Trinh said 92% of Fortune 500 companies are either experimenting with AI or actually using it. In fact, Mattmiller added, many individuals are using AI tools at work that are not authorized by their companies.

“Microsoft’s 2024 Work Trends Index surveyed 30,000 knowledge workers worldwide and used the telemetry data from Microsoft Office tools,” he said. “It found that 76% of knowledge workers are already using AI tools and of those, 78% are bringing their tools to work, meaning they are moving ahead of their IT departments. And it’s not just Gen Z. More than 65% of Baby Boomers are using these tools.”

I asked the audience at the summit: “How many of you are using AI, but your company has no AI policy or you have no idea what that policy is?” More than half raised their hands. If that is happening at your workplace, I recommend you set a policy and clearly communicate it. One common practice is to create a committee of diverse users to sort through the issues and recommend guiding principles. Be prepared to evolve as you learn more and AI evolves.

Can’t Code? No Problem

For those of us who can’t code, AI apps can do it for you. It takes tinkering but can pay off with custom-built programs for your unique needs. “That’s a huge benefit for a small investment of time,” Trinh said.

He also called the new multimodal capability of OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 and other apps a “game changer.” Multimodal means you can input prompts with text, images or audio and get responses back in any of the three.

And if you have lots of data but not enough time to analyze it, then feed the spreadsheet into AI and say, “Analyze the data, create a chart, then tell it to fix the chart,” Trinh said. This generation of AI excels at repetitive, time-consuming and structured tasks, the results of which can be validated by users for efficacy and accuracy, he said.

Mattmiller added: “When you start to use these new tools, start in your comfort zone, look at the low-risk, high-value uses cases, like a chatbot.”

AI Chatbot Was More Accurate

With his background in government, Mattmiller is attuned to AI’s ability to support public services. One example he cited was especially interesting because it shows the possibilities for chatbots in all kinds of customer service departments.

Microsoft partners with YoungWilliams, a company that builds solutions for government programs like SNAP, the successor to food stamps.

“They launched their first chatbot that can help a beneficiary look up their eligibility and the status of their benefits. Beneficiaries can use the chatbot or call a call center. After three months of being live, if you call the call center, you’re on hold for 10 minutes. If you use the chatbot, you’re in right away,” he said.

Once you get a human in a call center, it takes an average of two minutes for that person to find the answer, versus seconds for the chatbot, he said. Most important, the accuracy rate with the human is 91%; the chatbot 96%.

For more AI tips, see here.

AI may be taking over some jobs but based on a recent experiment, mine is not yet in danger. I asked ChatGPT to “Write a column about AI in the style of Steve Petranik, editor and executive publisher of Hawaii Business Magazine.”

The result, headlined “Navigating the Pacific Wave: AI’s Voyage in Hawaii’s Business Seas,” clumsily overused ocean metaphors and actually included the phrase, “In the aloha spirit of embracing new technologies.” It was full of cliches and glib ideas, BUT, it was well-organized, made good word choices and built a coherent argument for AI’s positive role today and in a brighter tomorrow. Clearly, ChatGPT has a pro-AI bias, even when trying to speak in my voice.

Don’t worry that Hawaii Business Magazine will use AI to write our articles. We won’t. But we are using it to support our reporting. The grunt work of journalists used to include transcribing the recordings of our interviews. Now we use Otter.ai – one of many AI transcription services – and save many hours, which now can be invested in further reporting and writing. You too may be using AI to transcribe meetings and conversations. Thank you, AI, for making that part of our work easier.

AI sometimes transcribes words incorrectly – it almost always screws up Hawaiian words – so we have to double-check its output, but if the recording is excellent, Otter’s AI transcription error rate is sometimes lower than the typical human error rate, maybe because it doesn’t get tired or bored by the mundane work.

Challenges for Creatives

AI challenges the principles of creative people like writers and designers, but we can look to the past for guidance. At the advent of personal computers, some illustrators and designers felt the new technology inhibited their creativity, while others embraced it. Today, most such creatives find tech tools to be an essential part of their kit, along with more traditional tools.

Digital photography was also a contentious technology when it first appeared, but decades later most professional photographers have voted with their cameras – the advantages in capturing the exact moment and time saved in the darkroom are just a few of the irresistible attractions. Creativity in photography is greater than ever, while those who love film are free to keep using it.

One of my favorite authors, John le Carre, wrote and revised his complex novels by hand – until his death in 2020 at the age of 89. Stephen King does most of his writing on a computer and that’s my method too.

Useful Start Points

The AI platform Midjourney played a role in this issue’s cover and Gen Z feature. Hawaii Business Creative Director Jeff Sanner had many ideas for illustrations, but instead of spending hours sketching them all out, he prompted Midjourney for about 40 starting points. He tinkered with those outputs that intrigued him, further refining the ideas and illustrations.

Then over two days, Jeff personally modified a few select illustrations to create what he wanted. The result is a personal creation using a combination of new and old tools and Jeff’s creative mind.

A good analogy for writers is Hamlet, Shakespeare’s crowning creation, which many scholars believe the playwright based on a Norse legend and on previous literary archetypes. Those were his starting points – the rest is Shakespeare.

