 And here we are, I'm Chris Leitham. It's another beautiful day here in Honolulu. It's Wednesday. And today we have a special guest. He is a candidate who's running for mayor. It's political season. And of course I'd like to welcome Judy to show Ernest Cavario. Thank you for coming here to think tech and being on the economy and you. Thank you. Yeah, so running for mayor is a big deal. To some, not to me. That to you? No. Yeah? Is this the first time you've ran for office? Yes. Yes? So how's it going? It's going all right. I'm using a lot of social media to get my name out there. And I'm just meeting and greeting a lot of people, going to shopping centers, talking to people, going to the parks, talking to people, letting them know how I feel about issues and finding out how they feel about issues and everything else. I don't have that so-called money to back me up that the other politicians have. Okay. We're going to give you a little time here in the world of TV media. So tell us a little bit. Why did you decide to run for mayor? Why is this something that you decided was important in your life? Well, I took a lot of time to think about this. And I felt that Honolulu needed a change. I felt that it was going in the wrong direction. I felt that there was too much corruption in my eyes. Everybody was taking care of corporations and big business. And no one was taking care of the people, the people that accounted, the people that live out there that are voting. No one was taking care of them, they forgot about them. So in the interim, by forgetting about the people, Honolulu built a new crisis, which leads to the homelessness. Honolulu builds a new crisis where the native people are not getting anything. I mean, there being left out of the conversation totally. Interesting. You think about the native people for Hawaii, right? They have homesteads, but only 3% of the land is given to them for homestead. How do you fit that many people on 3% of the land of Hawaii? And why only 3%? And how much of the land that actually in Hawaii has actually been developed? I mean, we have a lot of land that's still left from the pineapple and sugarcane days. That's sort of still left out there. And are we still even growing pineapple on this island? Is there... There are pineapples that are still being grown and all that, but what's happening and what I see is a land grab. A land grab by both the state and the city. So it seems that they're buying an acre at a time. And as they buy an acre at a time, they're converting valuable agricultural land into hotels or condominiums that people just cannot afford. I mean, how does an average person in Hawaii afford to live in Hawaii? It's getting tougher, isn't it? It's getting a little tougher. Without building affordable housing. And the question I would ask is, are things better today than they were 20 years ago or is it worse? Is it more difficult to live in Hawaii today? For me, I believe that it's actually gotten worse. You can just look out on the streets and look at the people's in the faces. People are working two to three jobs just to survive. They call this paradise, yeah? They're working two to three jobs. While they're working two to three jobs to survive, we have foreigners invested in Hawaii. We have a big foreign investment coming from Asia. And probably the largest comes from Asia, from the mistaken. The point being is they're building their portfolios on the backs of the people. The people are working their hearts out to survive while the foreign investment is coming in and buying everything up and building their portfolios on our backs. And that's not fair. Yeah, it's tough. That's not fair. We need to start thinking about the people first and stop thinking about all this investment. I agree that we need to grow. Every city needs to grow. And I think Honolulu just went the wrong way. We should be a shining jewel in the Pacific, yeah? We should be an example to the world on how people of all cultures live and work together and everybody's happy. But right now, we have a problem in Honolulu where people are just saying, I don't care. It doesn't bother me. They look at someone that's homeless. That's not my problem. I have it got like that. Well, the disparity seems to be getting wider between the wealthy and the haves and the have-nots. It doesn't seem like we're sort of, that sort of middle-income class of people seems to be either going up or down and mostly seems to be going down. Seems that the middle-income doesn't even exist anymore. You're either rich or you're poor. So it's have or have-not. And our kids, the ones that are getting educated in our school systems, right? Especially the ones graduating from UH and all that, they're not staying here anymore. They're actually leaving. And the reason for that is because they can afford to live in the mainland. Well, they can live. Jobs