Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / Mayor Blangiardi on adding more HPD officers to patrol and fielding questions from Kapolei HS students

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Mayor Blangiardi on adding more HPD officers to patrol and fielding questions from Kapolei HS students · 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 this week we're back with Mayor Blangiardi.
• 0:21
  We're catching you after another major weather event, a rain event that we had.
• 0:25
  This week, it's already been a crazy 2026 shelters open.
• 0:29
  We got a little bit of rain.
• 0:30
  The EOC was activated.
• 0:32
  Mayor, what were you pleased with this summer?
• 0:35
  Well, first of all,
• 0:36
  the relief that the storm itself, I mean, we had flooding on Molokai,
• 0:40
  but for what we were anticipating, that could happen here in Oahu.
• 0:43
  It didn't.
• 0:43
  You know, we got some rain overnight, you know, and, but,
• 0:47
  you know, we were able to, deactivate the emergency operating center.
• 0:51
  We did open our shelters, but we let them phase out, you know,
• 0:54
  and more than anything.
• 0:55
  People didn't sustain serious property damage or anything else.
• 1:00
  This was a very different kind of a storm system
• 1:03
  or what was being ballyhooed about it, because it was supposedly going to come in
• 1:07
  massive and kind of sit on us and just, you know, no big wind event.
• 1:12
  You know, maybe not even thunderstorms or whatever,
• 1:14
  but just a lot of water and, you know, and the topography on Oahu
• 1:18
  is such that between the mountains and the streams and whatever that
• 1:23
  you get into flash flooding
• 1:25
  situations like that very quickly, as opposed to, let's say, on the mainland.
• 1:29
  So if it was just going to be that kind of a system,
• 1:32
  we were like concerned about that because as you seen and everybody's
• 1:36
  lived through it when that's stuff that's coming down like that,
• 1:39
  there's nothing you can do except wait for it to be over.
• 1:42
  You know, mayor, Chief Lazaar made the announcement
• 1:45
  recently to move officers back to patrol.
• 1:48
  Your thoughts on that decision?
• 1:50
  I give him a lot of credit.
• 1:51
  You know, for one thing, it's been huge.
• 1:53
  Again, I use the word belly, but I can't be lazy. Is that word?
• 1:55
  I have the ever say that word.
• 1:57
  But much was said about, you know, I should the police officers
• 2:01
  at the time we came into the office in 2021 before chief was our guard here?
• 2:06
  But that became an ongoing
• 2:08
  effort for us from the standpoint of trying to counteract,
• 2:11
  you know, the numbers that were seem to be on a steady decrease.
• 2:16
  So since Chief Lazaro has arrived in over four plus months,
• 2:19
  he's just been a force of nature, has been great.
• 2:23
  That said, we had a dual prob, a very tough, challenging problem
• 2:27
  when we had an overtime issue that was more than $6 million over budget.
• 2:31
  That had to be addressed.
• 2:32
  We still, even though our recruiting is picked up with our police officers,
• 2:36
  we still have a shortage of officers.
• 2:38
  So to his credit,
• 2:40
  and I would say it's
• 2:40
  a kind of executive leadership and thinking that I'd like to see,
• 2:43
  they took it upon himself with his team after consulting.
• 2:46
  What they could do was to reassign 100 officers, get them back on the street,
• 2:50
  increase our street presence, which we really is a really strong
• 2:53
  to turn to crime and other things, get them out there at the same time,
• 2:57
  because we had the shortage and the way things will work.
• 2:59
  And that's what was generating the overtime
• 3:02
  because we have enough officers. So people are looking longer.
• 3:04
  So that actually eases some of the burden as well.
• 3:07
  On on people starting to get burned out.
• 3:09
  You know, being a police officer is a very hard job.
• 3:13
  And, you know, it's uncertain from our hour on any given day
• 3:16
  in any situation, what you might be confronting.
• 3:18
  And people
• 3:19
  don't really realize that, but the gravitas of that is not insignificant,
• 3:23
  not the least of which is, put a gun on their hip.
• 3:25
  You know, when you walk out the door, you just don't know what you might
• 3:28
  encounter.
• 3:28
  So, that said, this is good all the way around.
• 3:32
  It's going to eliminate our overtime problem.
• 3:34
  It's going to ease the burden of people feeling like they're overworked and create
• 3:37
  a greater street presence.
