Honolulu Selected to Join Love Your Block – Partnering With Residents to Improve Neighborhoods Citywide

News Release from City and County of Honolulu September 24, 2026

As one of 25 new city halls from 20 U.S. states, the City and County of Honolulu will receive funding and expert support from the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University, along with dedicated staff to fund community-led projects that clear vacant lots, reclaim public space, and improve lives.

Honolulu, Hawai‘i – September 24, 2026 – Mayor Rick Blangiardi today announced the City and County of Honolulu has been selected to join Love Your Block, an initiative led by the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University, to launch resident-led projects that improve their cities.

As one of just 25 new local governments from 20 U.S. states to join the latest edition of the program, the City and County of Honolulu will receive $70,000 to engage residents in efforts that clear vacant lots, reclaim public space, and better their communities, as well as expert support from the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation and a dedicated Love Your Block Fellow to support their work—and build trust in local government.

“This is about listening to the people who know their neighborhoods best and giving them the opportunity to help shape meaningful improvements in their own communities,” Mayor Rick Blangiardi said. “Our Stations of Abundance initiative is focused on the Skyline corridor from Pouhala to Hō‘ae‘ae, including Waipahu, ‘Ewa and Honouliuli. We want to work directly with residents to create safer, greener and better-connected neighborhoods while making sure the communities along Skyline benefit from the investments we are making.”

The new 25 Love Your Block city halls include Albuquerque, NM; Aurora, IL; Birmingham, AL; Chattanooga, TN; Columbia, SC; Deerfield Beach, FL; Dubuque, IA; Eugene, OR; Everett, WA; Frederick, MD; Greensboro, NC; Harlingen, TX; Hoboken, NJ; Honolulu, HI; Jersey City, NJ; La Crosse, WI; Lancaster, PA; Lansing, MI; Macon, GA; Mobile, AL; Newark, NJ; South Fulton, GA; Tulsa, OK; Wilmington, DE; and Winston-Salem, NC.

They join a broader national program that, since its founding in 2009, has helped 50 local governments engage more than 88,000 residents across 33 states to remove more than 7 million pounds of trash, clean over 550,000 square feet of graffiti, create nearly 800 art displays, and transform the areas residents rely on most. These results have also been shown to build ties between city halls and their citizens: a 2021 study by the Urban Institute found that participating Love Your Block municipalities improved social cohesion among residents, increased civic participation, and strengthened relationships between local government and the people it serves.

“Residents often have the clearest view of what their neighborhoods need—and Love Your Block helps mayors and municipalities bring them into the work—and see those ideas through,” Francisca M. Rojas, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins. “That translates to tangible improvements communities want—and that they lead—with their city hall’s support, and shows what happens when local government invites the public in to solve problems and deliver, together.”

For more information, visit https://publicinnovation.jhu.edu/programs/love-your-block/.

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