Honolulu mayor cancels $772M renovation of Blaisdell Center
HONOLULU (AP) — Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell has announced the cancellation of plans to renovate the Neal S. Blaisdell Center due to financial concerns.
The $772 million plan called for demolishing and replacing the existing arena, exhibition hall and parking structure during a planned closure of about three years beginning in November, officials said.
This was “a logical time to pause the project,” Caldwell said in a statement Monday.
Caldwell cited the unknown final cost of the city’s major rail upgrade and a new administration and city council beginning in less than a year as contributing factors in the decision.
The renovation proposal had critics including Honolulu City Council members Ann Kobayashi and Carol Fukunaga and state House Speaker Scott Saiki.
City officials plan to address maintenance needed at the Blaisdell Center while trying to keep the facility open to the public during repairs, Caldwell said.
During fiscal year 2021, the city will also consider “significant renovation of one or more of our performance venues, at a reduced scope and cost,” Caldwell said.
The Blaisdell campus, named for former Honolulu Mayor Neal Blaisdell, first opened in 1964.
The $4.8 million plan for renovations called for a modernized but nearly identical version of the arena, replacement of the exhibition hall with an upgraded hall, arts ensemble building and satellite city hall and the replacement of the parking structure with two new parking facilities with capacity for 500 additional vehicles.
Public schools weapons incidents drop to 10-year low
HONOLULU (AP) — The number of students caught bringing projectile weapons, ranging from guns to slingshots, to Hawaii public schools has dropped to the lowest level in 10 years, according to a new report.
An annual study presented to the state Legislature found 17 events involving 18 of the weapons over the last school year.
The education department report provides a broader definition for firearms than the definition used by state and federal governments. The report defined a “firearm” as an instrument that expels a projectile and covers guns as well as slingshots and airguns such as airsoft, pellet, BB, and paintball guns. The majority of confiscated weapons last year were airguns, along with two described as “slingshot like devices.”
The 17 weapon confiscations among a population of more than 179,000 students and represented a 32% drop over the previous year, the state Department of Education report said. The figure was a 51% decline from the 2011-12 academic year, when 35 incidents were reported.
Report: Maui exceeds 3M annual visitors for 1st time
WAILUKU, Hawaii (AP) — Maui surpassed 3 million annual visitors for the first time since the The Hawaii Tourism Authority began keeping records, a new report said.
The authority’s latest visitor statistics show Maui led neighboring islands in 2019.
The figure was a 5.4% increase from the previous year prior and the highest number since the organization began tracking tourists numbers in 1990.
Preliminary data shows the state exceeded 10.4 million annual tourists for the first time last year, the authority said.
Annual visitors to Maui have only dipped below 2 million once since 1990, with 1.8 million visitors in 2009.