 This is Think Tech Hawai'i. Community matters here. Bingo! We're back for the Hawai'i Energy Policy Forum's show, weekly show, Hawai'i, The State of Clean Energy. And I am so happy about that that we're doing Kauai today, the county of Kauai. My wife is for Kauai. I have a special affinity for Kauai. My co-host here, Maria Tomei. She is the chair of the working group for transportation in the Hawai'i Energy Policy Forum. And on the phone from Kauai is Mayor Bernard Carvajo and Lee Steinmetz. And he is the transportation planner for the county of Kauai. So we're really delighted to have you guys here. Thank you so much for joining us. We have lots of questions for you. Welcome to the show, Mayor. Yeah, thank you for the chance to talk story and share the story. So you've been really busy lately, Mayor. You've got a number of things going on. Can you tell us what your life is like these days? Well, it's very busy, of course. Being mayor now is going to be 10 years as we wind down the mayor, wearing my mayor's hat. And more importantly, as mayor, you know, really addressing the disaster that is ahead. And we're now in the recovery phase. And a lot has happened since that one day it started in April, April 13th. And until today. So, you know, we've come a long way, but some good things has happened, Jay. And I'm very, you know, I'm really proud of the team that we've assembled to address the people and the needs of our island. Yeah, so it's interesting because now we have the eruptions on the big island. This is a year of natural disaster and calamity, what? And the press has focused, you know, on a minute-by-minute basis on the eruption over there. And I don't know, not the local press necessarily, but the world press. So many stories, but we forget already that it wasn't that long ago that you had your flood. And I wonder if you can sort of look at that for a moment and tell us what it left you with. How much damage? How much discombobulation about the flood? Yeah, so enough damage overall, I would say, because at one point a part of our island was isolated. And that was a big, big part for all of us, for me as mayor, of course, to see how we can manage that, to know that our people on that part of the north side of the island did not have access out. So that was a big part of making sure we brought in a lot of supplies. We could address their immediate needs. Of course, thank goodness that there was no loss of life and, of course, no injuries, but lots of injury to the land, if you will. And so at homes and that kind of destruction. So, you know, we assembled our team. We immediately were able to deploy all of our internal team members from the state and the county level, reached out to the federal, of course, to see what kind of support we can get there. Our military base here really kicked in as well. Our support for the national, I mean, all of it in the initial phase of the disaster. And I did submit a emergency management proclamation to place our island into this emergency proclamation mode, designation, should I say. And as of today, May 23rd, although the big island is expressed some devastation, we're still in recovery mode, which warranted me to sign and extend my emergency proclamation for an additional 60 days. So you'll see that in the media very shortly that as of today, I signed our second supplementary emergency proclamation, which takes us another 60 days and gives us time out to July 22nd, actually, to give us more time to go through the recovery part of what we're doing right now. What does it mean, Mayor, to sign it, to extend the proclamation that way? Is there certain benefits that come due because of that? Right. So it helps us to continue to example. On that side of the island, North Shore, it's still unsafe. We only have one lane open right now. So we're only allowing or having our residents come in and out of that North Shore part of our island. There's no commercial activity, no business, no nothing. And they're still repairing or addressing the entire roadway area the state is, which again only allows for one one lane to be open and only for residents of that part of the island. So I'm just talking for the Wainiha to Haen area, which is why this additional 60 days is needed as we continue to adjust the roadway areas over there. So what are your expectations in terms of getting emergency help from state and federal sources? What are your expectations in terms of maybe the possibility of having to extend the proclamation again? And what are your expectations as to how long it's going to take to return to normal in Kauai? Well, you know the recent talking to our State Department of Transportation people and we've been talking about this at least two, three or more months, you know, more. But we're hoping that example, given example, the weight of certain cars that can in and out, we're very sure they're going to be able to move up to a higher weight limit. So that would offer more opportunities for bigger trucks to get in there, but for now it's very small-sized vehicles, you know, this is an example. That progress continues, more options open, but we still need to be in an emergency mode, especially for that side. The other parts of the island, you know, they're still going through more of an assessment of each part, like in Koloa, which is on the south side of our island, in Kapa'a, Kiyapana, like that. So those areas were kind of devastated in certain areas of that community. And so we're working with that. Of course, we did get a presidential declaration, of course, working close with the governor. And so that gave us the opportunity for public support, public support, roads, bridges, example. That for sure we got from the federal government via the presidential declaration, which gives us the opportunity to get reimbursed for some of the big, big projects we have. And so that's one of the bigger parts from the federal level, that FEMA and the federal recognition. That declaration in the governor's declaration and the mayor's declaration. You know, it's like this has happened a number of times in Kauai. Maybe Kauai has had more than a fair share of these weather disasters. And it strikes me that going