Leftist San Fran shuts down Airbnb business
They’re coming for you next: The leftist government of San Francisco has forced the shut down of a chain of Airbnb rentals owned by a couple for violating the city’s many laws.
A San Francisco couple has been fined $2.25 million and ordered to not engage in listing their real estate properties on sites like Airbnb until 2025 for repeated violations of the city’s short term rental laws, the city attorney announced Monday.
City Attorney Dennis Herrera said landlords Darren and Valerie Lee have been running “an illicit hotel chain” during San Francisco’s housing crisis rather than lawfully renting the units to residential tenants.
Though it clearly appears the couple had violated San Francisco laws, the real question is the immoral nature of the laws.
[W]hat should really be on trial here are not the Herreras but the laws that San Francisco has put in place to stifle the gig economy. The Herrera family owns those apartment buildings and they pay the taxes, are responsible for all the maintenance and took the risk of investing in the properties. Clearly, there is a market for short-term rentals because if there weren’t they wouldn’t be able to remain profitable. Why is the city telling them how they must rent out their property?
The public doesn’t benefit from these laws, providing the owners keep the properties up to code and safe to inhabit. The only beneficiaries are the major hotel chains who charge outrageous prices for rooms and lobby politicians heavily (as well as donating generously to their campaigns) to try to squeeze out the gig economy. If the Herrera family has any hope of prevailing here it should come by way of a challenge to these short-term rental laws and the chance to expose the influence of the hotel lobby that drives them.
This is what you get when you allow government too much power: Corruption, favoritism, and oppression. I have in recent years made it my business to avoid California at all costs. This story reinforces that position.
Readers!
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They’re coming for you next: The leftist government of San Francisco has forced the shut down of a chain of Airbnb rentals owned by a couple for violating the city’s many laws.
A San Francisco couple has been fined $2.25 million and ordered to not engage in listing their real estate properties on sites like Airbnb until 2025 for repeated violations of the city’s short term rental laws, the city attorney announced Monday.
City Attorney Dennis Herrera said landlords Darren and Valerie Lee have been running “an illicit hotel chain” during San Francisco’s housing crisis rather than lawfully renting the units to residential tenants.
Though it clearly appears the couple had violated San Francisco laws, the real question is the immoral nature of the laws.
[W]hat should really be on trial here are not the Herreras but the laws that San Francisco has put in place to stifle the gig economy. The Herrera family owns those apartment buildings and they pay the taxes, are responsible for all the maintenance and took the risk of investing in the properties. Clearly, there is a market for short-term rentals because if there weren’t they wouldn’t be able to remain profitable. Why is the city telling them how they must rent out their property?
The public doesn’t benefit from these laws, providing the owners keep the properties up to code and safe to inhabit. The only beneficiaries are the major hotel chains who charge outrageous prices for rooms and lobby politicians heavily (as well as donating generously to their campaigns) to try to squeeze out the gig economy. If the Herrera family has any hope of prevailing here it should come by way of a challenge to these short-term rental laws and the chance to expose the influence of the hotel lobby that drives them.
This is what you get when you allow government too much power: Corruption, favoritism, and oppression. I have in recent years made it my business to avoid California at all costs. This story reinforces that position.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
The powers in any municipality that be will have their pound of flesh and those who are seen as usurping, threatening or disruption the accepted convention and their power and their “rights” to any taxation and cash flow will suffer.
UBER, ABTB, etc all create new technologically based business models that the powers that be have not yet been able to figure out how to tap and control. But they are working on it.
Just another example, just like the Left and the high tech communications and organization capability being leveraged by todays community organizers be more effective.
Technology is a monkey wrench to many existing conventions, paradigm shifts often are.
And where is it all headed?
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/2172141/chinas-brightest-children-are-being-recruited-develop-ai-killer
I lived in San Francisco in the mid 80’s, worked in Victorville in the late 90’s, and haven’t been back to California since. Customer’s have asked if I’d consider doing business in California. I will not. The state has many interesting and wonderful areas, and I’ve never toured LA, but I refuse to support the State.
Size of the fines should be the give away – SF is looking for new tax revenue sources.
Airbnb is competing with big hotel corporations in a tourist heavy venue – corporations win easily in a socialist orientated environment.
Who knows – Bed & Breakfast next on the heavy reg/hit list?
Businesses should move OUT of Sodom and Gemora-cisco so the Tax Base shrinks and the city goes BANKRUPT due to lack of money and the city is overrun by street people who already turn the city into a literal Third World [deleted] with the streets becoming open sewers.
It’s the only way to effect change and throw the Regressive Socialists out.
Edward_2: I have deleted the obscenity from your post. You are a new poster, so you might not be aware that I do not permit such language here. See this post: No obscenities on Behind the Black.
Because you are new I will not suspend you, but be warned.
Overview of Airbnb Law in San Francisco
“What landlords, tenants, and homeowners need to know about short-term rentals such as Airbnb”
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/overview-airbnb-law-san-francisco.html
California is not on my list of places to visit. There are good people there, One cousin being one.
We get to keep our sheriff in Hidalgo county NM. Was over to his mother’s last night. One can easily see why he grew up to be an outstanding citizen.
The election results showed quite clearly the rift between main street America and the west coast. The NE is not as far away as the west coasters. This direction main street is taking and the antics of the far left may be the vehicle for Trump to get his second term. If the house is such an obstruction that the economy fall, main street may have something to say.
How is Ruth doing after her fall and broken bones?
“New York City Raids Condo Building in Crackdown on Airbnb Rentals”
November 11, 2018 WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-city-raids-condo-building-in-crackdown-on-airbnb-rentals-1541944153