This month, thousands of New Yorkers will hand over their apartment keys to strangers, making a few extra bucks by renting out their homes when they head out of town.
But they might not know they’re actually breaking a city law. A law that went into effect this past May bans renting out apartments for fewer than 30 days.
The law was created to target residential buildings illegally converted into makeshift hotels, but still applies to those who rent out their room for a night or two on popular sites like Airbnb.com.
Presumably, the point is to protect hotels and hotel tax revenue.
We were in New York this weekend, and we took an architectural tour of some recent skyscrapers. The tour guide said that the way to get rich is to be a zoning lawyer. He also said that a lot of zoning issues end up being resolved politically, that is by developers buying off politicians.
The result is to make real estate in New York a field for crony capitalism. And it is not surprising that any attempt by anyone to try genuine capitalism is likely to run afoul of the law.
READER COMMENTS
Qgambit
Dec 13 2011 at 6:06pm
Thats pretty much how zoning works everywhere else too.
Wlado
Dec 13 2011 at 7:57pm
No end to the new laws; no end to the creative resolutions.
Becky Hargrove
Dec 13 2011 at 7:57pm
Looks like we need our charter cities right here, where zoning can be determined by the increasingly scarce species of democracy.
Joe Marier
Dec 13 2011 at 8:28pm
The law is reasonable. Apartments and townhomes involve sharing walls. The “freedom” to run a hostel out of your apartment means forcing someone else to share a wall with a hostel.
hanmeng
Dec 13 2011 at 11:58pm
Rather than “a field for crony capitalism”, perhaps a haven or playground.
Thomas Boyle
Dec 14 2011 at 8:07am
Joe Marier,
There are already plenty of remedies for rowdy neighbors, whether they are temporary or permanent residents of the apartment.
And if the neighbors aren’t rowdy, who cares that they’re in residence for less than 30 days?
This law simply seeks to transfer wealth from ordinary New Yorkers to the politically powerful.
Oh, there’s a surprise.
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