July 25, 2026 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Saturday, July 25, 2026

July 25, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 11:33 AM :: 2291 Views

Five Indicted in Luke Bribery Case--will this be enough to keep Feds Away?

Another Filipino National Charged with Unlawfully Voting as an Alien

Hawaiʻi population decline: How managed growth policies shaped today’s crisis

ASD: … The Islands grew fast after the war — new subdivisions, new hotels climbing out of the sand at Waikīkī. A reasonable person standing in the governor’s office in 1975, watching the curves climb, could honestly ask how much the Islands could carry.

Ariyoshi’s answer was “managed growth.” He used no coercion. Instead, he built a State Plan that set targets for slowing population growth. And he wielded a Land Use Commission that kept most land closed to building. What land remained was wrapped in red tape that slowed development to a tree snail’s pace.

The plan worked the way a tourniquet works. Growth slowed, as did homebuilding. The supply of houses fell behind the number of families who needed them. Prices did what prices always do when many people chase few homes. Working families were priced out, then pushed out — to Las Vegas, to Texas, to anywhere the math still worked. The state that set out to slow the growth of its population ended by exporting its children.

Ariyoshi never disowned the project. In 2009 he published a short book looking back on 50 years of statehood. In it he wrote with evident satisfaction that annual population growth had “slowed to about 1.5 percent, at least partly due to managed growth policies.” In the same pages he looked ahead: by 2035, he projected, our state’s population would be 1.6 million people.

Ariyoshi was optimistic. Hawaiʻi’s population has declined now in five of the past six years and is below its peak of 1.45 million. The model missed again, this time in the other direction.

The planners who could not foresee abundance also could not foresee the empty cradle. Today, Hawaiʻi has nearly twice the population it had in 1972, yet has fewer children enrolled in school….

Read … Hawaiʻi population decline: How George Ariyoshi’s managed growth policies shaped today’s…

$53M: HART board OKs first of two change orders for Skyline

SA: … The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation board of directors on Friday advanced a $53 million change order for Skyline’s primary core systems contractor related to the delayed rollout of the city’s rail line.

The board’s vote recommends that HART Executive Director and CEO Lori Kahikina approve the change order for Hitachi Rail Honolulu JV, which is responsible for the city’s fully automated, driverless rail system.

The change order is limited to the design, manufacturing and procurement portion of the Segment 3 contract, which will extend the more than $10 billion Skyline to Kakaako by 2030. HART officials say this action does not include construction work associated with Segment 3.

That work, they add, will be addressed in a separate change order expected to come before the board at a later meeting….

Read … HART board OKs $53M change order for Skyline | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Another Delay For Honolulu Rail? The Timeline Appears To Be Slipping Again

CB: … An assortment of design and construction problems on the Honolulu rail project may push back the opening date for the last segment of the 18.9-mile Skyline system by more than a year, to April of 2032, according to a report by an outside consultant that oversees the project for the Federal Transit Administration.

The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation is still aiming for an opening date of March 31, 2031 for the entire Skyline system, but HART Executive Director Lori Kahikina acknowledged in a board of directors meeting Friday it will be a challenge to stick to that schedule.

Kahikina described the latest estimate of the rail construction timeline as “our no float schedule,” with only 100 days of flexibility left in the schedule as a cushion in the event something does not go as planned.

“You folks understand how construction is,” she told the board. “With no float, that means everything has to be perfect — no glitches — to reach our revenue service date of 2031. Right now if you look at our schedule we still are on to meet that 2031, but again, that’s with no float.”

The HART board on Friday also approved a $53 million change order with Hitachi Rail Honolulu JV to compensate the contractor for costs associated with years of delays and for changes to the scope of the original contract….

read … Another Delay For Honolulu Rail? The Timeline Appears To Be Slipping Again - Honolulu Civil Beat

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