Here are some of my initial principles as Hawaii Business experiments and works toward a fully formed AI policy:

• The AI we use should reduce our mundane, time-consuming, repetitive and uncreative work or improve it so we serve our readers better.
• A thoughtful human with good judgment should review AI’s work to ensure it is accurate, fair and of good quality, and to guard against bias.
• New uses of AI should be introduced with caution, with each staff member (including me) discussing them with at least one HB leader and preferably more – sometimes including outsiders.

I recommend creating your own business and personal AI policy and experimenting with AI. If you need further persuasion, consider this quote from Karim Lakhani, a professor at the Harvard Business School: “AI won’t replace humans – but humans with AI will replace humans without AI.”

Though we can’t change the weather, we can change our sleep habits – in theory. The problem is it’s often hard to get more sleep and many of us who try are failing.

Sleep has recently joined good nutrition and exercise among the broadly accepted foundations of physical and mental well-being. You’ve probably heard that lack of sleep is the new smoking, a designation that, of course, makes people even more anxious about not getting seven hours or more a night.

Everyone has trouble getting enough sleep some of the time, but a 2020 survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 14.5% of adults had trouble falling asleep most days or every day in the past 30 days. The subgroup with the highest rate of short sleep duration was Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders at 47%.

This is not just a personal and health care issue, it’s also a business issue. A 2022 Gallup report estimated that the American economy loses $44.6 billion annually in unplanned absenteeism as a result of workers’ poor sleep. A 2010 report in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine estimated that workers who don’t get enough sleep each cost their businesses an average of $1,967 a year in reduced productivity.

Young Adults Suffer the Most

That Gallup report, called “The State of Sleep in America,” is a good overview of how broad the sleep problem is. Based on a survey of 3,000 Americans, it found that “over half (55%) of Americans cite getting a good night’s sleep as a ‘major priority’ on an average weekday – prioritizing it more than many other lifestyle factors, such as spending time with family and friends (45%) or eating healthy (40%).”

Despite that emphasis on getting a good night’s sleep, the Gallup report found that:

• 1 in 3 (33%) survey respondents described their sleep last night as “fair” or “poor.”
• 81% of them said “mental activity – thinking, mind racing or feelings – has prevented them from having a good night’s sleep.”
• Insufficient sleep is worst among young adults: 38% of them said their sleep was only fair or poor last night in each of the three youngest age categories: 18-29, 30-39 and 40-49.

I recommend reading Staff Writer Chavonnie Ramos’ report on traffic deaths in Hawai‘i. Though less of a killer than speeding and drunken and distracted driving, drowsiness is a significant factor in traffic crashes, especially in Hawai‘i.

A 2013 CDC report found that 5.7% of Hawai‘i drivers reported falling asleep while driving during the past 30 days, the highest rate in the poll after Texas. That report was based on responses from nearly 150,000 drivers in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

Let Your Brain “Breathe”

The same things that lead to good health in general also contribute to a good night’s sleep: a nutritious diet, exercise, and no smoking or alcohol. Beyond that, a lot of research has shown that CBT – cognitive behavioral therapy – can help improve sleep. Unfortunately, it is not a quick fix.

But if it’s a quick fix you seek, here’s one that might work. Just keep in mind, I can offer no scientific evidence about its effectiveness. I just know it works for me.

When I’m exercising, I focus on the workout and otherwise try to let my brain “breathe.” That means I avoid earbuds, conversation and other distractions except for short breaks. That’s essential while ocean swimming and paddling, but I also do it while weightlifting, hiking or walking.

Without distractions, my mind focuses on the moment but also lets in the anxieties and distressing thoughts that we usually try to escape. I let those thoughts in while exercising, when my mind and body can best defuse them. For me, that makes those thoughts less powerful and prevalent later when I’m trying to fall asleep.

In her thoughtful and inspirational article, Ramos, who is a proud Filipina, tells the stories of people who have broken down barriers to achieve more visibility, more opportunities and more success for themselves and their community. She digs into the history and trends of Hawai‘i’s Filipino population, too.

Within hours of her story being published online, Ramos was inundated with emails from readers. Many expressed gratitude for her story, saying it encouraged them to reflect on the progress Filipinos have made and that it gave them optimism for their community’s future.

Su Lazo, director of the Filipino Community Center and president of JCI Hawaii, gave us permission to share some of her emailed comments: “Mahalo for writing the article and more importantly, adding another reason for Filipinos to feel proud of their heritage, feel less alone in their struggles, and see what’s possible for them here at home.”

A National Crisis

Ramos’ article and the response to it illustrate another reason why journalism matters – especially local journalism.

You’ve probably heard about the layoffs that have plagued American journalism. They’re nothing new as print, digital and broadcast organizations continue to struggle financially, but in January alone over 500 journalists lost their jobs, according to the job market consulting firm of Challenger, Gray and Christmas. In all of 2023, the news industry lost nearly 2,700 jobs, the firm said.

Another report, this one specifically focused on newspapers, highlights another grim statistic: The U.S. lost an average of 2.5 newspapers per week in 2023, according to Northwestern University’s Medill School for Journalism, Media & Integrated Marketing Communications.

