Reduce Our Cost of Living to Keep Locals Local

Honolulu’s cost of living crisis is the result of years of inadequate housing and tax policies. The current epidemic of homelessness and unaffordable housing has no more obvious solution than to build homes. The Honolulu City Council must reexamine zoning to allow for more varied, dense, and walkable communities to be built within Honolulu’s urban core. While safety and historical preservation are important, permitting procedures should not take years and years. Honolulu should lead the nation in safe, affordable, and efficient public transportation by extending rail to Waikiki, the University of Hawai’i, and West Kapolei. To support working families, property taxes should be lowered for locals who own and live in their homes, while property taxes should be raised on investment and vacant houses.

- Increase affordable housing supply by streamlining permitting processes and rezoning to create mid-rise, mixed-use communities in Honolulu’s urban core.

- Lower public transportation fares and annual pass costs.

- Invest further in public transportation to increase access and efficiency.

- Decrease municipal debt from $24,000 per taxpayer by enacting an empty home tax surcharge of 2.5%.

- Increase property taxes on investors to 1% of a property’s value.

- Lower property taxes on homes owned and occupied by local families by over 25% (from .35% to .25%).

Protect Our Community by Ensuring Holistic Safety

Public safety is far more than crime prevention. The people of Honolulu deserve a safe environment. With Hawai’i being second in the nation for pedestrian fatalities, we must lower our speed limit, build more raised crosswalks, and lengthen the city’s protected bike lane network. Furthermore, the city should have a comprehensive medical, non-police response to non-violent public mental health and substance abuse episodes. We need to also expand emergency and temporary housing with integrated employment, social, and medical services.

- Reduce the city speed limit to 20 miles per hour.

- Prioritize pedestrians and the ability impaired over cars.

- Lengthen the city’s protected bike lane network and provide grants to subsidize bike share participation.

- Establish a comprehensive medical, non-police response to public mental health and substance abuse crises.

- Increase grants for non-profits on the frontline of homeless prevention and rehabilitation.

- Expand emergency housing to meet the needs of every unhoused person on O’ahu and ban urban camping.

- Integrate skill development, employment connections, mental health services, and substance abuse treatment with temporary housing locations.

Restore Integrity to Our City Government

When politicians work to serve their own interests instead of the people, they erode trust in public institutions and the democratic process. The Honolulu City Council’s recent self-awarded 64% pay raise to over $110,000 a year is extremely selfish and wholly unacceptable. I will return any portion of my salary greater than Honolulu’s average family income to the city’s general fund and introduce strict anti-corruption and transparency ordinances if elected.

- Delay salary increases for Honolulu’s elected officials until after the following election.

- Expand government transparency laws to allow for greater community access to public records.

- Reform the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation to ensure transparency, accountability, efficiency, and rail completion.