Town Hall Takeaways

Last week Mayor Blangiardi’s 2024 Town Hall tour landed his team at Wahiawa Elementary, the week before that at Salt Lake District Park. Both meetings included questions regarding homeless issues and public safety with specific properties being addressed. In Salt Lake, a burned down home near Tripler was brought to the mayor’s attention. In Wahiawa, criminal activity was reported on a property on Avocado Street.

“It’s one thing to have homeless sleeping there, but there’s drug activity there, criminal activity, different things going on,” explained Mayor Blangiardi. “We really can’t be allowing that.”

At both town hall meetings, representatives from the Honolulu Police Department and Department of Planning and Permitting assured follow-up to address the properties in question.

A new landfill in Waipi‘o

After an extensive nine-month effort by the U.S. Navy to evaluate the feasibility of a proposed landfill site on Waipiʻo Peninsula, Navy officials in Hawaiʻi notified Mayor Blangiardi recently that the military is “unable to support the development of a landfill on this property,” eliminating it from the City’s consideration.

“In the spirit of how much soccer means in our parks, and we’ve talked about it continuously on these podcasts, what it represents, we would have done right by everybody,” replied Mayor Blangiardi when asked about this announcement. “So, we’re back to the drawing board. In some ways I’m a little bit relieved. I’ll be really honest with you because we never really intended to go to Waipi‘o.”

With Mayor Blangiardi having already eliminated federal lands on the Waiʻanae Coast from consideration, and with federal lands in Waimānalo near Bellows Air Force Station also excluded by the military, the City will pursue other possible alternatives, including the Landfill Advisory Committee’s recommendation that the City explore an amendment to Act 73 that would reduce the minimum buffer distance and/or utilize conservation lands to make additional sites available for consideration. The City also intends to engage in discussions with the Board of Water Supply to discuss best management practices for a possible landfill site within a No Pass Zone.

Remembering Akebono

Last week, sumo fans near and far received devastating news on the death of Waimānalo-born Chad Rowan, who made sumo history as Akebono. Akebono, the first foreigner to achieve the rank of Yokozuna, or sumo grand champion, died after a long illness. He was 54 years old.

“The reverence for him as a sports figure was about as palpable as anything I’ve seen in the passing of sports greats,” added Mayor Blangiardi.

Akebono won eleven championships during his career before retiring in 2001. He was one of the tallest sumo wrestlers ever at 6’8” tall and one of the heaviest with a peak weight of 514 pounds in March 1999.