Former Mayor Kirk Caldwell plans to write a new book about historic efforts to create Honolulu’s rail system after just publishing a book in May about 25 state leaders and their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Caldwell discussed his upcoming rail book and highlights of “Our Beaches Were Empty, Our Hospitals Full” as well as his reflections on Honolulu’s Skyline during the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream program Wednesday.
Caldwell served two four-year terms from 2013 and 2021 and was the third Honolulu mayor to oversee rail construction. He told “Spotlight” that his next book will detail a history of the efforts to build Hawaii’s largest public works project and will go back as the train system during the islands’ plantation days.
While the book will include Caldwell’s experience in pushing for a rail system, it will also unpack the difficulties of undertaking a massive infrastructure project under different administrations, he said.
“The struggles and the
difficulties of trying to build a project when you have change in administrations — both at the state level and at the county level — and you saw mayors who would campaign against each other and depending on who won or lost, projects were killed or supported,” Caldwell said.
The rail project, Caldwell said, faced additional difficulties from changes in leadership at the City Council and state Legislature and during mayoral campaigns.
Caldwell said he is in the process of doing research and tracking original sources from Oahu’s historical train system, which he called the “hard part.”
Honolulu’s Skyline rail system opened for public service June 30 under Caldwell’s successor, Mayor Rick Blangiardi.
At the opening ceremony at the Halawa station, Blangiardi said Caldwell “took more lumps on this thing than anyone else.”
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz (D, Hawaii) said the rail project — now estimated at $9.8 billion to reach Kakaako by 2031 — had experienced “multiple near-death experiences along the way.”
Caldwell told “Spotlight” that “it was absolutely worth it to get a project done that is going to serve not just today’s folks on Oahu but future generations to come.”
“What was reaffirming is, you know, despite all the hits I took, staying the course, running as the rail candidate three times and both times that I won, winning just a little bit over the anti-rail candidate (former Gov. Ben Cayetano), I thought, it was worth it.”
Caldwell also shared that after the Skyline’s grand opening, Jennifer Sabas, former chief of staff of the late former U.S. Sen. Daniel K.
Inouye, a rail supporter,
texted Caldwell a picture of a HOLO card, the key to boarding the Skyline, that she placed near his gravesite at the National
Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.
“That picture spoke volumes in terms of the story of rail for the City and County of Honolulu,” Caldwell said.
In 2022, Caldwell pulled out of the then three-way race for the Democratic Party nomination for governor, but said on Wednesday that “I’ll never say never” to the possibility of running for office again.
“It’s possible,” he said.
“I’ll consider it, but we’ll have to see how things transpire,” Caldwell said. “I’ve got a lot of energy, as you can tell. I’m 70, but I don’t want to retire. I’m not ready for that.”
Before he makes a political decision for his future, Caldwell said he’s pursuing public service in other ways — raising $3 million for the Pu‘uhonua ‘O Waianae tiny home community for formerly houseless people in Waianae, teaching classes to law students at the Hawaii State Bar Association and speaking to potential political candidates at Pacific
Resource Partnership’s Partners for Democracy
program.