• 3:38
  But it took a bold decision
• 3:39
  and a willingness to stand tall on the merits of that decision,
• 3:43
  knowing full well that there's always going to be some blowback.
• 3:46
  Which was actually, quite honestly, because it got the by
• 3:48
  and by the department because they really appreciated that it was pretty minimal.
• 3:52
  The, you know, it was a couple people because you're always going to get that.
• 3:55
  But that's
• 3:56
  that's the challenge of leadership is to have the courage
• 3:58
  to make tough decisions, especially one like this.
• 4:01
  When you're fairly new, people don't really know what to expect.
• 4:04
  And you say, this is what we're going to do, and this is why we're going to do it.
• 4:06
  Everybody goes, okay.
• 4:08
  I think that's one of the things that's been lacking
• 4:09
  in the leadership of our department.
• 4:11
  So I'm really grateful for it. That's what I think about it.
• 4:14
  You were on hand recently to help break ground on the first
• 4:16
  phase of the redevelopment project over at Mayor Wright Housing.
• 4:20
  Why is that project so important?
• 4:23
  Well, you know, it's incredible.
• 4:25
  It's an incredible project.
• 4:26
  Be. It's right in the urban core.
• 4:28
  It's 15 acres.
• 4:30
  It has been in disrepair for a long time.
• 4:33
  A lot of those places, that house some 300 and some odd families.
• 4:36
  Really, we're not ideal living quarters.
• 4:40
  Okay.
• 4:41
  This project is going to transform all of that.
• 4:43
  In fact, we're going to multiply the number
• 4:45
  of housing units from a little bit more than 300 to over 2400.
• 4:49
  But in addition to that, with the development techniques of today
• 4:52
  and the knowhow and whatever will create green spaces, recreational areas
• 4:57
  for people, quality places for them to live, it'll be affordable.
• 5:01
  It's going to it's a 15 year project.
• 5:03
  It's not a small project, but within a couple of years we'll have
• 5:06
  people living in the first phase.
• 5:08
  But it's to take something that, quite honestly, was a blight on our city
• 5:11
  that had its day once upon a time, but just because of the way they were built
• 5:16
  or whatever, had really, really, you know, walked around there right?
• 5:19
  The buildings themselves were brilliant, in not good shape.
• 5:22
  People should live like that.
• 5:24
  You know, we want we want, we want people to have the dignity
• 5:28
  to live in a place that they feel respected, and it's good for them.
• 5:32
  And again,
• 5:33
  an affordable means, as opposed to just say, okay, well, if you want to,
• 5:37
  if you don't want to have much money to pay for it,
• 5:38
  you're going to live in a dump.
• 5:39
  We don't believe that.
• 5:41
  And I will tell you, some of the more affordable housing projects I've been to,
• 5:44
  as well as you lately have been really, really, really terrific.
• 5:50
  I mean, the beautifully appointed, constructed, well,
• 5:53
  great spaces, prices that really are affordable.
• 5:56
  And and so I'm just excited about be a part of making that happen.
• 6:02
  People said that couldn't be done was showing them that it can be done.
• 6:06
  Sticking with that excitement, mayor and the other county.
• 6:10
  Oh, Ma, which translates to learning leaders or continuous learning
• 6:14
  leaders, is a shadow program
• 6:16
  here in the city and County of Honolulu, where students get the chance
• 6:19
  to interact directly with city directors, department leaders today.
• 6:22
  We have a handful of students
• 6:24
  from Catholic High School with us, and we want to hear from them.
• 6:28
  I've asked a few of them to come up with some questions for you and mayor.
• 6:31
  Just a heads up. We didn't invite these questions.
• 6:33
  We tried to come up with questions before, but we didn't.
• 6:35
  We ran out of time. So I'm not sure what they're going to ask.
• 6:37
  I don't know, but I can tell you right now,
• 6:39
  just looking at the three of them, from Gabriel to Persia to Dunya to Dillon,
• 6:43
  they know.
• 6:44
  They know what they're asking you to look like.
• 6:45
  They're looking kids. I you always go easy on me.
• 6:48
  I'm not so sure I'm ready for this, but let's have at it.
• 6:50
  All right, mayor, So first up for Joe. Hi.
• 6:54
  My name is Persia.
• 6:56
  I'm in 10th grade.
• 6:57
  And my question for you is, why is the workforce
• 7:01
  struggling to keep up and get employees?