The local media landscape looks dire, too. At press time, the corporate owner of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and its papers on Kaua‘i and Hawai‘i Island was undergoing a court-supervised restructuring and preparing to sell. Their staffs have shrunk dramatically in recent years and all publish much fewer of their own stories than a decade ago.

The Maui News, which is owned by a different corporation, was for sale, too. And you probably noticed that the print editions of Hawaii Business and its sister publications have also gotten smaller.

Journalism Needs Community Support

While the future of the journalism industry looks exceedingly uncertain, a future without journalism is even grimmer. Local communities suffer when on-the-ground reporters disappear and there’s no one to hold politicians and decision-makers accountable. And because the society we live in is experiencing increasing inequality and polarization, the misinformation and disinformation that rapidly spread on social media often reinforce divisions and longstanding prejudices.

Local communities need reporting that is diligently researched, gives community members the nuanced information they need to make informed decisions, and accurately, respectfully and fairly includes marginalized and underrepresented voices. Journalism has the power to help increase understanding of different perspectives and opinions, dismantle stereotypes and stigmas, and encourage constructive, rather than combative, dialogues.

There are some bright spots in the journalism industry, like new nonprofit journalism organizations that have popped up around the country. But being a nonprofit is not a panacea. Regardless of its business model, journalism needs community support to survive.

Community support must go beyond wishes and prayers. If you believe in the importance of journalism, invest money in it through subscriptions, advertising, donations or other means. If local journalism disappears, Hawai‘i and its people will suffer.

Change continues to happen at Hawaii Business, including a lot recently. We are sad to say goodbye to beloved colleagues who are making new career moves but it’s fun to welcome fresh team members with bright ideas and energy.

You may remember that Publisher Cheryl Oncea said aloha in this column when she retired at the end of 2022 and that I stepped in as interim publisher at the start of 2023. Well, the role of publisher requires a rare combination of skills and experience, so we eventually decided that the job requires two people.

I became executive publisher and Associate Publisher Kent Coules stepped in as co-publisher. We work well together and our different experiences provide a yin and yang for the magazine.

Kent joined us in August 2021, bringing 30-plus years of experience in print and digital media, and 16 years in event production, which has proven essential as we add events to our calendar. He and his family have been Hawai‘i residents since 2013.

I’ve been in the news business since college – all of it as a reporter and editor until I added publisher duties last year. I arrived in Hawai‘i to stay in 1986 and spent 18 years at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and five at The Honolulu Advertiser. My 15th anniversary as editor of Hawaii Business was Jan. 20, 2024 – an easy date for me to remember because my last duty at The Advertiser was overseeing coverage of President Barack Obama’s first inauguration.

Our Sales Team

One new team member is YongChae “Yong” Song, an account executive who joined Hawaii Business in December. He has 23 years of promotion, product wholesale, print, digital media and radio sales experience, and is a graduate of Kaiser High School and UH Mānoa’s Shidler College of Business. He enjoys being part of community organizations, watching his kids play sports and spending time with his family.

Pam Saito is our other account executive. Like Yong, she works in the sales department and helps our clients with their business needs and goals through our print and digital products and events. Pam’s experience includes working at the Star-Advertiser as a senior account executive and at Coca-Cola as a key account manager.

She was born in Hawai‘i, grew up in Kāne‘ohe and now lives with her husband in ‘Aiea. They have two grown children. “What I enjoy about working for Hawaii Business Magazine are the people and clients I work with,” she says. “Everyone is great at what they do.”

Rebecca Brooking has been our senior account coordinator since January 2023, coordinating advertising campaigns and special projects among account executives and business clients. She moved to Hawai‘i in 2016 and lived first in Lahaina before landing in Honolulu after the pandemic. “I am thankful to be here among friends in a place I love,” she says.

The Editorial Team

Managing Editor Cynthia Wessendorf joined us in late 2020, at the height of the pandemic; among her other duties, she produces Hawaii Business’ Top 250, Most Charitable Companies, Black Book and other major projects, and writes feature stories, often with a focus on climate change and education. Her award-winning November 2022 report on the risks of wildfires in Hawai‘i was published nine months before the deadly Lahaina fire.

“Long-form stories take you deep into issues facing the state and efforts to improve life here. I love talking with people in Hawai‘i for these articles and learning about their important work,” she says.

Staff writer Noelle Fujii-Oride has written about affordable housing, tourism, working families, education and much more. She also leads the editorial department’s audience engagement efforts. Before joining Hawaii Business as a staff writer in 2017, she held internships at the magazine, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Honolulu Civil Beat. She now lives on Kaua‘i.

Staff Writer Chavonnie Ramos has been with us full-time since September 2021 after serving two internships with us. Both Chavonnie and Noelle are UH Mānoa journalism graduates, and each served as editor in chief of Ka Leo, the university’s student newspaper. In addition to writing stories, Chavonnie creates videos for our website and social media.

She was born and raised in Waipahu and graduated from Waipahu High School. “In my free time you can find me exploring new hiking or food spots around O‘ahu. I’m a transit enthusiast, so you will probably see me riding or posting about TheBus or Skyline rail frequently,” she says.

