THE CITY-Technically, “Airbnb” refers to a website where people who own homes and other properties can rent them out on a short-term basis. More generally, the term now refers to people renting out their property for a period of less than thirty days.
Like Uber and other so-called “sharing” services, the entire idea is fraught with controversy. For example, should people in a neighborhood zoned for single family homes -- the historic backbone of the City – be able to rent out their place for a week, a day, or even overnight as a party house? Can the owner of a condo or apartment building do the same?
Right now, the whole issue of short-term room and home rentals has become a hot one in the City of Angels -- sometimes pitting homeowner against homeowner. There have been many articles, lots of frustrated homeowners, many legal questions and negative impacts on neighborhoods – it’s gotten so bad that even the Neighborhood Councils have started to weigh in with Community Impact Statements.
Fortunately, the City Council knows how to deal with Neighborhood Councils: they just start adding Council Files with extensions like -001, -002, so that they can require a new Community Impact Statement for each new file. Our Tax Dollars at work!
Now, this is what we call a REALLY BIG ISSUE: mainstream news media, nasty slimy stuff happening…something that actually requires the City Council to deal with a local issue of substance like grownups. So what do our $200,000-a-year folks do?
Well for one thing, they have evidently muzzled the Deputy Planning Director who had the temerity to issue a Memo questioning the legality of Airbnbs -- depending on the zoning of a given neighborhood. His name is Alan Bell, but just try and find his memo -- I couldn’t. Only the articles referring to its existence.
Instead, thanks to President Wesson, who made two of the three motions currently floating around concerning Airbnbs, the Council did absolutely nothing to make any public policy determination as to whether, or to what extent, the variations on these rental schemes are legal.
These enterprises produce blight, crime, and/or lower the real estate values of people unfortunate enough to live next to them. But no sir, by god, the Council wants to figure out how to TAX them, blowing off all of the homeowners in the City of Angels as so much chaff.
Build a website called Airbnb, pay some bakeesh and…”ka-ching:” the LA City Council is your friend and ally. Maybe they can get in on the IPO.
And what about our buddy, Mike Feuer, the earnest City Attorney, so beloved by the LA Times that they gave him a B+ grade? As usual, he’s working with the developers, lobbyists, and “rental” agents to find a way to write an ordinance that will effectively screw the taxpayers that pay his salary.
If history is a guide and when a lawsuit comes along, as surely it must, he will probably subcontract the legal work to the law firms that represent the Airbnb industry.
Now, I’m not smart like the City Council, the Mayor, and the City Attorney. But I do know this -- in a legitimate government, there should be some substantive discussions about what the citizens of the various parts of the City really want. There should be a lot of community meetings and an analysis of the zoning and planning issues before any action is taken to give anyone a pass. You know, like taking the pulse of the various neighborhoods and trying to find a consensus. But not with our gang.
I know, I know, you think I’m making this stuff up. If only I had the imagination to do that! Unfortunately, I stopped taking mind-altering substances years ago, so I’m reduced to looking at City Council files and the actions of our elected officials. No sir, this one’s real.
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Interestingly, four of the now five PLUM Committee Council members were absent from the vote on this issue (Council File 14-0600-S89.) I can’t tell if they’re looking for some ‘extra credit’ when the PLUM Committee swings into action, or just trying to distance themselves from the pushback of their neighborhoods when the citizens find out what’s happening.
As background, here’s a real life example of how this stuff plays out in a really neat old part of town. You know, over by Echo Park Lake, in the adjacent hills, where there are some very old and very beautiful Victorian homes. This area is protected by a HPOZ (Historic Preservation Overlay Zone.) So you would think that, at the very least, it would be immune from the Airbnb madness. Right? Wrong.
Right next to my 89 year-old mother-in-law’s house, a Westside real estate developer swept in and built a 3-story, 4500 square foot (originally 4000), ugly monstrosity that was so pitifully constructed that he couldn’t even sell it in an up-market. Oh yeah, he also added a swimming pool part way down the slope.
Aside from a briefcase full of violations during the building process, the HPOZ went into hibernation, along with the Building and Safety Department and everyone else involved in our city’s oversight of building homes. So now, my mother-in-law has plenty of shade as she stares into the wall of the new house next door.
Lest you think I’m done with my sad story, there’s more, as they say in the Ginzu commercial. Since this developer couldn’t sell this turkey, he cleverly set up a bunch of cut-outs and website partners. The place is now what you and I would call a “party pad.” Mostly weekends. Lots of cars, music and booze. And lots of big black vans.
Now we find out that the City’s response to all of this is that they’re going to pass an Ordinance to make Airbnbs legal in exchange for taxes. I can hardly wait to tell my mother-in-law. She’ll be thrilled.
Actually, this all raises yet another question. If my mother-in-law ultimately decides she’s had enough and wants to sell her home -- does the real estate agent have to disclose that the property is adjacent to an Airbnb?
(Tony Butka is an Eastside community activist, who has served on a neighborhood council, has a background in government and is a contributor to CityWatch.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 66
Pub: Aug 14, 2015