• 7:04
  And do you think it's related to the generation that we live in now?
• 7:08
  That's a great question, because it's
• 7:10
  one of the things that caused me a lot of concern to.
• 7:12
  In fact, I think you heard me before we begin this podcast talking
• 7:15
  to a group about the job fair today and wanting to keep young people home,
• 7:19
  you know, we have more jobs than we have available people.
• 7:25
  We actually have one of the lowest unemployment rates, if not the lowest.
• 7:28
  I think at one point we were the second lowest in the country.
• 7:31
  And being island dwellers, where, you know, it's
• 7:36
  it's it's not like people can commute long distances, you know, to, to work
• 7:39
  some people in the middle of my travel
• 7:41
  50 miles to have a job, we have to draw on the on the basis here.
• 7:45
  The workforce is here and I think it's become very competitive.
• 7:49
  The world really changed during Covid.
• 7:51
  You know, a lot we watched a lot of small businesses
• 7:54
  and, and, and people went away because many of those people were working,
• 7:58
  living on tips and stuff and that they couldn't afford to stay here.
• 8:01
  They didn't have the unemployment.
• 8:02
  So they left the islands.
• 8:03
  And very difficult
• 8:04
  once you've left to come back, if that's the kind of income making.
• 8:08
  So we have been in this post-Covid environment,
• 8:11
  along with the fact that because of the high cost
• 8:14
  of living in Hawaii, we've had outmigration,
• 8:16
  something that
• 8:17
  I really am concerned about, especially with young people like yourself
• 8:20
  and younger people going away to college and deciding they just can't come back
• 8:23
  because they can't figure out how the life is going to work.
• 8:26
  That's one of the things that we battle,
• 8:27
  and that's why our conversation about affordable
• 8:29
  housing is really important, because it starts with that lease.
• 8:31
  If you have a place to live and whatever money you're making,
• 8:34
  you can afford to keep a roof over your head.
• 8:36
  That's that's really fundamental.
• 8:38
  And that's and when that housing situation wasn't there,
• 8:42
  it made the math totally impossible.
• 8:44
  So I think we've got a cultural issue going on, a generational, you know, people
• 8:48
  working at home.
• 8:49
  We heard this concept called teleworking.
• 8:51
  Some people got very comfortable with that.
• 8:53
  They've never wanted to go back to a workplace.
• 8:55
  They found ways to, to, to make a living.
• 8:58
  But businesses quite honestly can't get enough good help.
• 9:02
  It's the same with us.
• 9:03
  We've been very aggressive when our recruiting.
• 9:05
  We've been doing better, than we have, and I'm really proud of that.
• 9:10
  But I honestly, for all the effort we've put into it, I wish the numbers
• 9:14
  were even better than they are.
• 9:15
  So it's it's a very competitive labor market.
• 9:18
  Question. Right. Gabriel, you're up.
• 9:20
  Hi. My name is Gabriel and I'm in 10th grade.
• 9:23
  So this year the Board of Education implemented the phone policy.
• 9:28
  So basically all of the schools in the Department of Education
• 9:33
  cannot use their phones depending on like they're
• 9:36
  if they're in elementary, middle school or in high school.
• 9:39
  So my question for you is how is the phone policy
• 9:42
  going to benefit my peers in our school's learning environment?
• 9:47
  Well, you know, that's a state matter.
• 9:49
  But I don't my way, you know okay.
• 9:51
  Because the state controls Department of Education and the Board of Education,
• 9:55
  you know, is not thing that we're involved with the city.
• 9:58
  But I was just saying earlier, I think you heard me say that probably
• 10:02
  I am spending three hours a day.
• 10:04
  And what I worked very long days on my iPhone
• 10:07
  myself, candidly speaking.
• 10:10
  And and I want to be respectful.
• 10:12
  Gabriel, I look at young people today, and I see them really preoccupied
• 10:16
  with technology.
• 10:17
  And much has been said about this.
• 10:18
  It's not only a national issue, a local issue, a national or international issue.
• 10:22
  You know, I don't know if you know what's going on in Europe,
• 10:24
  but they're actually banning social media for young people under 16,
• 10:28
  all kinds of things going forward, because all of us are living through
• 10:32
  something that the world has never seen before.
• 10:35
  Now, you went around with the iPhone style and you probably think
• 10:38
  it's been here forever, but it started only in 2007, as when Steve
• 10:41
  Jobs and June of 2007 introduced the iPhone within two years.