Design, Digital and Events

Art director Mallory Adams-Nakamura is a Mililani resident and received her degree in graphic design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. After moving back to Hawai‘i in 2018, she worked at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and at MidWeek. She says she’s excited to be a part of the Hawaii Business ‘ohana, where she maintains the magazine’s design standards and works collaboratively with the whole team.

Digital media specialist Michelle Tan was born and raised in Honolulu and recently graduated from the Shidler College of Business with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, management, and international business. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and hiking.

Magdalena Hershey, who coordinates and orchestrates our conferences and events, has been our events manager since November 2022. She was born in Poland and spent the past eight years living in New Jersey, New York and Hawai‘i. In her free time, she has made exploring local culture, hikes and beaches a cherished part of her life.

Our newest colleague is events coordinator Olivia De Sena, who grew up in Mystic, Connecticut. She’s lived in Hawai‘i for over six years and before joining the magazine, she was the retail manager for Mana Up, where she gained experience in leadership, business development and events. In her free time, you can find her at the Queen’s surf break, watching films or trying new restaurants.

The saddest part of our job is saying aloha to longtime colleagues who move on to jobs elsewhere. As I write this, we are preparing for the departure of Creative Director Kelsey Ige, who has been with Hawaii Business for seven years, and Digital Marketing Director Joelle Cabasa, who joined us six years ago.

They will be greatly missed, but we are grateful for what they’ve contributed to the magazine and how it served our readers, our clients and the local business community. It’s a legacy of service we can trace to our founders 69 years ago. We’d like to continue that service for at least another 69 years.

We’d rather not hear the answer, “It depends and here’s what you need to know” followed by a nuanced explanation, but that factual nuance creates better understanding and can guide smart decisions. Too bad that many people prefer pundits, prognosticators and politicians who always provide answers with conviction in 30 seconds or less.

If that’s what you want, look elsewhere. Discriminating readers know reality’s complicated, and that’s why the team at Hawaii Business Magazine likes to spend their time investigating and telling you what we find. We stress facts, explanations, tight writing, clarity, context and, when warranted, nuance.

Tourism is Hawai‘i’s No. 1 industry and hotels are its foundation, so it’s important to know who owns them and how they operate those properties. That’s why Staff Writer and Engagement Editor Noelle Fujii-Oride spent five months investigating private equity ownership of local hotels.

This is not your father’s hotel industry. Families that helped pioneer the hotel business in Hawai‘i have sold and though iconic hotel companies like Hilton and Marriott still operate and franchise thousands of hotels worldwide, including some locally, they own only a tiny fraction.

The new big players are private equity companies, which have paid billions of dollars to increase their stake from 4% of Hawai‘i hotels in 2003 to 23% today. More importantly, they now own 29% of all local hotel rooms. That’s power and until now, how private equity wields that power has gone largely unreported. Noelle’s 12-page article starting on page 16 remedies that situation. It’s informative and compelling reading.

From Hawai‘i to Bali

Back in April and May 2023, Hawaii Business Magazine hosted Gumilang “Gugum” Reza Andika, a senior impact measurement officer for Kopernik, an Indonesian research and development lab that addresses social and environmental challenges.

Gugum came to study how we create and organize our events to inform people on important issues so he and his team could do the same in Bali. His fellowship was sponsored by the U.S. State Department’s Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative.

He was mentored by Hawaii Business Co-Publisher Kent Coules and Events Manager Magdalena Durak Hershey, who also helped him complete one of the fellowship’s requirements: submit a proposal for a project in his home country. I’m not surprised that Gugum’s proposal was one of only two funded by the State Department.

Kent was invited to attend Gugum’s event on regenerative tourism in Bali during November – at the State Department’s expense. Now, you know Indonesia is southwest of Hawai‘i, but you also know the cheapest flight between two points is not always the most direct. And the State Department booked Kent on probably the cheapest flight available.

That’s why Kent started his journey to Indonesia by flying in the opposite direction, northeast to Seattle. Kent’s advice: “Do not let the State Department make your flight plans.”

His outward leg departed Seattle at 10:30 p.m., flying to Seoul, before finally arriving at midnight two days later in Denpasar, the capital of Bali.

He Enjoyed Getting Lost

Nonetheless, Kent enjoyed his stay in the Indonesian province of Bali. “My best travel experiences are never planned and usually involve getting lost. Same on this trip,” he says. “I hit ‘walk mode’ on Google Maps for a planned 49-minute journey. The route eventually takes me through a parking lot, snakes between two restaurants, across a beautiful wooden bridge and onto a trail traversing a farm and rice paddies. It is my favorite memory.”

Bali lags behind the developed world on infrastructure, sewage and garbage, but Kent found several shining examples of regenerative tourism, including one with a Hawai‘i connection.

“Our conference host, Mana Earthly Paradise, was started by a couple who studied at UH. Their next-generation eco-villas were built of earthbags; there was a probiotic restaurant, an eco-conscious store and the wastewater feeds the compost garden. They put sustainability at the forefront of everything.”

