Mayor Alameda Delivers State of the County Speech on Quality of Life

Mayor Kimo Alameda used his second State of the County address at Nani Mau Gardens in Hilo to center the conversation on quality of life, pressing for island-wide cooperation to confront housing affordability, homelessness and rising living costs.

Speaking during the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Hawaiʻi’s general membership meeting, Alameda took listeners on what Big Island Video News described as a virtual road trip around the island to highlight projects planned or underway in each district. He pledged “full effort, collaboration, and pursuit of additional funding” for those efforts and framed the work as multi-jurisdictional and systemic.

Alameda stressed that tackling affordability “is going to require all of us,” and urged policymakers and residents to “dig deep” into a wide range of areas: “building codes, roads, energy costs, wastewater and water services, workforce development, home insurance and mortgage rates, property taxes, and support services.” That inventory reflects an administration seeking policy levers across infrastructure, regulation and social supports rather than a single fix.

The mayor repeatedly cast the county as a close-knit community. “We are all part of the same community and that is my community family,” he said, and added a personal note about constituent contact: “Every encounter is super unique. It cannot be replicated. Every time I see a constituent, I see a mom, a dad, a child, I embrace them.” He closed with the Japanese phrase Ichigo Ichie, “one encounter, one lifetime”, and a longer reflection on mutual care: “The past is over for all of us, the future is promised to none of us, so all we get is today... we treat each other with love and respect. And we can agree to disagree, but we always love.”

Coverage of the event includes a video excerpt Big Island Video News posted on Feb. 13, 2026 at 8:04 a.m., which notes the footage was provided by the County of Hawaiʻi and supplemented with archival images. Media accounts and a social media post confirm the venue and the Japanese Chamber context, but the day of the address is reported inconsistently: outlets refer to Thursday while a Tribune-Herald caption lists Friday. An Instagram post from the event day said, “It was great to be on Hawaiʻi Island today for Mayor Kimo Alameda's State of the County address at Nani Mau Gardens in Hilo.”

For residents seeking follow-up or more detail on the island-wide projects Alameda mentioned, Hawai‘i County lists Mayor Kimo Alameda, Managing Director Bill Brilhante and Deputy Managing Director Merrick Nishimoto among its East Hawai‘i office contacts at 25 Aupuni Street, Hilo, HI. Alameda’s emphasis on collaboration and funding signals the administration’s next phase: moving from vision and inventory of problem areas toward securing the resources and interagency agreements needed to deliver tangible housing and quality-of-life results for Big Island communities.