HAPI was honored to have Mayor Caldwell as the guest speaker at our recent members meeting attended by just over 50 members and invited guests.
Mayor Caldwell shared that he likes being mayor as opposed to a senator or other elected position, because a mayor has the opportunity to get things done.
The Mayor’s efforts to improve our roads are going well. In the first year of his 5-year program, 398 lane miles were paved which exceed the plan’s annual goal of 300 lane miles. He acknowledged that a lot of the work completed were mill and fill projects and in the coming years, there would be more reconstruction projects, likely resulting in fewer lane miles being done.
He believed his goal of paving 300 lane miles in a year was achievable because prior to getting started he had checked with the industry to confirm their capacity to do the work, and because in his last year as the City’s managing director, the City did 289 lane miles. He thanked our members for their efforts and hopes to get additional funding for roads in the upcoming year.
The Mayor did not only talk about roads. He re-stated his belief in the rail system that is under construction. He would like to keep the ½% tax beyond its current end date of 2022 to fund spurs to locations such as Mililani, Hawaii Kai and the University of Hawaii.
Bringing back the ferry that ran from the Leeward coast to Honolulu may also help with our traffic woes. If a ferry system works in San Francisco, why can’t it work here as well? It would need to be a better effort than the last time it was unsuccessfully tried. Improvements such as better parking facilities and making it safe for the public at night would be needed.
Lastly he expressed his concern that five homeless people were murdered by other homeless people. This is not a good situation for the local population and certainly not good for our tourist industry.
It was an informative and encouraging presentation.