• For decades, Hawai‘i didn’t build enough housing to keep pace with population growth. Meanwhile, demand for second homes and short-term rentals nibbled away at inventory. Now, we face a statewide housing shortage. Maui faces an even more dire shortage, with thousands of homes destroyed by fire.
• Hawai‘i’s four counties have the most burdensome housing regulations in the country, limiting new supply. “Exclusionary zoning” policies that favor detached single-family homes have led to suburban sprawl. That sprawl has attracted the opposition of environmental and Native Hawaiian groups, who now form a significant anti-development lobby.These groups are joined by established homeowners who want to preserve their communities in amber and prevent any redevelopment or change. The combined political influence of these groups stymies housing reform.
• Unprecedented demographic changes await. The state has weathered seven consecutive years of population decline, a trend that shows no sign of slowing, despite optimistic projections by our state economists. Our population is aging and our labor force is shrinking. Young people are marrying later than their parents and grandparents and having fewer children. It seems that after decades of rapid population growth, our state has reached a plateau. Opponents of growth cheer, while their children weep for lack of economic opportunity and affordable housing.
• As an American state, Hawai‘i is at the mercy of the Federal Reserve, which sets the country’s monetary policy. Rising interest rates normally reduce housing prices. But the Federal Reserve’s recent rate hikes have not lowered housing prices in Hawai‘i. Instead, the high rates have further increased the unaffordability of homeownership for many local families. And out-of-state demand for Hawai‘i real estate remains strong.
• Covid devastated the local economy, with more families slipping into the just-above-poverty status of ALICE (asset-limited, income-constrained, employed) despite federal assistance. And the fires on Maui interrupted the recovery. The state and county must support displaced families, replace infrastructure and rebuild. And they may be on the hook for billions in damages, pending the outcome of civil litigation.
• Slowing economic growth means less tax revenue to support the basic functions of government, including building and maintaining infrastructure or issuing housing permits. Our political system works well when the economic pie is expanding; more can be given to competing factions each year. But growth has slowed in recent years, making future decisions more difficult.With population shrinking, interest rates high and economic growth slowing, we need a paradigm shift in the way we solve housing and other problems. Here are five ways to solve our housing crisis once and for all.

1. End the Sprawl

Sprawl is unsustainable. But it’s not inevitable.

Zoning is the basic policy of land use, and it’s set by the counties. Two aspects of zoning contribute to suburban sprawl: single-use zoning and limits on density. We should change both.

• Single-use zoning is designed to separate residential, commercial and industrial uses. It makes sense to separate homes and factories; it’s counterproductive to separate residential and commercial uses. The most vibrant cities in the world (think: London, Paris, Tokyo) favor mixed-use development. And charming small towns do too. This is as true in Hawai‘i as it is everywhere else. For example, it’s no coincidence that the most popular towns to visit on Maui were all developed before the county’s current zoning code was adopted in 1960: think of Hāna, Makawao, Pā‘ia, Wailuku and pre-fire Lahaina. Compare those quaint towns with Kīhei, the land of strip malls.
• Density is the key to sustainability. On islands with limited land, we cannot afford to sprawl endlessly. Sprawl is bad for the environment (think: vehicle emissions and that Joni Mitchell song about paving paradise to put up a parking lot). Sprawl is an inefficient use of land that could be used for open space, agriculture or renewable energy.And sprawl is terrible for quality of life: Time spent driving is time spent dying. A person spending two hours a day sitting behind the wheel is sedentary and more likely to suffer from obesity. And commutes reduce time spent with family, volunteering in the community or getting civically engaged.

Recommendation: Allow dense, mixed use development near job centers.

2. Increase Certainty and Speed 

Time is money. And with high interest rates, time is more expensive than ever. To keep housing affordable, developers need certainty and speed in the entitlement process.

• Certainty means that so long as projects conform with existing zoning and building codes, they are automatically approved, without discretionary approvals required by government employees or elected politicians.
• Speed means that projects are approved quickly. Policymakers often ignore the impact of time on the cost of development, but the costs contribute to higher home prices and discourage housing construction.

Developers take on substantial risk, fronting tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars before construction begins. On large projects, pre-development costs can run in the millions. And it’s not uncommon for small developers to mortgage their homes to finance projects.

A project that starts out affordable can easily become unaffordable over time. For example, a developer may plan to offer for-sale units affordable to families earning the area’s median income. But if interest rates are raised before the project receives approvals, borrowing costs may force the developer to convert for-sale units into affordable rentals. Meanwhile, every day developers wait for entitlements, their labor and material costs are increasing. If an affordable rental project is delayed too long, it could be scrapped or converted into a market rate project.

Recommendation: Allow what is called “by right development.” That means none or fewer discretionary approvals, which involve elected or unelected officials picking and choosing the projects they allow. When discretionary approvals are necessary, use a “shot clock” to speed decision making.

3. Focus on Adaptive Reuse and Redevelopment

Demand for commercial real estate declined during Covid, and widespread adoption of remote work means demand has not returned to its pre-pandemic peak. This means a hollowing out of urban and town cores. But it also creates an opportunity to return people to the town cores and to make those places multidimensional, where people live, work and play.

