Tsuneyoshi: Luxury development moratorium could help rein in housing costs

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - While the non-partisan City Council is considered a safe place for Republicans like Heidi Tsuneyoshi, she says she felt compelled to run to governor.

“After seeing what was happening and really deciding we needed different checks and balances in our state government, I couldn’t sit it out,” said Tsuneyoshi, who recently sat down with HNN and Civil Beat journalists for “The Job Interview.”

To stop overtourism, Tsuneyoshi wants to explore limits on incoming planes and luxury development.

SPECIAL SECTION: “The Job Interview”

“Are you saying you would literally have a moratorium on luxury and high-end housing,” asked Daryl Huff, HNN acting news director.

“That’s a consideration. I definitely believe that should be a consideration on the table,” replied Tsuneyoshi.

THE JOB INTERVIEW: Watch “The Job Interview” with Heidi Tsuneyoshi on Friday at 8 p.m. on K5. You can also watch all of our in-depth conversations with candidates in our special section.

“We haven’t done a great job of talking about capacity as far as limiting development of hotels, and even at our airports,” she added.

She says she’s against pandemic and vaccine mandates because they were harmful to businesses and didn’t give people choices.

“I had discussed the vitamin regimen in committee and they said that was dangerous conversations to have, but there’s a lot of other things that we could have been highlighting during the pandemic that was silenced and not really talked about,” said Tsuneyoshi.

“I think people told you, you’re causing confusion that could lead to people dying,” replied Huff.

“I didn’t think it was any confusion to let people know, if you take a vitamin regimen regimen, you can strengthen your immune system,” said Tsuneyoshi.

She later clarified she’s not against the COVID vaccine, but is against mandates.

She also talked President Trump and the 2020 election.

“I think we have to see how everything plays out. I don’t have an opinion of the insurrection. I think that’s a sensationalized situation,” said Tsuneyoshi.

“I think there was a lot of dynamics that were involved in that day,” she added.

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