State of the City address: Honolulu mayor discusses housing, Ocean Safety and more

HONOLULU (KHON2) — Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi took the stage at the Mission memorial Auditorium shortly after 6 p.m. on March 18 to deliver his State of the City address, highlighting his vision for Honolulu’s future, including accessible housing, transportation and more.

Blangiardi kicked off his speech by highlighting outmigration from the islands, calling the migration “unprecedented” and linking it to the high cost of living in Hawaiʻi.

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The mayor highlighted the creation of the Department of Housing and Land Management, marking the first time in almost 30 years that Honolulu has a fully-staffed housing department.

The new department will be led by current executive director of the Office of Housing, Kevin Auger, who will become the new department’s director. Cat Taschner will serve as the new department’s deputy director.

“For most of the past year, Kevin, Cat and their teams have already been working as a single unit, completely rethinking our housing strategy,” Blangiardi said. “Together, they have reestablished a housing platform at the city that is geared toward execution rather than policy, toward development rather than deliberation and toward results rather than rhetoric.”

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The new housing plan is composed of two key components according to Blangiardi, with the first component being transforming underutilized city properties into affordable housing projects.

Blangiardi says that at least 10 properties around Honolulu have already been identified as underutilized, as they have been “sitting around for years, with no plan or strategy.”

The transition of these 10 properties will bring nearly 2,000 new affordable housing units to the island according to the mayor.

The second key component to the new plan involves financing the development, with the city’s housing team looking at using multi-family taxable revenue bonds to help.

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Blangiardi also highlighted offering more leasing options, making it easier for government services and nonprofits to lease city properties to help serve residents.

“We cannot call housing our top priority and then insist on the status quo when it comes to our leasing rules,” Blangiardi said. “Making smart revisions to Chapter 38 will have a wider impact than just housing.”

The mayor also noted the city’s acquisition of Iwilei Center, which will be turned into a mixed-use community with at least 2,000 new additional units, all geared toward affordable living.

“With Iwilei Center, we are making good on our promise to build an equitable community where all residents, regardless of income, have the same opportunities to live, work, shop, learn and play as everyone else,” he said.

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While the transformation of Iwilei Center will take years, the mayor mentioned maximizing resources by having the center serve as a homeless shelter in the meantime, to help ease the pain of homelessness on Oʻahu communities.

Blangiardi also discussed expanding Skyline into Kalihi, and eventually into Downtown Honolulu and Waikiki by 2031. The second segment of Skyline operations from Aloha Stadium to Middle Street will open in October of this year.

In addition to housing and transportation, Blangiardi also discussed expansion of Ocean Safety procedures, particularly on the North Shore.

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“We are announcing tonight our intent to purchase a highly-coveted piece of land across the street from Shark’s Cove for the creation of a world-class first responder hub,” Blangiardi said. “These plans are subject to a negotiated sale price with the current landowner, but will be transformative for our North Shore communities.”

According to the mayor, the new hub will serve as a base of operations for lifeguards on the North Shore, while also featuring a brand new ambulance station aimed at reducing emergency response times.

While on the topic of first responder accessibility, Blangiardi said that EMS needs to focus specifically on medical response to remain efficient, which is one of the reasons Ocean Safety is slated to become its own agency.

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“We were confident that we could run EMS more efficiently. In that effort, it became quite apparent that EMS needed to focus specifically on medical response, and that Ocean Safety had earned the right to be its own first responder agency,” Blangiardi said. “However, I want to be clear, in executing our vision, I strongly support Dr. Jim Ireland as the director of Emergency Services.”

The mayor also went on to address concerns regarding federal funding, saying that Honolulu’s major programs have avoided federal cuts for now.

“I want to be clear: as of today, none of our major programs have been impacted by federal cuts, including funding from the [Federal Transit Administration] for our rail project,” he said.

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In light of political and economic uncertainty, Blangiardi ended his address with a message of perseverance.

“For the first time in years, our people of hope. They believe in this place for what it is, and for what it can be,” Blangiardi said. “We believe in it too, and we promise to work until the last minute of our last day to deliver.”

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