forward with climate change, we'll have more extreme weather. And so, you know, it's kind of a learning experience to develop a way of looking at dealing with these problems. And a system, a county-wide system, a mayoral system, to know what to do when it happens yet again. Don't you think, I mean, there's a playbook involved, isn't there? Oh, yes, definitely. I mean, I kind of, more of the boots on the ground kind of guy, you know, to kind of make sure we have a good, solid internal team working at the emergency operating center and then deploying out into the community and visiting and seeing and touching and feeling and then making decisions and falling through on that kind of experience, if you will. And I got to say, man, you know, we are a resilient island. We're a resilient state. But for Kauai, community, love, aloha, the compassion from just people in general, just been overwhelming in support and in all parts of the community and even throughout the state. So that was another big part that kind of helped people get through the hard times. When neighbor-to-neighbor, community-to-community, garage-to-garage, park-to-part, whatever you call it. I mean, that was automatically happening anyway. And that was a big part of, I believe, you know, bringing people to a place where they really appreciate each other in times of this kind of devastation. And in the meantime, we as leaders coming through with all the resources, whether it be water and food and supplies and Clorox and whatever it takes to meet the immediate needs and then now with the long-term needs that we're going through right now. Yeah, you use the word big and I like to talk about big for a minute. I like to talk about your campaign. It's called Go Big. Think Big. Think Big. Okay. I read recently that you're number one in the Lieutenant-Governor's Race. And that's quite as remarkable because you know, you're a neighbor island mayor and you haven't had all that much statewide exposure and somehow in a matter of a couple of months you have escalated to statewide exposure and you're number one and I think that's great. How did you do that, Mayor? All I got to say is just a lot of the support out there and working hard, reaching out, touching people. I mean, we've been out and about in all parts of the state and even as mayor prior to seeking this office, you know, wherever I go, I'm always talking to people from the, you know, the security guards at the airport to the TSA guys. You know, just talking and reaching out. And then now to know that we are number one and that means to me we got to work harder now because you got to be complacent. So that means that we are reaching out. We are talking. We are sharing our story. I telling people why I feel that we should have the chance to serve it at higher level. I have the administrative experience with the neighbor island perspective and knowing how to manage and understand and really pull things together. We kind of build on a smaller footprint thinking big. So if you build it strong with the right people with the right heart and souls, whatever that activity or project is and think big to the bigger level, it can resonate throughout this entire state from the federal, state and county level. And that's been our footprint. You know, some people think that the soul of Hawaii, the heart of Hawaii, actually lives on the neighbor islands and more and more I ascribe to that. I believe that, it would be more than right here but I know what it's like to live on Oahu, big grass of the University of Hawaii. So anyway, that's the passion. Next time you're in Oahu, I'd sure like you to have a show with us, come down to the studio and give us a status report. Let's take a short break. And when we come back, I'd like to talk about transportation because that's why Maria and I are actually here to talk about transportation as a working group. Well, we started. Yeah. I think that's the song about leaves here. I'm enjoying it. So we'll take one minute, we'll come right back with Mayor Carvalho and Lee Steinmetz. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. I'm gonna make a part of this. Watch my show on Tuesday, comfort zone. I sang this song to you because I think you either are cool or have the potential to be seriously cool. And I want you to come watch my show and bring in experts who talk all about easy strategies to be healthier, happier, build better relationships and make your life a success. So come sit with the cool kids at Out of the Comfort Zone on Tuesdays at 1. Okay, I told you we'd come back and guess what, we came back. That's Maria Tomay, she's the chair of the energy, I've got the transportation work group on the Hawaii Energy Policy Forum and we have Mayor Bernard Carvalho and Lee Steinmetz joining us by a phone from Kauai. And this part of the show we want to talk about transportation in Kauai. Maria, why don't you pose the question we've been talking about? Well, Kauai has done some really special things in the energy area including in the transportation energy area and planning and coming up with visions for what a more livable community would look like and what transportation options I would want to have. So rather than me saying hey, this is what Kauai did, we thought it would be great if Kauai folks could explain themselves what's special about what they've done and how they did it. So take it away, Lee. We're moving toward this goal as 100% renewable transportation by 2045. That was a commitment that we did with my fellow Mayor. But for Kauai, big picture planning, there's a lot of information in our update to our general plan which includes all the walkable, bikeable, complete streets, safe routes to school, connected communities, roundabouts, peanutabouts. All of it giving that experience of maybe transforming our community into that kind of of local community and transit for locals and visitors how we do options and shuttles and all that stuff. Shifting to elective vehicles but of course throughout our communities and encouraging them walking and biking, walking paths. So I think that kind of vision overall is starting with the heart of Kauai which is right here in Lihui and then from that