
  Who was killed in that hibiscus shooting.
• 23:17
  Can you talk about that experience?
• 23:18
  Yeah, that. Was very moving.
• 23:21
  That was very moving because that is,
• 23:23
  you know, not only was our I was the officer killed, but his wife,
• 23:28
  the kids brother was 14 years old just a few months later, died.
• 23:32
  And, you know, and fortunately, his uncle was able to take him in.
• 23:36
  And now, to his credit, he's off in the mainland College.
• 23:38
  In fact, he wasn't there that day.
• 23:40
  But, you know, we talked so often and maybe it sounds, you know,
• 23:44
  common when we talk about community, we talk about family
• 23:48
  ohana, we talk about aloha.
• 23:50
  We talk about loving and caring for each other.
• 23:53
  And then you see it manifest in a project like that,
• 23:56
  you know, where people just kind of come together and say,
• 23:58
  you know, I want to do this, and you see them doing it.
• 24:01
  That's to be celebrated.
• 24:03
  You know, a lot of donations went into that, a lot more to come.
• 24:09
  And it was just again,
• 24:10
  it was just one of those things where I feel so grateful, you see.
• 24:13
  Good.
• 24:14
  And it's about the goodness of people
• 24:16
  that came out of a really incredible, terrible tragedy.
• 24:18
  I mean, for us to lose
• 24:20
  those two officers on a Sunday morning on the slopes of Diamondhead,
• 24:24
  I mean, you know, for all the places one could be in the line of duty
• 24:27
  in the line of danger, you would not think that would be the setting.
• 24:31
  And yet that's what happened. And so,
• 24:34
  I'm very, very proud of our community and all the people because there are
• 24:37
  a lot of different people involved with that project that came together,
• 24:41
  with a determination to, to do that.
• 24:44
  I said, well, mayor, this is the one or our podcast.
• 24:48
  So for one final.
• 24:49
  Well, it's Thanksgiving and we've said a lot today about it.
• 24:52
  This is the time of the year.
• 24:55
  You know, let's let's bring out the best of each other, you know, and,
• 24:59
  if you catch me not smiling over these next few weeks, you let me know.
• 25:02
  But, I, I really, I feel good about the work we're doing.
• 25:07
  I feel good about the progress we're making.
• 25:09
  I feel good about what hopefully we can do to alleviate
• 25:12
  some of the conditions people are dealing with.
• 25:15
  And, it's not easy.
• 25:17
  We're all in this together.
• 25:19
  And we'll we'll get through it. Remember?
• 25:21
  Thank you for your time.
• 25:21
  Thank you.
• 25:22
  And last week,
• 25:23
  we introduced you to our city manager of the year, Christopher Clark.
• 25:26
  Next week, we'll sit down with the city's employee of the year, fire captain
• 25:30
  Kevin Kelly on.
• 25:31
  That's right here on the One oh Who podcast.
• 25:33
  On behalf of all of us here in the city and County of Honolulu,
• 25:36
  we wish you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving again.
• 25:38
  Opening night for Honolulu City Lights is this Saturday.
• 25:41
  For more information, you can head to H and L City lights.com.
• 25:45
  All for listening. And until next time, Aloha!