• 10:46
  By 2009, people were adapting it all over the place and mobile technology
• 10:50
  suddenly became you know, something that everybody could take advantage of.
• 10:53
  It created instant communication.
• 10:55
  It changed how we used to do
• 10:56
  when I would work in the television business, how we did television news.
• 11:01
  Young people growing up
• 11:02
  get obsessed with this second standard, and we're in
• 11:05
  and we don't want people to lose their social skills
• 11:08
  in all honesty, you know, and it's been
• 11:11
  one time chip in the 10th grade, but I can remember my high school years,
• 11:15
  even to this day when we have reunions or whatever,
• 11:19
  the friendships that we formed, the experiences
• 11:22
  we had as young kids growing up together, the sports we played, the dances
• 11:26
  we went to, the people we dated, all of that wonderful stuff
• 11:30
  that's so wholesome and good and part of the growth experience.
• 11:33
  We don't want to see that taken away because people are just become removed,
• 11:37
  isolated, stuck on their technology, not interacting socially.
• 11:41
  So I think it's for the good, you know, and I can tell you that, sometimes
• 11:46
  when you're young, you don't know what you don't know.
• 11:49
  So as you listen to me
• 11:50
  as an old guy at the age of 80, I'm still learning stuff every day.
• 11:54
  And so I know that young people today feel,
• 11:57
  you know, empowered to speak and speak or say what's on their mind.
• 12:00
  Certainly a lot more than we used to have when I was younger.
• 12:03
  But this is really, I think, for social well-being
• 12:07
  because, you know, one of the things you learn in life
• 12:09
  is we're all social animals, you know, and our ability to communicate
• 12:12
  with each other and be able to establish friendships
• 12:15
  or rapport, really important parts of life.
• 12:18
  So I think it's going to be a good thing.
• 12:20
  Good question guys. All right. Next up, Dylan.
• 12:24
  Hello, I'm Dylan, I'm in 11th grade.
• 12:27
  And my question for you is what's being done to make housing
• 12:31
  more affordable for local families and Native Hawaiian people?
• 12:34
  Because when I drive around downtown, I do see a lot of like luxury apartments
• 12:38
  being built and like around my neighborhood also see, like fenced off
• 12:42
  areas and government property and the lands just rotting
• 12:45
  when it could be used for stuff like housing.
• 12:48
  Yeah, but that's right on the money doing exactly that.
• 12:50
  And that's what we began doing.
• 12:52
  The city was a non-player in housing, since 1998.
• 12:56
  We're we're actually strategic.
• 12:58
  We're acquiring land
• 12:59
  as well as looking at certain parcels that the city had if they were city owned.
• 13:04
  And we formed the Department of Housing and Land Management
• 13:08
  since we've been in office, got back in, I think you heard me say earlier
• 13:12
  in a conversation that, by the time we leave office, two
• 13:16
  more years we'll have under construction completed are in the process.
• 13:20
  Some 16,000 units. That's in.
• 13:22
  That's really about seven years, because the whole first year was all covered.
• 13:27
  What you said is
• 13:28
  spot on, and it shouldn't be like that.
• 13:31
  We have many places right in the urban core, which we're doing now.
• 13:35
  Now, also with the advent of skyline, you're going to hear a term called maybe
• 13:39
  you already know about a Tod, which stands for transit oriented development.
• 13:43
  A lot of people want to live near
• 13:46
  transportation lines, so they don't have to have a car with her.
• 13:50
  If they're young and they're just trying to, you know, make their lives work.
• 13:52
  So we're it is our number one priority.
• 13:56
  It is. Absolutely.
• 13:57
  And I can promise you, I just finished a conference in Kona
• 13:59
  where all the executives, CEOs and stuff around,
• 14:02
  all over the world, around really all around the state.
• 14:06
  And one of the questions they put to us was, if you had one big idea,
• 14:09
  you know, what would you, what would you do with that?
• 14:13
  And, and everybody had, you know, it was a random kind of a deal.
• 14:17
  But when they pulled all the answers to pull all the questions, the answers.
• 14:21
  Housing was number one.
• 14:22
  We all see it the same way in the private sector.
• 14:24
  The public sector.
• 14:25
  We we we can't do it fast enough.
• 14:28
  Okay. So your observations are correct.
