Very insightful article, avoiding the 'we are better then them' pattern I see at times.  I grew up in Chicago, bitter cold, horrible crime rate that actually got much worst in last couple of years, racially diverse , but not a melting pot.  I am not a fan of the original Mayor Daly but he made sure things got done in a city of several million people, leadership.
I lived in San Francisco for years and also LA.  Horrible traffic in LA and now with the huge dot.com base in San Fran, both have horrible traffic jams.  It is a price of success and people openly tolerated the negatives. San Fran and LA have very strong economics and will draw the businesses and workforce.  Honolulu traffic is bad, but try commuting in  snow storms or in the LA parking lots they call freeways.  
Honolulu is a big city , but culturally and politically, it operates like a town.  I hear the local phase, 'that's the way we do things here'.   If you are standing still, the world passes you by.