Taking his landslide re-election as a mandate for ongoing transformation, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi delivered the first state-of-the-city address of his second term Tuesday with sights set on new alignments, infrastructure and systems to address housing, homelessness, public safety and other tenacious challenges.

“Expectations are high and there are a lot of people counting on us to deliver,” Blangiardi said at an evening presentation at the Mission Memorial Auditorium. “Our growth as an administration has been steady and strong. We have learned and discovered much together about the many diverse needs of our city and our people. Our collective efforts in the next four years are primed to meet those diverse needs through high achievement, driven by solid execution.

“The stakes are high,” he said. “The timing could not be more critical. This demands an invincible determination, from all of us, if we are to succeed. We cannot acquiesce in the face of so many of our people leaving — and so many others considering it — due to the high cost of living. This is the leadership challenge of a lifetime for our entire team.”

Blangiardi said solving the city’s ongoing shortage of affordable housing will be key to stemming the tide of rising outmigration from state. To that end, the mayor highlighted last week’s introduction of a resolution in the Honolulu City Council to merge the Office of Housing and Department of Land Management into a single, unified operation to be led by current Office of Housing executive director Kevin Auger, with current DLM director Cat Tashner serving as deputy director.

The combined department will include a new development division to lead collaborative efforts with private developers, potentially to transform 10 underused, city-owned properties into affordable housing.

The other key component of the new department will be a finance division charged with developing new ways to address the cost of development. While the resurrected Private Activity Bond program has successfully helped to finance new affordable housing developments, Blangiardi says more can be done

“The simple truth is our current affordable housing ecosystem relies too heavily on low-income tax credits and general obligation bonds — funding sources that are way too restrictive,” he said. “To further accelerate the delivery of housing and execute our housing goals, the city needs cutting-edge financing solutions”

Blangiardi said he is also considering whether reorganization might also be beneficial to the city’s public safety departments. The mayor said the Honolulu Ocean Safety Department, once a part of the Emergency Medical Services Division, has thrived since being re-established as a stand-alone department last year

“Reorganization made great sense for Ocean Safety, and it’s time to find out if it makes sense for Emergency Medical Services,” Blangiardi said. “Our administration has already begun to establish a task force to determine whether the Honolulu Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services would be better off as a single, integrated department”

The mayor announced the city intends to purchase a property across from Shark’s Cove in Haleiwa for the creation of a first responder hub that would serve as a base of operations for North Shore lifeguards. The facility would include a new ambulance station

Among Blangiardi’s other announcements on Tuesday: 

• The second segment of the Skyline rail transit system will open for service on Oct. 1, extending the current system eastward to Middle Street, with new stops at Pearl Harbor and Daniel K. Inouye International Airport
• The Crisis, Outreach, Response and Engagement team will establish a second base of operations in Waipahu this year, improving their ability to provide services to homeless individuals across West and Central Oahu
• The Honolulu Emergency Services Department is collaborating with Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center and Kapiolani Community College to create a new training program on the Waianae Coast for residents interested in careers as paramedics or emergency medical technicians
• The Department of Customer Service’s plans to make it possible for Oahu residents to renew driver’s licenses via online appointments, which is expected to further cut wait times for important appointments at Satellite City Hall locations on Oahu

Michael Tsai covers local and state politics for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at michael.tsai@charter.com.