MidWeek Column

Del passed away six weeks ago. While there is no good side to that statement, our makule soccer team fortunately found out in time for 20 of us to attend Del’s funeral service on President’s Day. A propitious date… because hanging with Del was always like a holiday. Del was a bonder, a giver, an endorphin-releaser. He wasn’t our fastest or best player, but he played with passion as an integral cog in our soccer success for years. Whether you saw him once a week or once a month, Del always brought his “A” game and smile, along with some savory barbeque meats for post-game reverie.

What separated Del from far too many others was his innate empathy, his deep capacity to listen and care. We all know people who are somewhat interesting, but really not that interested; people who listen just long enough to conjure up an inevitable comeback. But not Del. He probed and was genuinely interested in what you brought to a conversation. Even as a casual acquaintance, his kolohe spark made him a guy that everyone enjoyed hanging with to talk story.

Growing up is over-rated. Del chose to remain somewhat Del-inquent. His sons’ friends recounted that he came across as a true friend rather than just “Uncle Del”, or Jared’s dad. He comfortably morphed into a crowd 30-years younger and would occasionally join the boys for a night out. When this Kauai native of Filipino ancestry went to Las Vegas, a favorite spot, he didn’t mind being mis-identified as Mexican by some there. He ran with it, adopting self-proclaimed monikers like “Ramón” and “Machete”, and then playing the roles!

Some people are full of themselves; Del was full of life. He gifted everyone who knew him as a family member, coach, friend, mentor, co-worker, or teammate. He was real, present, curious, alive, and in the moment. A culinary maestro who worked in the food industry, he spiced up plenty of people’s lives along the way. He made a difference, lived and loved local style, and what more can you ask of someone?

I bumped into Del for the last time a few months back. He told me of his physical misfortunes, foreshadowing his impending fate. As always, he smiled, he joked; we laughed, and we hugged. Yes, we can all use more Del- more empathy, more human-ness, more fun. For we all matter… and Del knew that.

Think about it…  

By law, Honolulu’s mayor and City Council members may serve a maximum of two consecutive four-year terms. In November, Oahu voters will be asked if they want that same rule to apply to the office of the Prosecuting Attorney of Honolulu. Our governor can only serve two consecutive, elected four-year terms; same thing for a U.S. president. Term limits exist in various places for various elected positions throughout America (and elsewhere).

So what if we finally imposed “reasonable” term limits on local state legislators? Would that end the sense that nothing gets done, that officials remain in office forever and initiate too few bold initiatives for fear of voter or funder alienation? Would such a plan encourage more entrepreneurial types to run for office locally? Would legislator term limits cause departing incumbents to forge their legacies through better cooperation and resolution? Would term limits stop proposing frivolous, no-chance bills from surfacing to appease special interest bases?

At least 15 states have state legislature term limits. Arkansas allows for 16 total years in the state House and/or Senate. Colorado allows for four two-year terms in its house, or two four years terms in the senate- eight years total. Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, California, etc.- check ‘em out; a rotation of elected legislators is guaranteed. New blood and ideas! Accountability and action! Special interest groups spend much time and money on incumbents and don’t want to see a semi-revolving door, while incumbents want no change at all, so the term limit subject gets ignored or buried… deep.

But hold on. Overall nationwide statistics indicate that the stasis and inaction we dread with our incumbents doesn’t seem to get better with forced turnover. Most states with term limits don’t see decreases in campaign spending nor increases in voter turnout. Hmmm…  

A 2018 Harvard University Department of Government study found that, “Contrary to the goals of their proponents, terms limits appear to have exacerbated the legislative consequences of contemporary partisanship and have implications for understanding how electoral and career incentives affect legislative outcomes.” Oh, maybe it’s not so simple.

Perhaps the solution here is for a unicameral legislature (one House), populated with full-time electees to help prevent the myriad, ethical problems that can occur with part-time, relatively underpaid legislators. Maybe it’s time to discuss options, or continue to act dissatisfied with the status quo as sessions end in anti-climax every year in May.

Think about it… 

Gone. No Feasibility Study. No Conceptual Land Use Plan. No Master Plan. The words are still there, but if you click for details on the “Imagine Blaisdell” home page, you are informed that “Oops! That page can’t be found.” Just like that, the massive overhaul of the Blaisdell block has vanished. Post-mortem editorials and articles on the now-defunct project mentioned that timing, cost, and HART headaches were simply too much to overcome in 2020. And no one saw that coming down the line 24-months ago?

Perhaps it was a fool’s folly to think that there would be sufficient economic incentives for this public-private partnership… for $773 million? Other than a possible small hotel venture and a few, on-site concessionaires, there was no major retail nor housing planned on the site. So how, exactly, would private entrepreneurs have made their money back? We’ll never know; well, at least for now.