Efforts are already underway to convert some commercial space into residences. In Downtown Honolulu, The Residences at Bishop Place is an example of an office building converted to residential apartments. And many offices in the Davies Pacific Center are slated for conversion into apartments.

However, more can be done across the state. Building code and zoning changes are necessary to allow conversions from commercial to residential use. So too are investments in infrastructure and tax incentives to support adaptive reuse and redevelopment.

Consider Maui, where the Queen Ka‘ahumanu Shopping Center lies in the middle of Kahului. Many storefronts have been vacant for years, and the massive parking lot is largely empty even on Black Friday. It’s space enough to fit hundreds of housing units, perhaps a thousand. Why not build housing there, sparing greenfield development and revitalizing the area? Similar opportunities abound throughout the state.

A few challenges await:

• First, some exemptions from building codes should be permitted to speed adaptive reuse. Instead of slavishly adopting international building codes, each county should adopt a general framework for adaptive reuse that addresses the typical challenges local developers face.
• Second, adaptive reuse often includes changing zoning or adding residential use to underlying commercial zoning. This rezoning process should be streamlined. Ideally, counties should rezone whole areas they’d like to see revitalized rather than relying on developers to pursue spot zoning for individual parcels.
• Third, infrastructure capacity must increase to support additional residents. As urban and town core infrastructure nears the end of its service life and must be replaced, counties should upgrade with core growth in mind. This is, in the long term, a more sustainable approach than sprawling out.

Recommendation: Enact building code and zoning reforms to enable adaptive reuse and redevelopment. Support adaptive reuse projects with infrastructure investments.

4. Seek Innovative Financing Models

Innovative financing models can unlock new opportunities for affordable housing development. One model is the community land trust, where the community collectively owns the land via a nonprofit, helping to stabilize housing costs and prevent speculation-driven price increases. Nā Hale O Maui, PAL Kaua‘i, and Hale O Hawai‘i are three examples of local community land trusts, and for now, all operate at small scale. We should provide resources and support to help them grow.

Another model is the housing conservancy. In this model, a nonprofit serves as an investment fund manager for a for-profit investment fund. The fund invests in developing or acquiring workforce housing, keeping it at a price that the local workforce can afford. Social impact investors accept a lower rate of return than they would earn with private equity.

The Washington Housing Conservancy in D.C. and the Austin Housing Conservancy in Texas are two examples of successful housing conservancies. All that’s necessary is to organize a conservancy and attract capital, which shouldn’t be too difficult: Local banks and insurance companies, union stabilization funds, Kamehameha Schools and the state Employee Retirement System all have deep pockets and an interest in creating and preserving workforce housing in Hawai‘i. They should invest in workforce housing. And our billionaire malihini should throw in their fair share.

Recommendation: Support community land trusts and establish a workforce housing conservancy in Hawai‘i.

5. Invest in Infrastructure

Roads, bridges, and highways, electrical power, water, wastewater, broadband. Ports, airports, rail. They’re some of the basic infrastructure of modern life. To this list, we could add schools (the infrastructure of workforce development). But not all infrastructure is good infrastructure.

Our state has a bad habit of building infrastructure without a plan to maintain and replace it. It’s easy to see why: Short-term political pressure on elected officials makes them focus on the present with little consideration for the future.

Deferred maintenance is the norm, with Hawai‘i receiving a D+ grade for infrastructure from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

It’s more exciting to build something new than to take care of what we already have. There’s no ribbon-cutting ceremony for a water main replacement. And an upgraded wastewater treatment plant doesn’t make for a good photo op.

But infrastructure remains long after officeholders are gone. So we should get it right. Before we make investments in infrastructure, we should answer three fundamental questions:

• Will this infrastructure support the pattern of development we want for our grandchildren?
• Will this infrastructure support economic activity to fund its maintenance and eventual replacement?
• Will this infrastructure provide benefits for the general public or only for a narrow elite?

Then we should consider the potential for sea-level rise and ensure that infrastructure is resilient to natural disasters. Much of our infrastructure will need to be relocated or hardened to prevent future damage.

Finally, we need to fund infrastructure. A few things will help.

• First, we must elect leaders who will prioritize long-term infrastructure needs over short-term political pressure.
• Second, we need more programs like House Maui to align federal, state and county resources. House Maui has prepared three regional infrastructure plans that link proposed infrastructure improvements to the affordable housing and community facilities supported by that infrastructure. These plans are a jumping off point for discussion among stakeholders about the value of infrastructure investments.
• Third, we should explore different methods of funding infrastructure. For instance, tax-increment financing provides a way to capture the future tax benefits of real estate improvements to pay now for the cost of those improvements.

Another example is community development districts, which is the way that Kaka‘ako was redeveloped. Community development districts plan, finance, construct, operate and maintain community-wide infrastructure, charging property owners an assessment similar to their property tax. Every option should be on the table.

Recommendation: Invest in infrastructure that supports economic activity and benefits the public. Explore different methods of infrastructure funding, like community development districts and tax-increment financing.

Other solutions exist, but these five steps taken together are enough to solve Hawai‘i’s housing crisis and provide better lives for our residents. The time for action is long overdue. Where do you stand?

