are they concerned that they’re going to raise
housing prices more and stuff like that?”
Housing is a real concern in a state where there’s
an affordable housing crisis, said Nicole Woo, a
policy analyst for Hawaii Appleseed Center for
Law and Economic Justice.
She worries that if their presence remains
beyond the pandemic and if they come in larger
numbers, they could start pushing property
values even higher.
Lifelong Kauai resident Jonathon Medeiros felt
uncomfortable when he saw an airline ad luring
remote workers to Hawaii.
The remote worker campaign just feels to
him like another kind of tourism. “We just get
portrayed as this paradise, a place for you
to come and play,” he said. “And there’s such
privilege involved in that attitude.”
One focus of the campaign sounds appealing
to Medeiros, a public high school teacher: An
opportunity for those who grew up in Hawaii to
come home without having to take the pay cuts
that are often required to work here.
“I see so many of my students, they graduate
and many of them leave and never come back,”
he said, “because they don’t see Kauai as a place
where they can make a life.”
Richard Matsui grew up in Honolulu. After high
school, he left for the U.S. mainland and Asia for
educational and career opportunities.
As CEO of of kWh Analytics, he never expected
to be able to leave California’s Bay Area and still
be able to run the company.
The pandemic shut down child care options in
San Francisco for his baby born in January. He