• 14:31
  I can assure you though, things are getting better.
• 14:33
  I can promise you known for a while what's in the pipeline,
• 14:36
  because it takes a while to do this stuff, the stuff that's going to happen.
• 14:39
  And look at all due respect to the you're
• 14:41
  the 11th grade, you're going to get to see it.
• 14:43
  And and really the very short term future.
• 14:46
  And actually if you were to look around, if I took you around, I could show you
• 14:49
  a lot of new projects that are already been recently done.
• 14:52
  So it's happening. It's changing.
• 14:54
  This is a a time right now where government itself
• 14:57
  and people are responding differently to the challenges,
• 15:00
  because we can't tolerate that situation anymore.
• 15:03
  You can't look away, you know, you have to pay attention to it.
• 15:06
  So our biggest priority, mayor,
• 15:09
  we never give you the chance to ask any questions on the 100 podcast.
• 15:12
  I'm sorry about that. Wow.
• 15:13
  But I want to give you that opportunity today. Do you?
• 15:16
  I'll give this microphone back to Dylan after I'm done with this.
• 15:18
  Have any questions for them?
• 15:21
  Well, that's.
• 15:22
  Oh I wasn't expecting that. This is good.
• 15:24
  Well, I'd be kind of curious about what you think about, you know,
• 15:28
  what would be if I were to say to each of you
• 15:32
  your age, ages right now, what concerns you most?
• 15:35
  What baby caused you to think about things,
• 15:38
  even maybe scares you a little bit about just life in general?
• 15:42
  Do you have anything like that going on with you, personal stuff with you?
• 15:46
  This is not really a problem that can be controlled.
• 15:48
  But like I also agree with social
• 15:52
  how people are on their phones, you know,
• 15:56
  that's pretty what concerns me.
• 15:58
  You know, if you walk into a room and you don't know anyone, you just
• 16:02
  people around my age just pull out their phones
• 16:04
  whenever, wherever and under circumstances, you know?
• 16:07
  Yeah.
• 16:08
  Yeah.
• 16:09
  I'm glad that you're aware of that
• 16:10
  because there's a lot of truth of what we're saying.
• 16:12
  Technology is great and gives us great capability,
• 16:14
  but you can't be obsessed with it.
• 16:16
  You know, I think as a young person, especially in your teenage years,
• 16:19
  what an incredible time of life you want to be with people.
• 16:23
  So, okay, I appreciate that, Gabriel.
• 16:27
  I agree with what you said.
• 16:28
  I think
• 16:30
  for my generation, our usage of phones has become so much of an obsession.
• 16:35
  For example, when I walk into a classroom, I just see everyone on their phones
• 16:41
  and yes, technology is good,
• 16:44
  but it's it's not like a replacement for our creativity, you know?
• 16:48
  That's right.
• 16:49
  That's exactly right.
• 16:50
  Where are your students, Dylan?
• 16:52
  Anything that comes to mind,
• 16:54
  I, I thought you already asked is a pretty astute question about housing.
• 16:57
  Here's a good one.
• 16:58
  Go ahead.
• 16:59
  I do have a concern about homeless, too.
• 17:02
  I do see a lot of homeless everywhere.
• 17:05
  I do see that there are shelters like a shelter near my neighborhood was put up.
• 17:08
  But the homeless aren't too willing to go there and get the help.
• 17:13
  I do see, that's why they're not willing to go get the help.
• 17:15
  It's not about that.
• 17:18
  Maybe
• 17:19
  mental disability is a lot of mental illness out there.
• 17:22
  A lot of drug addiction.
• 17:23
  Crystal meth is a terrible drug with a lot of sick people out there,
• 17:27
  and a lot of people will be on the streets for so long
• 17:30
  and, you know, and they prefer that because all the shelters
• 17:34
  and the things that we try to provide, people come with rules.
• 17:38
  And, and sometimes people have a hard time with rules.
• 17:42
  So this is like the homeless housing.
• 17:45
  Homelessness is our second biggest priority.
• 17:47
  And we've made some real inroads.
• 17:49
  And it's it's tough.
• 17:51
  It is tough.
• 17:53
  We're keeping our numbers relatively flat, which in some ways
• 17:57
  is a win, because in a lot of places those numbers are going up.
• 18:02
  We're challenged with the fact that about 600 people a year
• 18:04
  come in here, versus 90 that were indifferent to us.
