Panos on City Problems. Sensible Solutions.

PROBLEM – Sewers Consent Decree with EPA Will Cost Over $7 Billion If Done by the City

SOLUTION – A Public Private Partnership for reconstruction, maintenance and operation to infuse private capital, to share risk and to operate sewers like a utility. With PPP, construction costs decrease, quality and timeliness improve. Better management. Bottom line: lower monthly bills and better infrastructure.

PROBLEM -- Severe Traffic Congestion Wastes Time and Fuel; Cripples Economy and Tourism

SOLUTION -- Fix traffic lights, install six underpasses, PPP reversible expressway and express buses, Ewa Beach ferry; intelligent traffic management systems. (Google: University of Hawaii Congestion Study, UHCS)

PROBLEM -- 364 Water Main Breaks per Year

SOLUTION -- High priority replacement of old mains, especially those in corrosive low lying areas. Our fixing rate needs to accelerate.

PROBLEM – Homeless in Parks and Beaches; Kuhio Park Terrace and Micronesia Pact

SOLUTION -- Shrink the $30,000 Hawaii Homeless Benefit Package. Repatriate mainland homeless. Receive much more support and accommodations for the Federal PACT with Micronesia. Remove mentally ill homeless from streets, parks and beaches and provide then with proper care. Use decommissioned TheBus for overnight sheltering. No sleeping on public parks, etc.

PROBLEM -- Park Maintenance and Beautification

SOLUTION -- Partial privatization and Adopt-a-Park corporate and club programs. Fully restore the War Memorial Natatorium. Keep Hanauma Bay in top shape -- both visitors’ and nature’s sides.

PROBLEM -- Rail Costs Too Much, Does Too Little and Will Be A 20 Year Construction, Eminent Domain and Lawsuit Nightmare for Iwi, Environmental Law Abuses, Agriculture Extinction and Hawaiian Home Lands Invasion

SOLUTION -- There is no construction for rail. It is not a legal system to build now; maybe in 2012. Stop the paperwork and the money bleeding now, move on to real solutions with far smaller cultural, environmental and economic impacts. Assess light transit options.

PROBLEM – Oahu’s Recycling Is A Glorified Sorting and Exportation of Trash. Yard Waste Recycling Is Basically Mulching and Dumping. 20% of Trash Burnt is Flyash.

SOLUTION -- Re-use tires and glass into pavements. Convert flyash into pozolanic cement. Remanufacture plastics into benches, bump stops and other simple and useful parts. Incentivize a private biomass plant to generate electricity out of the voluminous routine green waste collection by the city.

PROBLEM – The 2011 meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) will be held in Honolulu -- heads of state, Cabinet ministers, business leaders and other officials will attend summit, Nov. 12-20, 2011, at the Hawaii Convention Center. As many as 10,000 people may attend. Event management is critical.

SOLUTION – Past experience with large special events: 1st ISFO, Athens, Greece, June 4-7, 2006, 2nd ISFO, Honolulu, Hawaii, June 21-24, 2009. Halkias, B., Prevedouros, P., et al. Attica Tollway Management in the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. 12th World Congress on Intelligent Transportation Systems, San Francisco, CA, November 2005.

PROBLEM – Emergency Resiliency is Non Existent

SOLUTION – It is clear that there is no action plan for clearing roads, restoring electricity and providing medical and other vital services to Oahu neighborhoods pot hurricane hit. There is no preparation for it.

Core streets need regular tree trimming and proper handling of poles and utilities.
Placement of trucks, front loaders, ambulances and power units at key locations.
Emergency docks and “plugs” for Navy Submarines.
Public second access for Waianae (tunnel to Kunia)

Solutions to Save Our Oahu – Continuously Updated by Panos D. Prevedouros, PhD – August 15, 2010