The prospectus included plans to retain the iconic spaceship motif on a rebuilt Blaisdell Arena, but added just 2,200 more seats (raising capacity from 6,800 to 9,000), which would not have provided the necessary number of seats needed to lure major concert tours that skip Honolulu annually due to our lack of a right-sized, regularly-available, indoor venue that includes adequate staging and lighting. 

Most mainland concert venues include seating for 12,000-18,000 guests. Were promotion stakeholders like AEG, Live Nation, pro sports leagues and others contacted when just 9,000 seats were suggested in the defunct design?  You simply cannot justify “reasonable” ticket prices here with only 9,000 seats, and the alternative is to pay acts to perform on two nights (with doubled performance costs, venue rent, personnel costs, etc.). And that’s obviously a major deterrent- witness just how few major concerts we currently see. 

So the bold initiative to re-do the Blaisdell complex is now on the back burner, $16-million later, and that burner isn’t even lukewarm, considering that the completion of the City’s rail project (and revived Blaisdell funding consideration) is at least six years away. By the time the Blaisdell Center Master Plan gets revisited, the arena will be more than 60 years old (2024). Surely, an overhaul and/or modernization of some kind is needed. But with on-going and on-growing concerns about approved financing, interested investors, and this train pain, a new Blaisdell Arena is one spaceship that won’t be getting off the launch pad any time soon.

Think about it… 

Top 40 radio deejays used to say: “…and the hits just keep on coming!” Which was fun. But some hits that keep on coming locally are not fun; they stun. In 2017, an Aloha United Way (AUW) commissioned report showed that 48% of people in Hawai`i were living below the $72,000 threshold a family of four needs for basics- food, clothing, housing, health care, et al. This ALICE Report (“Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed”) reported that a mind-boggling 212,000 local households lived at or below this perilous poverty line.  

A new Hawai`i Community Foundation study done in conjunction with the Financial Health Network looked at people’s abilities here to pay bills on time, have sufficient long-term and liquid (available) savings, have manageable debt and appropriate insurance, and have money systems in place to allow them to sleep somewhat comfortably. The report stated that 69% of adults surveyed were struggling in regard to these items. 

The University of Hawai`i’ Economic Research Organization (UHERO) annually comes out with surveys reminding us about our high cost of living, the emigration of local  people (three years in a row we’ve lost population), and how personal incomes are simply too low for too many.

We know people who work two or more jobs, live in multi-generational homes, and cannot retire here “early” in life (gosh, late 60s?). And we know that realistic answers must involve creativity, public/private/academic partnerships, egoless cooperation, truly affordable housing, modern education, outside success stories which include “best practices”, and immediate action with accountability. Solutions cannot constantly require that struggling households keep getting nickel-and-dimed with tax bumps or that small businesses suffer unfairly, or must pass costs down.

While it might be hard to call this growing financial hardship scenario an immediate emergency, like the coronavirus, we surely need to treat it with a greater sense of urgency. It is a crisis. These people dealing with constant concerns- and there are quite a few as every survey keeps showing us- are our family, neighbors and friends. We can’t afford 10-years of relative inaction. Our population is aging. We can’t keep ignoring the obvious. “Our keiki are our future”. Prove it. Unemployment here is at a record low, while tourist numbers are at a record high. Those numbers won’t last forever… nor can these known problems if we want Hawai`i to remain a special place.

Think about it…

I was deeply saddened to learn about the November 15^th passing of Waipahu’s retail and community guru, Goro Arakawa. Goro was a pivotal mentor for me, a Yoda to my naïve Jedi aspirations over four decades ago. 

Goro helped me to understand why things were, not just what they were. I was a rookie, radio salesman, a neophyte dealing with a master. I would drive to Waipahu for 10am meetings and stay until 3pm. I was inculcated with vividly-told history lessons as I sat with Goro, one-on-one. Lunches at Rocky’s Coffee Shop, the unraveling of ancient cardboard boxes filled with fading, decades-old newspaper clippings stored in Goro’s office, the aloha shared by the Arakawa brothers as we traversed narrow store aisles, shelves brimming with literally everything…

I learned the intricacies of plantation life, “local style”, palaka, and immigrant hardships. As a recent college history major, I was enthralled. Goro was always so patient with this interested malahini, his expressive eyes and hands helping to make a point. My initial sense of acceptance came not when Goro renewed his radio advertising contract, but months later when he waved to me from the stands at Kaiser High after I’d played in a Hawaii Semi-Professional Soccer League game. He’d shown up just to watch me play- a true friend. 

We all need mentors, visionaries, believers, storytellers, and keepers of the faith in our lives. Their wise words are not found in books, online or via blogs. Their nuanced sagas come from deep within, and we can all use a little more soul-searching, meaning, and empathy in our world today- even in this land of aloha.

