Mayor Looks at Big Picture - including East Oahu

The commute to town begins early. Groggy kids are piled into cars with stuffed backpacks and after-school athletic equipment. Parents set their travel mugs into cup holders. Breakfast is eaten on the go, much to the delight of six-legged creatures who set up house in the family vehicle.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann, who lives in Aiea, a neighborhood that easily beholds the steady stream of taillights in either direction on the freeway, has decided it's time Oahu's traffic woes were solved. A well-planned solution is necessary, he said.

"The number one impediment to our quality of life is the amount of time we spend commuting, away from our families, away from our homes, away from our neighborhoods," Hannemann said. "Traffic is not going to get any better. We need an overarching solution."

So why should those of us who live in East Oahu buy into a package that appears to ignore its own commuters?

"Often times people from East Honolulu say they see the transit system as a West Oahu solution that doesn't benefit them directly. How do you know where your children are going to reside 10, 15 or 20 years from now?" Hannemann asks. "The Hannemann Family was reared in Kalihi. Today, none of us live in Kalihi."

The mayor is the sixth of seven children. While two of his siblings live on the Mainland, others live in Ewa, Makiki, Kapahulu and Hawaii Kai. If there were any gaps in his awareness of neighborhood issues on Oahu, there are plenty of people eager to remind him. Few had to point out a bad traffic situation when the mother of all traffic jams occurred when a military transport crunched its cargo of heavy equipment into a freeway overpass on September 5, 2006. Companies indicated to the city that their employees were literally traumatized by the 7-8 hour gridlock. It was an extreme event that reinforced the mayor's stand on mass transit.

"We have to look at these things as they affect us all, and we have to look at [mass transit] as something that we all can benefit from," he said.

Hannemann says transit plans call for a multi-level system of light rail, bus service, bike paths, a ferry system and walking lanes. Initially it appears East Oahu is left out.

"My hope is that this system will be built out beyond the University of Hawaii and to include a rail system to East Honolulu," Hannemann said. "It would behoove all of us to support this and to not look at it in a myopic way."

East Oahu's Councilman Charles Djou, while hardly someone referred to as myopic, voted against the rail transit issue with fellow councilmember Barbara Marshall of the windward side. Votes aside, Djou credits Hannemann as a determined leader.

"Clearly one of his strengths is that he is remarkably focused," said Djou, who stands by his assertion that even proponents of the rail project acknowledge that it won't reduce traffic congestion. "The reality is his focus and almost exclusive priority in running the City and County of Honolulu is this rail system."

Djou said that as councilman of East Honolulu, he would join the rest of us in assuring that East Oahu will be the best it can be during this administration. The sewer line is being fixed, the roads are in good shape, and the quality of life on this side is remarkable.

Whether they are short and frank, or 6-foot-7 and wear a size 14.5 shoe, mayors mostly succeed when they exercise diplomacy and consider the big picture. Hannemann delivers for Honolulu experience that spans City Council, and the Hawaii Department of Business, Economics and Tourism. As a staffer for presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Sr., his work within the Washington, D.C., Beltway no doubt colors his approach to municipal challenges. One of those challenges was to create parity for residents on the Leeward Coast without neglecting the rest of Oahu. Like East Oahu, the Waianae Coast now gets monthly bulk pick-up runs. Because Waianae is home to Oahu's main landfill, Waimanalo Gulch, a $2 million community benefits package, and the formulation of two community advisory groups, were created.

Hannemann went to bat for Waianae. "These grants and projects are intended to help offset the burden the Waianae Coast bears for housing Oahu's only landfill," said Hannemann in a statement released from his office on January 8, 2007. "I have long advocated the need for something like this, above and beyond routine City funding and attention for a community that has all too often in the past felt it was treated as second class."

In the fall of 2006, East Honolulu dodged its own bullet when a developer submitted a proposal for 180 cabins and a video arcade in the hills of Ka Iwi. The project was touted as a vacation escape for visitors and residents alike. The proposal was defeated and so far no developer has come back with revised plans.

According to Hannemann's press secretary, Bill Brennan, the mayor was personally opposed to the project, but, "...as long as the application was before the city, he could not take a position one way or the other."

Since then, Djou had proposed, and the city passed, a measure that changes the Ka Iwi area into one that requires a major Conditional Use Permit, which can only be approved with a public hearing. Hannemann is confident the people of East Honolulu will be heard, should the issue come up again.

"I don't think people realize how much time I spend out in Hawaii Kai," Hannemann said. "I visit my brother several times a month. I also lived with him when I was a teacher at Iolani School. We are definitely aware of the concerns of East Honolulu residents."

Hawaii Kai is a lot more crowded than it used to be. New housing developments sell out; families are drawn to the area for a myriad of reasons. Where would we all go in case of an emergency?

To accommodate the strain, Hannemann recently proposed that Oahu Civil Defense be upgraded to a cabinet position. Aside from the possibility of obvious natural disasters such as tsunamis and hurricanes, Hannemann said we also need to anticipate pandemic flu threats and terror attacks.

"We want to kick into action a private shelter program, to allow structures such as condominiums or other privately owned buildings be certified as evacuation centers," Hannemann said. "We need to create certification requirements and then conduct inspections. Ken Gilbert at Civil Defense is my shelter guru. It's time Civil Defense wasn't the forgotten stepchild of our first responders."