Post by High Priestess on Dec 28, 2018 10:37:11 GMT
In this article, www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-strathmann-airbnb-rules-20181227-story.html
the author, Cynthia Strathmann, is executive director of an organization "for tenant rights". So this may explain her bias and the inappropriate introduction of identity politics into an article about hosting. She notes, as if with disdain, that hosts who spoke out at one meeting were "predominantly white and middle class", as if these facts made them immediately suspect. She says, "The Airbnb rental fight overall has been a textbook demonstration of upper-middle-class entitlement."
In her eyes, there are " a few people who make money from home sharing and everyone else living in a city with a housing shortage." She argues that Airbnb hosts are "holding the rest of the city hostage to their interests."
Cynthia, it's not the hosts who are entitled -- it's you who are entitled. You feel entitled to other people's property. Therein lies the problem. Moreover, if as you say, " in a city of 4 million people, less than 0.5% are hosts", then how is it that what these people do with their own property has such a huge effect on everyone else? It doesn't. The effect of hosting on the housing market is quite small. As I argue elsewhere, you can find a much bigger effect on the housing market in government policy.
Oh, and Cynthia....think of all the land in State and National Parks that isn't being developed into housing --- I suppose those darn hikers are holding everyone hostage to their recreational interests. We could put tall apartment buildings in Yosemite and Yellowstone, after all.
the author, Cynthia Strathmann, is executive director of an organization "for tenant rights". So this may explain her bias and the inappropriate introduction of identity politics into an article about hosting. She notes, as if with disdain, that hosts who spoke out at one meeting were "predominantly white and middle class", as if these facts made them immediately suspect. She says, "The Airbnb rental fight overall has been a textbook demonstration of upper-middle-class entitlement."
In her eyes, there are " a few people who make money from home sharing and everyone else living in a city with a housing shortage." She argues that Airbnb hosts are "holding the rest of the city hostage to their interests."
Cynthia, it's not the hosts who are entitled -- it's you who are entitled. You feel entitled to other people's property. Therein lies the problem. Moreover, if as you say, " in a city of 4 million people, less than 0.5% are hosts", then how is it that what these people do with their own property has such a huge effect on everyone else? It doesn't. The effect of hosting on the housing market is quite small. As I argue elsewhere, you can find a much bigger effect on the housing market in government policy.
Oh, and Cynthia....think of all the land in State and National Parks that isn't being developed into housing --- I suppose those darn hikers are holding everyone hostage to their recreational interests. We could put tall apartment buildings in Yosemite and Yellowstone, after all.