Or Shakespeare could have been inspired by Steve Jobs or Elon Musk – who like Johnson, took leadership to extremes unimaginable by most presidents and CEOs.

All three are worth considering as models of leadership because they accomplished things no one else seemed capable of. And because many people are today drawn to extreme leaders like them, we must also consider their grand flaws.

I’ll start with Johnson. We still live in an American society that he largely created and we’ve had 55 years since he left the presidency to assess his legacy.

Johnson’s whole life was full of contradictions and dualities. Before he became president upon the assassination of John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, he had been a political chameleon mentored by both liberals and conservatives, and at times he had championed the poor and oppressed, and (more often) the rich and powerful. He was mentored both by the progressive FDR and U.S. Sen. Richard Russell of Georgia, for decades the Jim Crow South’s most powerful player in Washington, D.C.

Deals, Blackmail, and Bullying

Even today, JFK is revered by many and parts of his inspiring speeches are forever embedded in the minds of Baby Boomers. But his legislative accomplishments were negligible because he did not know how to power bills through Congress.

LBJ, on the other hand – with a combination of deals, blackmail, bullying and unprecedented understanding of the rules and ways of Congress – rammed through civil rights legislation that had been filibustered for three generations by senators from the segregationist “Solid South.” Black people finally got rights, including a real right to vote. His legislation also created the two biggest government-run health care programs, Medicare and Medicaid, which are still with us today. Talk about consequential extreme leadership.

If those were sole accomplishments, Johnson might be celebrated for the benefits of his extreme leadership. Sadly, his misguided Vietnam War policy was just as extreme and consequential.

When he assumed the presidency, there were almost 17,000 American military advisors in South Vietnam.

When he turned the reins over to Richard Nixon, 535,000 military personnel were there and 31,000 had died.

His bypassing of Congress and his lying to it and the American people severely undermined citizens’ trust in their own government; the war led Congress eventually to block much of the rest of his agenda, reduce the voting age to 18 and replace the draft (at one time an imperfect but equalizing and inclusive force in American life) with an all-volunteer military that most Americans feel little personal connection to today.

His “Reality Distortion Field”

We also live in a world significantly shaped by Steve Jobs and our children will probably live in a world shaped by Elon Musk. Both men are examples of extreme corporate leadership.

Jobs is exemplified by one of his own quotes: “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” He did and he did, and one of his tools was what friends and employees called his “reality distortion field.” Through it, he could ignore the limitations of the world that everyone else saw. It drove many employees away but drove others to create things they would never have attempted otherwise.

Jobs’ flaws were also extreme. Two egregious examples: He denied his daughter was in fact his daughter for years – he let her and her mother live in poverty despite his wealth – even after confirmation from a paternity test. And instead of relying on proven cancer treatments, he thought he was smarter than medical experts and chose alternative remedies for too long, a decision that cost him his best chance at beating the disease.

Musk’s accomplishments are awesome and multidimensional as he pushes his employees at Tesla, SpaceX and other companies to incredible efforts, but he also drives out many others who are unwilling to dedicate their lives to achieve his goals.

Lately though, Musk’s seeming belief in his own infallibility has led to callousness and recklessness on a grand scale. Twitter, now called X, has become so toxic with misinformation and hate that he has driven away many longtime users and advertisers.

He’s still working on his legacy, but I think Shakespeare – who never liked one-dimensional protagonists – would be inspired by what he’s done so far.

I think the lack of housing is our No. 1 problem. I and my staff have covered the issue in many ways over the years and we will continue to do so. This time, I’m turning the floor over to people who were panelists at a soldout event on housing that I moderated Sept. 20 at YWCA Laniākea. Here are a few condensed highlights.

Joe Kent, Executive Director, Grassroot Institute | Photo: Aaron Yoshino

Joe Kent, executive director of the Grassroot Institute: “Our research shows about 5% of the land in Hawai‘i has been zoned for housing and the other 95% is open space and ag. I’m not talking about building on all that 95%, but even if you built on a fraction of a fraction more, it would allow for more housing. And I think we need not be afraid of the word ‘density,’ because in my mind increased density means affordable.”

Alana Kobayashi Pakkala, executive VP and managing partner of Kobayashi Group: “Joe was wondering why people are so against urban density. What changes when the building goes from 350 feet to 450 feet? It gets a lot less expensive to build – the land cost gets divided over more units. And guess what? Dense properties won’t become luxury because of their density. So you’re building housing that will stay in that target market naturally. The market deserves market housing. Our young people deserve to do what our parents did: Build home equity. We just have to make it easier.”

Alana Kobayashi Pakkala, executive VP and managing partner of Kobayashi Group | Photo: Aaron Yoshino

Sarah Love, Partner, Lung Rose Voss & Wagnild | Photo: Aaron Yoshino

Sarah Love, partner at Lung Rose Voss & Wagnild and president of the Building Industry Association of Hawaii: “Density correlates to our infrastructure issue. If you’re trying to build housing in an area that doesn’t have infrastructure, it will cost a lot more to build. If you’re adding density in areas that already have infrastructure, then you save on project costs. So we need to maximize density where we can.”