comes the arteries which reach back into the community from whether it be connecting a school to a walking path or a facility to a school, whatever it is but we've been talking that in big picture terms and Lee, we will follow up on that. Yeah, so I think part of what the mayor's describing is really something that's all inclusive so we're looking at this from a big picture plan view of really out of land use perspective how do we make sure that jobs are close to houses and houses are close to jobs so that we can reduce trip lengths looking at our infrastructure and improving that like this tiger project that the mayor was just talking about also looking at just how do we go about designing things so the community really feels involved in the process. We just went through a process with one of our schools, Kilauea School and doing a safe process school plan where we just started with a blank slate and we had the community design it instead of us imposing ideas on the community and that was really powerful to see what the community came up with and how it then they take ownership of the plan. It's really not a county driven plan, it's a community plan and I think also what another important aspect is programming that we don't just look at the infrastructure we don't just look at the plans but we look at programs like bike to work day, walk to school day things that get people out of the emotional side and experience a feeling why we're out there too you guys infrastructure changes give people choices that's the big thing for me give people choices in how they move about on our island and that's the big part and a big example was securing a 13.8 million dollar tiger grant which is a town court grant very competitive grant we took our team to Washington DC and came home with this grant which we're going to be launching very shortly and like I said it's transforming our island into the walkable bikeable kind of experience for Kupuna which is the elderly or Kiki and all of that and we're doing we're just talking about it we're incorporating a complete streets programs as well and all of it ties into the bigger picture you know there's been a lot of contention here in Oahu and Honolulu about Uber and Lyft and the ride hailing companies and there are taxi cab companies a minority of of people in the community have been attacking them and trying to get the city council to impose additional regulation on them such as might drive them out of business and in fact today was supposed to be a big hearing in the city council here on that on that issue and there's been a lot in the press including a piece that I wrote for Civil Beat this morning so I do I do come with an agenda on this but the question is how are these ride hailing companies doing in Kauai I know you have them don't you and you know do they fit in this plan and where so but not to the extent as they are on Oahu I mean they just started this past year so we're you know way behind the game in terms of their influence on the island I would say I think that's really the next big thing in transportation is thinking of thinking of it as mobility as a service that maybe not everybody owns their own car but there's car share and there's ride share and bike share you know maybe not everybody owns their own bike but it becomes something that you share and when you think of our transit system we're really looking at a combination of public and private shuttles that work together so rather than thinking about who owns what we start thinking about how do you get from point A to point B and how do you seamlessly integrate these various modes and ways of getting around together and what is what is the technology that supports that what are the assets that support that so I really think that we're on the cusp of this whole new way of thinking about transportation that's going to really change things it's all about giving people choices to get out and about I believe that and I really support this whole shuttle movement that we're trying to look at to get people because we can have any kind of rail system on this island or any kind of you know that kind of thinking but we'll help them get people out and about on the bikes in the shuttle you know or even bike share or ride share programs and I think it can work overall yeah I think the most interesting thing about this is you know it's a plan it's an aspiration it's a target date like energy and the idea is to make it all come true and I've told you this before Mayor and Lee that I believe it must be the water it's the water in Kalani you know you guys have a special sauce you make dreams come true you've made energy the dream of energy come true and KIUC is just doing a miraculous job and you know that's that's your partner you have encouraged that and incentivized it and now the question is you know does that special water going to be applied you know is it being applied to transportation and if so can you tell us what's in the water well what's in the water there's a lot of love in aloha number one positive feedback and teamwork and commitment and dedication and collaboration and cooperation and commitment I'm telling you it's all the big big success of this is incorporating the values and of the community we do a lot of outreach we incorporate the thoughts and ideas for the community I always have the emotional side of everything we do up front at first before we move and so a lot of it involves community meetings getting into schools talking to parents I mean to me that's a big part of being successful and then you incorporate their values into your decisions it sounds kind of way out there but that's what makes it happen I believe that which leads to the aloha class challenge well before we do that I just wanted to mention the magic water I think is partnerships and the mayor just talked about that he's so strong on partnerships but you know to be honest a lot of people a lot of people have different interests not everybody like the word sustainable for some people is a positive word for others it's a negative word same with climate change I mean there's everybody has things that they're passionate about and but we can bring them together to