A hold on Blaisdell

The Blaisdell Center Master Plan envisions a dramatic makeover of the 56-year-old entertainment complex — a new exhibition hall and parking structures, with major renovations to the arena and concert hall plus new features, including a sports pavilion. It’s a big idea with a price tag to match: an estimated $773 million.

While there’s little doubt that Blaisdell could use some kind of makeover, the timing is poor: The city has its hands full trying to push through the final, most difficult segment of the rail transit project. It’s also unclear how much of the master plan can — or should — be implemented in the future, especially with a new Aloha Stadium complex in the works.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell, who has championed the project, announced earlier this month he would put the renovation on hold. But he does not want to abandon it entirely. He said he would request $45 million in his upcoming fiscal year budget: $30 million to complete the design “of the concert hall portion only of the full campus design,” and $15 million “allocated for construction in FY 2021 as a placeholder for future construction work and to allow the city to catch up with selected deferred maintenance as needed” for the next fiscal year, according to the city’s Department of Enterprise Services.

That’s exorbitant. Caldwell leaves office in January, so a new administration and City Council — to be elected this fall — will need to reassess the project with fresh eyes. They should consider, as a previous mayor once put it, “forgoing the nice-to-have for the need-to-have.”

Oahu residents pessimistic

Lucky you live Hawaii? Increasingly, the answer is “no” — on Oahu, at least.

The latest Honolulu Community Livability report, part of the 2019 National Community Survey for the City and County of Honolulu, revealed some depressing attitudes in how Oahu residents view their home.

Asked about overall quality of life, just 54% of respondents thought life here was good — 14% rating it as excellent, 40% as good. That meant nearly half, 46%, said life here was fair or poor. That’s dismal in itself, but made more so compared with 13 years ago, when results showed 77% of residents thought life was excellent or good.

Pining for “the good old days” is expected, but real and dire factors have contributed to disenchantment on Oahu. These include negative impacts from the growing homeless problem; distrust of government due to corruption, such as the Katherine and Louis Kealoha scandal; and unhappiness over basic government services. Chief among the latter were these striking stats:

>> Only 13% rated the city’s ability to enforce land use and zoning codes as excellent or good, compared with 49% in 2006.

>> Just 16% said the value of services for taxes was excellent or good, a drastic drop from 68% in 2006.

Such growing discontent can’t be ignored by city leaders. Census data showed Oahu’s overall population dropping by 62,000 from 2010 to 2018, due in large part to out-migration from Oahu’s high costs of living and more mainland job opportunities. The Honolulu Community Livability survey is a serious warning to politicians: The status quo is neither acceptable nor sustainable.

Taxpayers are hankering to get their money’s worth — both in government services and from their leaders.

A little light on rail costs

Clearer, yet murkier — that characterizes the latest development for Oahu’s controversial rail project.

On Wednesday, the Caldwell administration announced a $918 million contract deal with Hitachi Rail International to operate and maintain the rail for the system’s first 13-1/4 years. The initial 10-mile stretch is targeted to start by year’s end.

There’s clarity in knowing the partial pricetag that, until Wednesday, had been disturbingly vague for operations and maintenance (O&M). As for why that price tag now adds up to $88 million more than the original $830 million O&M contract in 2011 between the city and Hitachi’s predecessor, Ansaldo Honolulu JV? That’s due to project changes such as longer rail-car trains and adding of platform safety gates, city officials explained.

So now, the roughly $68 million yearly to Hitachi (to be mitigated some by fare-box revenues) can be factored into the city budget — necessary for fiscal planning.

But conspicuously silent at Wednesday’s announcement was the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, the agency tasked with building rail.

Hitachi’s O&M deal will be folded into HART’s public-private partnership (P3) request for proposals to build rail’s last four miles. How all the numbers will square is anyone’s guess. The city’s transportation director promised a detailed picture on operational costs next week as part of the yearly city budget process. As for HART: Its P3 bidders are surely reworking their numbers toward an April submittal, and HART will need to keep as tight a hold as possible on the public purse when it awards the lucrative contract in mid-May.