A Billionaire's Land Purchases In Rural Hawaii Have Locals Worried
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2024
⏱️ 15 minutes
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Summary
Locals fear it will become even more difficult for Native Hawaiians to afford to live in Waimea and buy property. In Hawaii, the average home price is close to a million dollars.
Who's purchasing all this land in rural Hawaii and how will it affect the already high cost of housing in Waimea?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A mystery has been brewing in the small Hawaiian ranching town of Waimaya. |
| 0:05.0 | Housing is scarce in this working class town of 10,000 people. |
| 0:10.0 | It's a tight-knit community with a large native Hawaiian population that holds their culture close, |
| 0:15.3 | but a newcomer has been quietly buying up hundreds of acres of land there. |
| 0:20.4 | No one's really sure why. |
| 0:22.0 | I'm here on a grassy overgrown dirt road flanged by rainforest. |
| 0:27.0 | It's in the mountain town of Waima on the big island of Hawaii. |
| 0:30.0 | I'm walking with resident Clemson Lamb and we've reached an impasse on what seems to be a public road. |
| 0:36.0 | I don't know why there's a no trespassing sign on this. |
| 0:41.0 | This year is under 24-hour video surveillance. |
| 0:44.0 | It's probably taking a picture of me right now. |
| 0:46.0 | That's NPR reporter Derek Kerr, who went out to Weymea and talked to residents there |
| 0:51.0 | about the massive land purchases. |
| 0:53.5 | Oh, they bought these too also. |
| 0:56.5 | Yeah. |
| 0:57.5 | Mm, whoa. |
| 0:59.5 | All the locals know that its sales force, CEO, billionaire Mark Benioff was behind the land |
| 1:04.8 | buys but they have questions like how much land is he really bought and what's he going to do |
| 1:09.3 | with it and will it drive up housing costs in the community. |
| 1:13.0 | Your destination is on the right. |
| 1:15.0 | Eventually, Benning off got word that Dara had been poking around town, so he reached out to her. |
| 1:20.0 | Good morning. |
... |
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