Sterling Higa, Executive Director, Housing Hawai‘i’s Future | Photo: Aaron Yoshino

Sterling Higa, executive director of the nonprofit Housing Hawai‘i’s Future: “What we do at Housing Hawaii’s Future is get people informed with our newsletter and provide them with the targeted opportunities to engage because you have jobs, you have things to do, you’re not going to show up to every committee hearing. But there are critical moments at the county council and state level, where if even half-dozen people show up and say something I sensible, a difference can be made. The problem is sometimes it’s just B.J. Penn at some meetings or retirement-age homeowners. If you’re not a retirement-age homeowner, your voices are not represented at those meetings. There is no countervailing force. Who calls a politician’s office and complains? It’s retirement-age homeowners because they have plenty of time. Meanwhile, their children and grandchildren are leaving because they can’t afford housing. The people making decisions are influenced in the wrong direction. You don’t have to show up to every meeting, but sometimes you have to show up, write a letter, give testimony or call a legislator. Because one voice at the right moment can shift an entire discussion.”

Billy Pieper, senior VP and director of strategic partnerships at American Savings Bank: “Halewai‘olu Senior Residences is a new affordable rental housing project (in Honolulu’s Chinatown) and people are already moving in. I remember the pushback from the community. It wasn’t until we actually personified the people who would be moving into this housing – brought them to meetings and they actually locked eyes with folks who had previously said, ‘Not in my backyard’ – that critics of the project finally said, ‘OK, we’ve got to do something different. Yes, continue.’ I feel like we need more of that. Bring back the aloha, that kindness.”

Billy Pieper, Senior VP & Director of Strategic Partnerships, American Savings Bank | Photo: Aaron Yoshino

Joe Kent: “When it comes to individual projects, we need to allow more by-right development, like they do in other parts of the world, such as Tokyo. (By-right means if the development is allowed by all existing regulations such as the zoning code, parking requirements and so on, it’s not subject to the discretion of local officials.) In Tokyo, if you want to build within your zone, you can, and you don’t have to ask your neighbors for permission. I hope we can find more ways to allow by-right development here.”

After the Maui fires, a dozen local, national and international media published “Why the Fires Happened” stories that repeated much of the same information that Cynthia reported last fall and quoted the same or similar sources.

We had the story beforehand, as we have so many times in the past on various issues. That’s part of our job: to report on important subjects before they get on the general public’s radar. We collect the facts and report on vital issues in clear and compelling language, then spread the stories to as many readers as possible.

But that’s where our power ends. Like other fact-based news media, we help provide information for the public conversation, but we don’t make the decisions.

More than a few people lamented to me after the Lahaina tragedy, if only “they” had acted on your wildfires story, with “they” being government leaders. Yes, if only.

Political Life is Brutal

Have you ever thought about joining “they” – about running for public office? About having power to do something about wildfires before they killed 99 people? Or helping decide on a hundred other issues?

If you care about Hawai‘i and its people, and follow the news, you have probably thought about standing for election or maybe simply accepting an appointment to a public board. You think that with the power you acquire, maybe you can make things better.

Most people do not run for public office, and I admire the courage of the few who do, whatever their motives or policies. I think courage is the number one attribute required for public office today, because however many supporters and admirers you have, you will also have enemies and haters who will question your motives and attack your decisions relentlessly.

In the 20th century, politicians only had to deal with public criticism in legislative assemblies, the news media and town halls. In the 21st century, social media means criticism is everywhere, all the time and without restraint. Truth and lies are present in about equal measures, but restraint seems entirely absent.

The families of politicians are no longer out of bounds. Death threats are commonplace. Simple disagreement about policy is no longer enough; your opponents are disgraceful and evil.

You must have a lot of courage to enter that political ecosystem. Not all prove worthy of the voters’ trust, but they do have moxie and fortitude.

He Took the Tougher Job

I have considered running for public office because I think that 37 years of reporting on local news has given me a good perspective on people’s needs here and how to make the system work better. But I retreat from taking that leap for many reasons.

One, I am not that selfless. My current job requires long hours and difficult decisions; I cannot imagine facing the even longer hours and even more difficult decisions that politicians face.

As a reporter and editor for more than four decades, my job has been to listen to different perspectives and tell my readers the essence of what I learned. Only in this column do I get to express my opinions.

I’m not allowed to have tunnel vision and focus only on wildfires or housing or education – and neither are politicians. I have reported continually on Hawai‘i’s problems and have offered possible solutions but never had to choose whether to spend a million in taxpayer dollars on one problem with little left for another problem.

A few people have made the leap from local news media to elected office, with Rick Blangiardi being the most prominent recent example. I admire him for taking that leap.

I moderated an event about homelessness in Hawai‘i back when Rick was still running Hawaii News Now; he was one of the panelists. At the time, HNN was relentlessly covering the problems of homelessness and at one point I asked Rick, “What are the solutions?” He essentially replied that’s not our job.

Back then, he and I had the easier job. He decided to take the tougher job as mayor and I admire his courage and that of all the others who have chosen to take on similar responsibilities.