talk about the things that they're interested in so a lot of people are really passionate about affordable housing that totally ties into transportation health and giving people healthy choices of how to get around economic development safety all of these very education all of these issues resiliency we just talked about our flood all of these things are our capuna and how they can age in place all of these things are themes that we can carry into transportation and rather than being divisive we find these common things that people care about and bring and have that be the way that we bring people together that's a remarkable example of civic engagement of getting people to function together and go down the track together and not have contention and controversy and obstruction so I had one question you mentioned that the tiger grant is arriving soon so let's say a year or two or whatever amount of time that's going to be in place at the end of it what do you envision is going to be different from what before you started this process well right now if I can if I may write down on our right street the revitalization of our right street that only with plantations type setting and keeping the charm and character you're going to have bike lanes you're going to have walking paths that are going to be included you're going to be able to incorporate that whole community kind of feeling businesses participating in supporting walking and biking and all of that along this one street area we have the upgrades to all of this construction that's going to be happening in transforming our community downtown yeah we really see it as a catalyst for economic development and that by making it a safer place for people to walk or bike or more pleasurable to drive or people to be able to come by transit it'll change just the way people experience the area it'll be really supportive for businesses and we're seeing that businesses catch on to this we had a block party not too long ago that the businesses supported to show what it's going to look like after tiger and they got so excited about it they organized the block party and now they're starting to put together a business association so we're seeing we're seeing businesses see the value of what we're doing and how it can benefit their bottom line and wanting to really support it and then doing facade improvements on their businesses or thinking about adding housing on top of their office space so that it becomes a public-private partnership public-private and it will transform each and it has begun so this was the block party to kick it off when is the block party to celebrate the completion? here we go it's supposed to be done in December of 2019 well you know I just came back from Australia and in Melbourne which is a really fabulous city they have free transit around the CBD and what happened as a result just as you say because it was better transportation because it was easier transportation everybody comes into the CBD and business thrives in the CBD and this has like bloomed Melbourne beyond what it was before and so you know you have sort of a natural leverage involved when you improve the transportation in a given area but my question to you is $13 million and I would see it as starter money and then you have the natural the bloom of economic development that's also going to help but what else do you need do you need more than that and how are you going to get it? are you talking about for this area or for the whole county? whole county the whole county so we see our county and work closely with our county council and so now we looked at our GET tax and that did pass here on Kauai and whatever funding comes our way which is an additional $25 million that will round it off will go specifically back to roads bridges and transportation and so that kind of additional funding will help us continue to transform and look at connecting communities, walking paths we have a coastal path we want to do spurs that come up from the coast now inland, I mean things like that that I think help to set the commitment if you will in the future on how we transform not only the use of our transportation system but just developing more opportunities laying it out if you will but the hub and the heart starts right here in Lihui like I said and then it will kind of lay the foundation for other parts of the island for a picture I think one thing is clear just like energy, you have a better energy grid, you have better economy you have better transportation you have a better economy those two things working in tandem as you guys are organizing now will really take Kauai to new levels I hate to say this Maria but we're almost out of time it falls on you as the co-host to summarize everything we've talked about concluded and aspired to and you guys can respond to what she says so what's your summary Maria Kauai has a lot of very forward thinking and positive things happening even when they're faced with challenges like the flooding situation they come together as a community they keep the lines of communication open they work together and they treat each other with the respect and with the positive energy that makes not only the short-term crises easier to handle or more effectively managed but also the long-term planning it works for both the short-term and the long-term I'd like to thank the folks on Kauai for setting such a good example on how to do some things that are really very impressive and wish you the best in both your immediate challenges and your longer-term goals okay mayor rebuttal sorry I mean I just thank you guys for having the opportunity I wish there was more time to talk about specific stuff maybe the next time there's so many great things happening in our lower plus challenge that we never get to but we'll share that with you folks yeah there's so much more to talk about wouldn't you agree Lee I would agree and Maria that was a fabulous summary you don't have to rebuttal sorry thank you Mayor Carvalho thank you Lee Steinmetz great to talk with you I hope we can do it again soon we'll be following the steps in your plan thank you so much for inviting us really appreciate it Aloha think big big big