• 18:08
  We work in great collaboration with the state,
• 18:10
  and try to reduce our numbers and put people in beds. But,
• 18:16
  people who
• 18:17
  we see in mental illness, we see a lot of depression,
• 18:21
  we see schizophrenia, we see bipolar,
• 18:25
  and, and those are really tough mental illnesses for people.
• 18:29
  And, and then if you combine that sometimes with different addictions,
• 18:32
  drug addiction,
• 18:33
  alcohol addiction, it's really is people really suffering in tough places.
• 18:37
  So it's hard work.
• 18:39
  And having places to take them is something that we've developed
• 18:43
  immediately.
• 18:44
  We have a thing called call, which is a mobile crisis.
• 18:46
  We can pick people up and we work with the state through
• 18:49
  Department of Health to provide what they call wraparound services.
• 18:53
  It's tough.
• 18:54
  We have about 2200 people out on the street there.
• 18:57
  There are, on Oahu that are chronic, homeless, that are unsheltered.
• 19:03
  We have about 4500 people altogether.
• 19:06
  But those 2200 have a way of really, be invisible.
• 19:11
  And we're we're working on that, our, our numbers in the last point in time
• 19:17
  count, which was done earlier in the year, show
• 19:19
  that we had a 22% decrease in unsheltered homeless
• 19:22
  because we've been putting them in places I don't think would end homelessness.
• 19:26
  We're trying to get functional control by having places
• 19:28
  to take them, a means to take them there and providing care and services.
• 19:32
  But it's ongoing in municipalities everywhere.
• 19:36
  I played with that list here.
• 19:38
  We have a manageable number.
• 19:41
  But we're not satisfied with that.
• 19:43
  So I just don't think there's no reason not to do anything about it.
• 19:46
  If you want to spend some time,
• 19:49
  I could have you spend the day with our core people
• 19:53
  and see the work that they do and out in the field and how they address things.
• 19:57
  And I could get really technical with you, but it's pretty amazing stuff.
• 20:00
  What goes in day in and day out.
• 20:03
  Our approach to this is to try to these people are suffering and we're too good
• 20:07
  of people as a society to let people suffer like that right in front of us.
• 20:11
  And most of them not only can't take care to take care of themselves,
• 20:15
  but they're a danger to themselves,
• 20:17
  and they may be possibly a danger to others too, which is of real concern.
• 20:21
  So it's a major issue.
• 20:22
  It's not anything that we take lightly.
• 20:25
  I been conducting a meeting once a week for the last several years, combined
• 20:30
  state people and all the key stakeholders in the city where we collaborate.
• 20:35
  And that involves the sheriff's office from the state and the HPD.
• 20:39
  We have about
• 20:40
  6 or 7 doctors in the room as advisors.
• 20:43
  And a lot of other people from nonprofit,
• 20:46
  service providers to deal with the homeless.
• 20:48
  So it's, it's a real team approach to try and reduce it.
• 20:52
  The person never ending battle.
• 20:54
  They answer your questions.
• 20:55
  Yeah. I'm glad I could.
• 20:57
  I don't question it.
• 20:59
  Speaking to young people, talking about housing and even homelessness.
• 21:03
  I want them to know that it's it's a legitimate concern.
• 21:07
  It's real.
• 21:09
  I'm not trying to sugarcoat anything.
• 21:10
  I'm just trying to tell you that we're doing something about it, and we.
• 21:13
  It should have been done a long time ago.
• 21:15
  The stuff right has been kicked down the road far too long,
• 21:18
  so we can't get things done fast enough on the social media.
• 21:21
  Let me give you an example of something that I saw.
• 21:23
  Now, just so you know, it started seven.
• 21:26
  Like I said, in 2009, I was a general manager
• 21:29
  of Hawaii News Now, and we started the whole digital format.
• 21:32
  That's what now is all about understanding that people wanted information.
• 21:36
  You now, I used to speak and sometimes younger people or audiences,
• 21:40
  and I would hold up my phone because we were pretty involved with it
• 21:44
  at that time, around 2010.
• 21:45
  To that I would say to people, how many of you have one of these?
• 21:49
  And back in the early days, a few hands would go up if I was talking to you up.
• 21:53
  Yes, I was talking to young people.
• 21:56
  I wouldn't,
• 21:57
  but I watched that over a relatively short period of time.
