Page 7 - Aruba Today
P. 7
U.S. NEWS A7
Tuesday 15 March 2016
US Financial Front:
Big Easy Airbnbs mushroom, sparking debate over city’s soul
Baba Ken Amen, an artist and vegan caterer, poses for a photo at his home in Pontchartrain Park in some historic neighbor- “The economics are very
in New Orleans. Amen says he makes ends meet renting his art-filled, solar-powered home on hoods and revoking licens- clear that we need to em-
Airbnb. es of bad operators while brace tourists, and wher-
requiring insurance, prop- ever they want to stay, we
(AP Photo/Cain Burdeau) erty managers and guest let them,” said Christian
logs. Galvin, who rents out sev-
CAIN BURDEAU plaints against the rentals er. “I’m not getting rich off Nationally the issue isn’t eral properties nightly and
Associated Press have doubled. Hotel and this.” new. Portland, Oregon, le- serves on the Alliance for
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — For bed-and-breakfast owners For $165 a night, guests galized short-term rentals in Neighborhood Prosperity,
years, tourists in New Or- have joined neighborhood can get a “down-home 2014. San Francisco, where a pro-Airbnb group. “Short-
leans mostly stayed in groups to press for restric- experience” in what he ad- Airbnb is headquartered, term renters use the post
the French Quarter. They tions. The state is looking to vertises as “Pontchartrain legalized them last year. In office; they use dry clean-
did their drinking there, tax them like motels. Park Paradise,” with its jazz New York City, renting out ers; they use the grocery
gawked at raunchy shows Brittanie Bryant is so fed up collection, books and Afri- an extra room or couch is stores; they don’t go in just
on Bourbon Street and with bachelor parties at the can masks. Amen says his fine, but it’s illegal to rent for cigarettes.”
gorged themselves at ex- townhouse-turned-hotel guests help the area: “They most apartments for fewer Airbnb says its rentals con-
quisite restaurants. next door that she and her support our local grocery than 30 days. New York’s tributed $140 million to
But that’s changing, partly husband are considering stores ... they’re trying things state Attorney General New Orleans’ economy
thanks to a mushrooming of moving. in the neighborhood.” Eric Schneiderman said in in a year and disputes the
short-term rentals through “Guests vomit on our cars, Airbnb and other sites like 2014 that three-fourths of claim that short-term rent-
websites like Airbnb. Now pee on our cars, throw up HomeAway offer up to New York City Airbnb list- als drive up housing costs.
tourists — some of whom in our yard, throw trash in 4,000 private properties for ings were illegal. The com- Airbnb spokeswoman Ali-
come to party — are found our yard, rip out our flow- rent nightly around New pany said it removed many son Schumer also said in a
in neighborhoods around ers,” said Bryant, who lives Orleans: from former slave of those listings, but some statement that Airbnb sup-
the city, and locals are di- on Esplanade Avenue, a quarters and artists’ lofts, to New Yorkers blame Airbnb ports the “city’s ongoing
vided about whether that’s charming street outside the Cotton Kingdom-era man- for helping to drive rents efforts” at regulation.
a good thing. French Quarter with ga- sions, sunny Creole cot- up. Whether or not Airbnb
Some say the rentals help bled and balconied 19th- tages and brightly painted In New Orleans, many also is the cause, locals say
residents — including artists century Creole townhouses “shotgun” houses — nar- blame the rentals for exac- neighborhoods are chang-
and young entrepreneurs and sprawling live oaks row homes with rooms con- erbating post-Katrina hous- ing. Rick Mathieu, a long-
— bolster income in a city hung with Spanish moss. nected like railroad cars. ing shortages, skyrocketing time resident of Treme, said
where many still struggle 10 Across the city, in predomi- Technically, most of these rents and the exodus of less his neighborhood is nearly
years after Hurricane Ka- nantly black Pontchartrain rentals are illegal. The City wealthy residents from the empty of families. Point-
trina. Others say the spread Park, Baba Ken Amen says Council expects to adopt city center. ing to a house, he said a
of tourism to residential ar- he makes ends meet rent- new rules this year to le- “The full-time residents woman who lives in San
eas hurts the quality of life. ing his art-filled, solar-pow- galize the practice while aren’t as plentiful as they Francisco “bought it and
Anti-Airbnb signs declaring ered home on Airbnb. “This regulating it and balancing used to be,” griped Louis made it into a money-mak-
“neighbors, not tourists” are is how we can afford to neighborhood needs. In Matassa, a white-haired ing thing.” But he defend-
common. Meetings on the pay the taxes,” said Amen, January, city planners sug- grocer at a French Quarter ed her right, as a property
topic are passionate. Com- an artist and vegan cater- gested limiting the rentals grocery store that opened owner, “to do anything you
in 1924. “The staples: They want.”
don’t sell. The animal food, Jamie Ruth, who sells art
the milk, the cartons of and runs a tattoo parlor
eggs.” on St. Claude Avenue, a
The store harks back to an rundown corridor that’s
era when the quarter was become a hipster hangout
populated by artists and since Katrina, says Airbnb is
musicians crammed into good for business, but can
dilapidated apartments. hurt neighborhoods.
“My business has fallen off “I get a lot of walk-ins stay-
and for the first time in al- ing in Airbnbs,” she said. But
most a century, the future she called it “obnoxious”
is uncertain,” he wrote to for people to buy homes
the city. “The community is and turn them into tour-
my customer base, and the ist rentals. “It really messes
community is dying.” with the neighborhood,”
But supporters say Airbnb she said, “and also drives
enhances one of the city’s up the rent for people who
biggest industries: tourism. actually live here.”
