Posted on: Friday, January 24, 2003
Brilliant visions along with fiscal nightmares
• Full text of Jeremy Harris' State of the City address
A year ago at this time, we imagine in his heart of hearts Jeremy Harris saw someone else delivering this year's State of the City address, and someone else worrying about how to pay for some of the splendid amenities that might have propelled Harris into office as governor.
Instead, Harris delivered the city speech again last night, and as in the past, it was a mixture of brilliant visions for the future along with a calm assessment of the city's fiscal nightmarish condition.
Perhaps the biggest news in the speech was Harris' proposal to privatize the Waikiki Shell, the Blaisdell Arena, the Honolulu Zoo and the maintenance of the Pali Golf Course and some parks.
We'd object immediately if Harris were suggesting that the city sell any of these facilities, but we've heard nothing to that effect. The test for the efficacy of privatization is if it delivers better service to citizens at less cost. We'll be eager to hear the details.
Harris rightly took credit last night for the Waipi'o Soccer Complex and the nearly completed Central O'ahu Regional Park, but he neglected to identify the private entity that is promised to operate the former, and he neglected to explain the delays and cost overruns of the latter.
He promised this year to begin building the city's urban-core transit system, now to be called "The Hart of Honolulu," and the regional system for easing the commute between Leeward, Central O'ahu and downtown.
He's right that "32 years have been spent on studies — it's time for action." But he's miscalculating if he thinks he's won popular support for pushing cars out of multiple lanes on major thoroughfares to make busways.
Honolulu needs and deserves a state-of-the-art mass transit system, but his proposal falls short.
That surprises us, because often this mayor thinks well outside of the box, with an eye toward using the latest technologies. These suggestions from the speech are what we really love about this mayor:
• Transforming TheBus system "into the first fuel cell-powered fleet in the world." It's the technology of the future, and no city needs it more than oil-dependent Honolulu.
• A "smart card" for bus riders. The bus will automatically and electronically debit your card, or read your pass.
• Make Kapolei a vital university town.
• Initiate monthly door-to-door curbside recycling. Recycling has been tried here before; will it pencil out this time?
• Seek a contractor to build technology, such as plasma arc, to dispose of non-recyclables and generate energy in conjunction with the H-Power plant.
Harris has yet to designate the next site for landfill, however. The Waimanalo Gulch site, even with its extension, will not last the five years the city says it will — unless these new garbage-zapping facilities are in place a lot faster than we think they will be.
Harris is right that the budget challenge facing the city this year "is not unfamiliar territory," and that the city's problem is not rising costs so much as falling revenues.
We're not surprised, for this reason, that Harris will propose a modest increase in the property tax rate. We expect he'll be able to justify this to the City Council.
In general, we think Honolulu is a well-run city, with 8 percent fewer city employees than 1994 while services — police, firefighters, parks, refuse service and buses — have increased. The good management that Harris touted in his speech must now be extended to nettlesome problems such as cost overruns and delays.