pay better. They have financial security there, right? The jobs pay better. The homes cost less. And to feed their families a lot less in Honolulu. I was in Los Angeles City College about four years ago, finishing up my degree. I even totally forgot about my degree and about paralegal. In paralegal and when I came back this way, it was amazing that eggs were costing about $5 for 12. Yes. And when I could get it for $0.89 and $0.99. Yeah. So we have a problem there. Why are we importing so much of our food? We import 90% of our food. I believe each island should produce their own foods for their own people. We have the best soil in the world. We have great soil. In fact, it's been argued that the soil in the Eva Plain area, you can rotate crops three times a year. So you can get an extremely, an extreme harvest or abundant harvest out of that land. And we're not, and of course, a lot of that land is, you know, there's a lot of competition over that land. And it's not for agricultural use. It's for development purposes. Well, it was agricultural, but now they change it for development, which is wrong. And we need to find a way to get back into the court system and reverse that, because that is prime agricultural land. But you know, we do live in paradise, right? I mean, everybody wants to live in Hawaii. Not everybody can. Not everybody can. Everybody wants to. Great weather, great beaches, great, you know, the ocean's fantastic. It's beautiful. Is it realistic to expect that it's going to get easier with the demand? Because prices are driven by demand. And I understand that. But do we continue to push our people, the local people of Hawaii, outside of Hawaii, so that we can get foreigners to come in, and so that they can live here, or so that they can rent the homes that they have as vacation homes and make money off of our backs? Or should we take care of the people? Why can't we have it both ways? That's a good question. I mean, why can't we start taking it? And I think what happened is people started to get greedy. And that's just my point of view. I believe that everyone, if you want to make money, go out and make money. Make all the money you can. But remember, there are other people out there. And I think we forgot the true meaning of aloha, which is to live as part of the aina. We are part of the land. The land is part of us. That tree is part of us. We are part of that. And we forgot how to live that way. And so now we've become so westernized that everything is about money, money, money, and me, me, me. We no longer think about other people. Well, let's talk a little bit about the rail, because I know the rail is controversial. Some people think, well, okay, look at it. It's a big expense. It's a huge expenditure. Others look at it as a long-term strategic investment and that we'll be able to build housing and provide services along the rail routes and build more workforce housing that people can afford to buy. So there's pros and cons. What are your thoughts? Where do you think we should be with the rail today? Well, I actually think that the way they did, that the rail was totally wrong. I still believe that the rail should have been started from the inner city and went out this way. And then you said they want to build up and they would have built up home, housing and everything and the rail would go around those houses on those apartment complexes and all that and pick up people and take them to other places. We should have made an economic zone of houses from Kaimaki to the beginning of Waipao area and kept the rest outside as country for the time being and built in from within Honolulu proper to the urban parts and built up that way and the rail should have gone that way. The rail should have- That actually makes a lot of sense. The rail should have never gone from a suburb into the city. Who builds a rail that way on Honolulu does apparently. Why do you suppose we did it that way? That one I can't figure out. I've been busting my head on that. Why would you build a rail from a suburb into the major city? You don't find any other city around the road doing that. They actually built it from within the city going out. I understand they wanted to help the west side, right, with traffic and all that. With all this money we could have rebuilt our infrastructures. That's what we should have been doing by building our infrastructure. We should have found another way around the Waianai Makaha area to get the people out but we weren't thinking about that. We were thinking about putting a rail and putting a rail up. Why would you put a rail up? And I've heard people say, well they wanted tourists to have a different view for why. Well, who are you building the rail for? Are you building the rail for the people? Are you building the rail for the tourists? So let's get real. Who is this rail being built for? And it's interesting