and his wife planned to come to Honolulu for a
month so that his mother could help with the
baby. A month turned into two and then six.
“If there’s an opportunity now to take mainland
salaries and our mainland jobs and to execute
them well from Hawaii, I do think that Hawaii has
a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to diversify the
economy and ... take advantage of the fact that
our core strength is Hawaii is a tremendously
wonderful place to live and to raise kids,” he said.
The idea behind the campaign started with
wanting more people like Matsui to come home,
said Jason Higa, CEO of FCH Enterprises, parent
company of Hawaii’s popular Zippy’s restaurants.
Then the group started thinking about
broadening it to others.
With the impacts on housing in mind, Higa said
the group included a vacation rental company
that’s sitting on a large inventory of vacant
properties normally rented by tourists.
Wissam Ali-Ahmad, a software solution architect
from San Jose, California, is renting a Kauai
condo that’s normally marketed to vacationers.
He has picked up side projects as a consultant for
local food trucks and restaurants to help the small
businesses improve their contactless services.
“I feel like I’m a guest here, and I have to
contribute as much as possible,” he said.
Many Hawaii neighborhoods are overrun
with illegal short-term vacation rentals, and
having those properties occupied legally by
longer-term tenants is appealing, said Ryan
Ozawa, communications director for local tech
company, Hawaii Information Service.