Mayor of Honolulu
Harris won a special election to become the outright Mayor of Honolulu in September 1994. He was consequently re-elected in 1996 and 2000, appealing mostly to Chinese American, Filipino American and Japanese American communities. During his tenure as Mayor of Honolulu, residents voted to limit the mayoral term to two four-year terms and thus made Harris ineligible for re-election in 2004. Former members of the Honolulu City Council Duke Bainum, Mufi Hannemann and former Mayor Frank F. Fasi ran to succeed Harris, with Hannemann ultimately the victor.
Harris is recognized as having executed the first government system overhaul in Honolulu history. He reorganized all municipal departments and streamlined all services provided by the city and county. He also curtailed urban sprawl by reforming the system of land use planning to preserve open spaces and agricultural districts.
Harris' most ambitious and controversial project was 21st Century Oahu: A Shared Vision for the Future. 21st Century Oahu is a community based visioning program where neighborhoods would be given some control and CIP funding priority over their own community development, urban planning and beautification projects. Hundreds of public safety, environment, transportation, cultural and recreation construction projects were initiated and many completed as an outgrowth of Harris' 21st Century Oahu project.
Read more about this topic: Jeremy Harris
Famous quotes containing the word mayor:
“Without infringing on the liberty we so much boast, might we not ask our professional Mayor to call upon the smokers, have them register their names in each ward, and then appoint certain thoroughfares in the city for their use, that those who feel no need of this envelopment of curling vapor, to insure protection may be relieved from a nuisance as disgusting to the olfactories as it is prejudicial to the lungs.”
—Harriot K. Hunt (1805–1875)