because if you talk about building for the tourists, wouldn't we have built it from the airport to Waikiki? That would have been the route that you should have gone from the airport to Waikiki. And this way, actually a lot of people would have got a chance to ride the rail and they would have got comfortable with the rail. Because a lot of people in Hawaii are not comfortable with the rail. They're comfortable with their cars and I get that. We are a little spoiled, are we? We are spoiled on our car. I mean, when you have two to three cars per person in Honolulu, that in itself is a problem. Especially parking wise, now these days we've been finding a place to park your car. How many times do we find ourselves driving around, looking for a place to park our vehicle? Well, a whole lot of times. I've had friends come into Honolulu and they tell me I've never seen a city that has so much parking lots going up. And it does. And still can't find a place to park. But look at Alamoana, for example. And that's chaotic though, you know what I'm saying? So when you decided to run for mayor and thinking about these issues, what are you hearing from folks? I know Red Hill's been sort of an area of consternation as well. Red Hill is something that actually does bug me. I was a child and I was brought up on Red Hill. None of those homes that are there, Kaiser and all those military homes were not there. Just one place where I grew up with my brother until age six. And from there we moved into the housing. At that time, I didn't know, but when I got older, my dad told me about what was on the Red Hill, that there were a few tanks under there. Had no idea. There was approximately 20 tanks, right? Right now there's 18 of them. Isn't that supposed to be classified information? That was supposed to be classified, but I believe it opened up just before 1998 around that time. They unclassified that. They unclassified that. But the thing is the water department, the Department of Water, opened them out, which they should have, and said that there was contamination going on. There were leaks. So come to find out, every single few tank, there has leaked. And I believe tank number five leaked about 12.5 billion gallons of liquid. Now these sit 100 feet above our aquifer. This aquifer is a drinking water to 600,000 people in the city and county of Honolulu. So it sits, no, I thought the aquifer primarily came from the mountains. The aquifer, these tanks actually sit 100 feet above that aquifer. And so they're leaking, and there's been contamination, and the Navy has admitted that. Now wasn't there a super, now back in the 80s or the 90s, there was a super fund established to clean up contaminated soil. Was there any effort, do you know if there was any effort made to clean up the issue at that time? No, I'm actually looking into that one right now. So I haven't found that out. All I do know is that the Navy was posed two questions. Okay. Clean it up, or get rid of it. So the Navy came back and said, they can't fix it. They can't fix it. Well, we're gonna take your commercial break. And we're gonna stop there, we're gonna come right back and let's talk a little bit more about this. I'm Chris Leitham, this is the economy you hear at Think Tech Hawaii, and we'll be right back, aloha. Aloha, I'm Kaui Lucas, host of Hawaii is My Mainland every Friday here on Think Tech Hawaii. I also have a blog of the same name at kauilukas.com where you can see all of my past shows. Join me this Friday and every Friday at 3 p.m., aloha. Welcome to ThinkTechHawaii.com. This is Johnson Choi, your host. The topic is Asia Reveal. We do it on a Monday basis, on Thursday at 11 o'clock. Be sure to check the schedule. See you. Hi, I'm Kili Ikina, President of the Grassroot Institute. I'd love you to join us every week Mondays at 2 o'clock p.m. for Ehana Kako. Let's work together. We report every week on the good things going on in our state as well as the better things that can go on in the future. We have guests covering everything from the economy, the government, and society. See you Mondays on Ehana Kako at 2 o'clock p.m. Until then, I'm Kili Ikina, aloha. And we're back again. Hi, I'm Chris Liefen. This is The Economy In You. And today's guest is Ernest Cavario. He's running for mayor. Ernest, we're talking about the issues with the potential pollution problems with Red Hill when we left. And do we have a solution to the problem of contamination there? I mean, we can monitor it. You can monitor it. The thing is, when gas stations put in their fuel storage tanks, they are held by strict standards by the EPA, where the Navy is not held by the same standards. There's 20 tanks there. Two of them are unoperable, because tank five closed on after the major leak. And I forgot the other one that closed on. So there's only 18 that are still operable, but they're all leaking at one