While saddened to learn of Goro’s passing, I felt a warm sense of gratitude that he had calmly, humbly, and passionately done so much for so many for so long. His passing reminded me of other memorable mentors many moons ago, including the father of Aloha Stadium and the Hula Bowl, Mackay Yanigasawa; wily promoter and my first boss, Dennis Minga; and jeweler and stoic 442^nd Regiment “L” Company member, Tommy Kakesako. They all shared guidance, knowledge and context. How can we figure out where we’re going if we don’t know where (or why) we’ve been? Great people who didn’t ask to be great, but simply helped up-and-comers to better understand. Mahalo, Goro. Mentoring means mana. Find it, absorb it, and share it.

Think about it…

Recently, personal finance website, MoneyGeek, listed Hawai`i as the 5^th worst state for distracted-driving fatalities. While cell phone usage (non-hands free) and texting are surely leading contributors to this problem, the gotta-check-my-phone-now syndrome is not the only cause. Cell phones might be a technical opioids and digital appendages, but MoneyGeek notes that taking your hands off the wheel (like perhaps to grab a french fry), taking your eyes off the road (changing your Spotify playlist), or taking mental attention away from driving are additional causes for this distracted driving debacle.

Eating, changing a CD, reading headlines, and/or doing your makeup while driving used to be bad enough, but adding in the phone/texting component has only made things worse. The risk is not simply about dinging the guy in front of you or getting a ticket (fat chance). The risk is dying. And we’re 5^th best at that. Not good.

Another common distraction nowadays is the HD-quality, enlarged video screens new cars provide with colorful maps and other features. The only thing missing is a 3D hologram popping up on your dashboard or an IMAX screen up front. Babysitting video screens were cool for the kids in back, but we’ve gone too far with video up front. How did some of these “visual aids” get past federal transportation watchdogs?! Distracted? Heck, we’re now being fully entertained. 

Hawai`i was the only state among the top five deadliest ones that has banned hand-held cell phones while driving. We’ve also banned cell-phone usage in crosswalks. How’s that working out? As Hawai`i has seen a jump in distracted driving deaths in recent years, the laws here are apparently not working too well too often.

Many cell phones now require you to tell them you’re actually “not driving” if you want to use the phone while piloting a vehicle; that morality play isn’t working either. Can’t we just focus on the vital task at hand without a phone in play? Numerous studies have proven that multi-tasking simply doesn’t work. As a matter of fact- multi-tasking doesn’t really even exist. Your brain automatically focuses on one task over another, and you end up doing nothing well.

So let’s all get more resilient, maybe even turn OFF the phones when driving. It can be done, used to be done, and is still done by some. Hey, the life you save may be your own.

Think about it…

65,000 more housing units will be needed by 2025… The O`ahu housing shortage will dissipate by 2028… A leasehold plan based on Singapore’s success is being explored locally… Infrastructure needs (sewage, water, electricity) and the necessary permits slow things down drastically… We need taller buildings with affordable units… We need more unused government land, and government help beyond current tax breaks to incentivize builders to build truly affordable housing…

The statistics, stories, and projections go on and on. And then they vanish, until the next time someone says that it’s time to get serious about Hawai`i’s future. Our population slowly decreases while the remaining populace ages, yet we see too few relevant, plausible, economic models featuring new job opportunities that will encourage local Millennials and Centennials to stay, even if we do develop affordable housing.

Pretty simple building logic in Kaka`ako. The market will bear multiple million dollar (or close to it) apartment/condo complexes, so they’ve been built… and sold. From a business standpoint, why build $400,000 units when seven-figure priced units result in greater profits and increased property values for neighbors? It’s business 101.

A concerted effort to find and encourage new industries (the Internet of Things, geriatrics, nutrition, nursing, security, surveillance, virtual schools, alternate energy, offshore gambling) will not be made if our legislators spends the next four months looking only at the perceived ills du jour. We need bigger picture thinking and acting… now. We need partners we don’t even know about today. We need mainland and other isolated islands expertise and successful reinvention models to help us coordinate and quickly strategize, without losing the things that make Hawai`i unique and special.

We don’t have the luxury of another decade of laissez faire “ho hum”-ness here. We can’t just assume record tourism numbers, increased airline lift, and a bevy of new hotel workers will pick up the slack. We micromanage and nickel-and-dime our state university system annually (via the legislature) without providing for or encouraging “what if” vision. We act as though just getting through another day, week, or 100-day legislative session is good enough. Well it’s not.

The time has come to get really serious about public-private opportunities. Not just political grandstanding and pandering in an election year, but meaty treatises with timelines and accountability. We need to look beyond simply saving the status quo here, because that’s slowly slipping away.

Think about it…