Editor,
Thanks to the LB Indy for the eye-opening article about the number of short term rentals in Laguna owned by people who do not live here. This is a highly relevant facet of the whole short-term rental issue that has not had the level of exposure and discussion in Council deliberations that it merits. I thank the Indy for shining a light on it and I commend the city staff for their diligence, thoroughness, and fairness in providing this important information in their report.
A prominent litigator once told me – when the facts are with you, pound on the facts. When the facts are against you, pound on the table.
The pro-Airbnb folks are doing a lot of table pounding. Rather than address the facts, they have been attacking the reports and the reporters of fact.
Here are some facts. Beach cities in California like Carmel, Redondo Beach. Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Huntington Beach prohibit short-term rentals in residential areas. What do they know that we don’t know?
Cities like San Clemente, which had experimented with allowing short term rentals, are now trying to rein them back in. While prohibiting short-term rentals in R-1 (single-family residential) zones, Newport Beach has now lost control and has over 1,000 short-term rentals completely taking over other whole areas of the city. And the amount of revenue Newport collects from short-term rentals is far less than 1% of the Newport Beach City budget of $300 million and is nowhere near adequate to cover the costs to that city and its residents caused by these amateur hotels.
The ordnance unanimously recommended by our Planning Commission offers a compromise that is more than fair – grandfathering those properties that have been playing by the rules, allowing vacation rentals longer than 30 days, allowing new permits for short-term rentals in commercial zones near the other hotels. And if that isn’t good enough, wanna-be mini hotel operators can always go to Newport.
Why is our City Council impervious to evidence? Why can’t we learn from other’s mistakes? Why does our City Council insist on making our own mistakes?
Why not support the well-researched and well-reasoned work of the city staff and the 5-0 recommendation of our Planning Commission?
John Thomas, Laguna Beach
Cuz you voted for them and keep voting for them? (Instead of voting for the folks that listen and have saved everything good in Laguna when they run!)
Families with children in the local schools, workers, artists and seniors, who are renting, can no longer afford to continue living in Laguna Beach. Many long term rentals have become or are now becoming furnished, short term vacation rentals, as landlords foresee making more income than on long term rentals. Laguna Beach, as a small community, will be impacted in the long run. Workers will have to live elsewhere and travel into town to find places to park. We have been losing the flavor of our local artists to other areas. Laguna Beach’s shops and restaurants go dark early in the fall and winter (the VRBO Airbnb, Homestay off-season) since there is not a good mix of local long term renters and residents to support them, etc. etc. Local businesses are having a shorter lifespan as commercial rents have also increased, to the point of longer vacancies. It is all a matter of economics and greed that either needs to be controlled, or residents and business owners suffer the consequences.
AirBandBS – The New Scamming Economy
In the ‘60’s, they were crash pads and even earlier, flop houses. Cheap, quick places to pile up transients on floor mats and bunk beds while boosting the wealth of out of town slumlords.
But the clever, hip, disruptive on-line sharing economy has changed all of that…or has it?
Laguna Beach City Council remains bewildered and flip-flopping each time another group floods Council Chambers with plaintive screams of injustice masking personal greed. Certainly, there are residents that have poorly managed their finances and used their homes as an ATM money machine to pay for a bad mortgage or extravagant lifestyle. They perceive their house as an investment to be leveraged rather than a home for life. Sad, but hardly justification for abandoning decades of laws, zoning regulations and hundreds of thousands of hours of citizen participation to create the town we love and remains cherished by millions of visitors.
When a house is just an investment, where is your home? Where is your community? Who are your neighbors and friends when you grind more profit from your neighborhood to bring even more overnight tourists? Why must the City Council cave in to “mob-ocracy” at each meeting to bailout a few residents with failed financial plans? Is a Laguna Beach community of neighborhoods or simply another profit center for greedy investors and corporations?
Alternatives for homeowners to gain income exist. The big family house with only one or two remaining residents can offer a rented room to a local artist, college student, senior, veteran or other nice person in critical need of housing. New roommates can help overcome loneliness while helping out with many household chores, dog walking and even basic landscaping or gardening. A new roommate might even enlighten and stimulate an otherwise routine, boring, isolated lifestyle. Lonely singles in a big house can find a new friend and reliable source of monthly income.
In May, a bold effort by the City, Chamber of Commerce and local foundations to promote citizen involvement will be launched. Hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars will be spent to induce more public participation. Yet the best incentive for achieving this goal is to respect the generations of work to create Laguna as a place worth living and calling a home. Abandoning basic residential zoning and laws mandating affordable housing because AirBandBS is a mysterious billion dollar juggernaut with no actual real assets is not compromise as much as it is a sign of weak leadership, appeasement and a lack of commitment to honor the many contributions of citizens to make Laguna truly liveable and the envy of other communities. Why participate when our rules and regulations are worthless?
The latest on-line business of the “sharing economy” is simply another scam by a handful of financially challenged locals and an army of outside carpetbaggers. Laguna Beach is foolish to succumb to slick AirBandBS advertisements and the drum beat promoting a Scamming Economy uber alles.
Mike Beanan
South Laguna
When economies fail the populace resort to ancient archetypes of employment.
1) prostitution
2) livery
3) inn keep