point or another. Problem is, these leaks are going into the underground into our aquifers. And like I said, these... Does the Navy acknowledge that? Does the Navy acknowledge this issue? The Navy doesn't really acknowledge that, but the state comes up with the saying that it's not the problem, because it's Navy problem, because it's a Navy land, right? Right. And the city basically says the same thing. But the bottom line, I believe that this is a city problem, because that drinking water affects the citizens of the city and County of Honolulu. So as long as it's affecting the city and County of Honolulu, then I believe it is the mayor's jurisdiction to make sure that this is taken care of. Bottom line, those tanks need to go. They were built in 1940 and completed in 1943. These tanks are over 70 years old. They weren't made to last that long. They're going to end up contaminated that whole area in the drinking water. And sooner or later, we'll have a bigger problem than Flint, Michigan. Well, that's a scary thought. That's a scary thought. So at the end of the day, do we just need to tell the Navy, no, thank you, take out your tanks and fill up the hole, or do we have them rebuild the tanks to a new standard, or what's probably the, what is the route that we think we can get everybody on board with that? Well, I think that in this day and age, that we actually do not need these tanks there. But they're there as a part of our military strategic defense. For, built for back in the 1940s, right? We are thinking, they don't need that. There's other ways of refueling today. They do not need those tanks there. They don't need that fuel there. That is unnecessary. No, not in today's, not in today's time. Back in the 1940s, they had an argument, we buy that, okay? But not today. Okay. So today we need to... They've actually been told if they can double line these tanks and all that, but this says, no, they can't do any of this. So if you can't do this and you can't fix it, then get rid of it. Bottom line, because you're going to cause a major disaster here in Honolulu with this drinking water. Yeah, yeah. And that's something... And we've had issues with drinking water, too, from pesticides and such. Right, that brings us to the GMOs, Monsanto, and all that. I mean, and I'm totally against GMOs and Monsanto. I mean, it's the pesticides are killing our children. Well, there also seem to be affecting the coral as well. And the coral reefs, it's effective. Yeah, there could be multiple issues, but it just doesn't seem like it'd be healthy for them. This pesticide's killing and taking the health away from our children. There's been this pesticide right next to the schools. Now, that's to me, unconscionable. And as you said, the reefs, so how much further must we go on this? How much further do we allow these companies to go on and use Hawaii as an experiment? Because this is what it seems Hawaii has become an experiment for all GMOs and pesticides. Is there, yeah, and now, are we doing any of that in Honolulu? We're not growing any GMO crops in the Honolulu or on the island of Oahu? But we still have a lot of pesticides. Yes, yeah, we do. We have pesticides in a lot of areas and you can go on a map, you can find out close to these pesticides are being sprayed to the schools, which is still unconscionable. That seems like a problem, yeah. And as far as Honolulu goes, I think Honolulu needs to take a stand with the other counties and back the other counties up on Monsato and GMO and show the other counties that we're with them. Well, it sounds like you feel pretty adamant about this. Oh, down that, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's talk about one of the other issues that seems to be a never-ending topic. This has been a problem, it's been around for over 25 years, which is homelessness. What can we do to resolve, and Senator Chenoklin mentioned on the show here once, that half of our homeless are senior citizens? Where do you think we can, where the city and counties responsible for this issue and what can we be doing to actually have a long-term strategic solution to this problem? Yeah, actually, I think that the city is fighting this on the wrong avenues. Everything is about the short term, nothing is about the long term as you're saying. So I think they're fighting this like it's one problem, but it's not a one single problem. Homelessness is several different problems. Well, you know, one of the issues I look at is that we have a lot of federally funded low-income housing in Hawaii, lots of it. But once people get in, they never have to leave. They never leave, and so forth, you don't have any more. You don't have any flow, so the people, you know, they get on their feet, they're in a good situation, they don't have to leave or they start working under the table and you have an underground economy, and of course, then