• 22:01
  To that same question,
• 22:03
  how many of you have one of these okay, to where every had a room where I belong?
• 22:07
  Most people would laugh at me for asking such a stupid question.
• 22:10
  And I notice also the groups get younger.
• 22:13
  And then one night, about 5 or 6, seven years ago, and that.
• 22:19
  Now this wasn't that long ago.
• 22:20
  This is 26th October 2019 to I was on Saturday night,
• 22:24
  the last time I went to a movie there to see a movie was Top Gun.
• 22:28
  So think it was about 6 or 7 years ago.
• 22:30
  I wanted to see it on the big screen.
• 22:32
  And then came these four guys like Dylan Gabriel's
• 22:35
  age was four boys and brought back a memory.
• 22:38
  They set a couple of rows in front of me of when I was a young kid.
• 22:41
  We went to the movies with my buddies on a Saturday night. It was all fun.
• 22:44
  We'd be talking and fooling around until the movie started.
• 22:47
  Maybe we keep quiet or whatever, you know?
• 22:49
  It was just a real fun night to be out together.
• 22:51
  And, you know, these four kids come in about your age.
• 22:55
  It's middle high school.
• 22:58
  They sat down and the first thing they did and they were,
• 23:00
  you know, they took out their iPhones and they sat there next to each other.
• 23:03
  Four guys in a row now were talking to each other.
• 23:06
  They're all their iPhone.
• 23:08
  For all I know.
• 23:08
  They were probably texting each other right next to each other, you know,
• 23:11
  and I think that really struck me.
• 23:13
  And I thought, wow, this is that this is not good.
• 23:17
  This is just that that's just that's just robbing them
• 23:20
  of what life can afford them.
• 23:21
  So are you concerned about that?
• 23:23
  And I hope that if you have take an active voice,
• 23:25
  because I think you can see more and more
• 23:27
  that we've hit a place right now of this genuine concern
• 23:30
  for young people in their future, because it's just not there.
• 23:33
  They're not learning how to socialize, they can't communicate.
• 23:36
  And these are really going to be important skills for you in life.
• 23:39
  And, you know, and and I appreciate as you sort of say, you walk into a room,
• 23:43
  everybody's on the phone. There's no interaction.
• 23:45
  That's not the way it should be.
• 23:46
  So I share that concern.
• 23:50
  Use wisely.
• 23:51
  It's a tremendous tool.
• 23:53
  But, you got to understand,
• 23:57
  the, the danger of it, actually.
• 23:59
  And then we used to talk that way before, but it's really,
• 24:03
  something that we should all be concerned about,
• 24:06
  especially young people, because you can control that.
• 24:08
  Right?
• 24:09
  Yeah.
• 24:10
  Well, mayor, as usual, we'll give you the final say.
• 24:13
  This is the one or only podcast.
• 24:14
  So for one final thought, while at the end of the month
• 24:16
  and it's Halloween, I guess. Okay.
• 24:18
  So I hope everybody will have a good how will we to be safe this this weekend?
• 24:24
  But at the same time, it's that time of year now
• 24:27
  when we go from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas to do everything.
• 24:31
  It's a festive 60 days of the year.
• 24:33
  So, I'm grateful we escaped this recent storm.
• 24:36
  Hopefully, it's hard to say.
• 24:38
  We know word for word, because this El Nino season has proven to be,
• 24:43
  the reality I was proven to be really harsh.
• 24:45
  And we know that we understand our own vulnerability so. Well.
• 24:48
  Everybody stay safe, be smart, enjoy each other.
• 24:51
  Take in the spirit this conversation with the kids in here this morning.
• 24:53
  You know, it's all, let's through the holiday season.
• 24:57
  Let's,
• 24:59
  to count of the people who love us and who we love and and let's
• 25:03
  just all be together and and just make, you know, the best of times.
• 25:07
  It's been a hard year.
• 25:08
  A lot of people have suffered a lot of loss.
• 25:10
  And, but we're resilient people.
• 25:13
  I just ask everybody to kind of draw down on that and we go forward together.
• 25:17
  Well said. Mayor.
• 25:19
  Devices down, heads up.
• 25:21
  And thanks to the students from Kapolei High School.
• 25:23
  Mahalo to all of you for listening.
• 25:25
  We hope you all have a happy and safe Halloween.
• 25:27
  And until next time, Aloha!