that means that people who really need it can't get it. That too, they have to change the mindset of people and how they think, okay. This idea- Well, I got cheap housing though. I got cheap housing. I don't want to leave. And understand that, and I hear people say it all the time. But is it fair to a person that's working to continue to have to help subsidize that? Right, but there's a mindset of, well, I got mine. Because, and that's why we have to educate the people. I mean, because I see generations, I grew up in the housing project, right? But I see generations of other people growing up in the housing project. Continuously after- And that's not necessarily good either, is it? Because it creates a mindset of, what I would say, entitlement. Yeah, and it's a wrong set of entitlement. I see it all the time. Well, I'm old this, I'm old that. No one's owed anything in this life. We all should be working for what we have. And we should all be working hard. And we should be proud of that. I believe that the way the welfare was ever set up, the way it was about them was never meant to be generational, no problem, generational. You get in, we help you. We'll also help you as much as possible. But you're gonna have to make that effort to go to work, get a good paying job, learn how to budget yourselves, and then we'll help you to move out of that situation to get your own place. So that other people that need that help can come on in. Yeah, it would just seem to me that the idea of having low income housing is to give people a hand up, not necessarily hand out. Right, right, and I don't believe we should be giving anyone a hand out. I'm willing to go ahead and look down at someone. I do, I put my hand down there, grab them up and bring them up to help him out. Right. But to give away free things, because someone's homeless, it's not the right way to do it because all we're gonna be doing is enabling them. I don't wanna enable anybody. We need to bring them up. We need to change their mindsets. Can we do that though? I mean, is that doable? Yeah. Can we do that? I believe we can do that. First thing we need to do is take the homeless families and take them straight off of the streets and take an area like Kaili Law. Convert all those abandoned barracks into one and two bedroom apartments. Put them in there. Now we've been doing some of that though, haven't we? A little, but not enough. Put them in there, right? Uh-huh. Charge them, if they're okay, yeah. So we charge them about $200 a month to help them. Then at the same time, we also educate them that whole area needs to be set up as an agricultural, homeless area. We can do this, putting them in there and helping them to move forward. We also take the ones that's gonna be the hardest, but the addicts. Yeah, the addicts are tough. And the reason for that is an addict is not ready to move forward into an addict says, I've had enough and I'm done. Yeah, I have a close friend of mine. His brother's been here and his brother is somebody who has a drinking problem. And I've just watched him sort of slide down steadily over the last three years here in Hawaii to the point now he's out here standing on the street corner with a sign. He hasn't, the situation for him hasn't gotten better, it's actually gotten worse. And every time he gets into some sort of a housing situation, he does something to screw it up and he gets kicked out. So he doesn't know how to behave himself. That's because I believe the way they were trained from when they were kids. And a lot of this people, a lot of people out here, right, they have this mindset that nothing's gonna ever change. Yeah, yeah. And if nothing's gonna change, why am I gonna change to try to do better? So I'm gonna get a job making minimum wage, I cannot afford a job. And they don't feel like they're getting ahead, yeah. So why am I gonna get a job at minimum wage when welfare is gonna pay me more than if I'm about to welfare? That's right, that's right, yeah, yeah. So there needs to be. Minimum wage needs. There needs to be responsibility that comes with that entitlement, yeah? There needs to be responsibility. Well, I really wanna thank you for being on the show. We're almost out of time. So if people wanted to support your candidacy from here, how can they reach out to you? And how can they contact you? They can go to www.ErnestCaravall.com. Can you spell that for us? Yeah, www.Ernest. C-A-R-A-V-A-L-H-O.com. .com? Okay, and is there a phone number or? Yeah, if you wanna contact me personally, they can go ahead and call at 808-371-3840. One more time, 808. 808-371-3840. 3840, 3840, 3840. Well, I'm Chris Lethem. Thank you, Ernest, for coming on Think Tech Hawaii. Well, thank you for having me over here. Yes, I'm Chris Lethem, and this was The Economy in You, and we'll see you again next week, Wednesday, right here on Think Tech Hawaii, aloha.