Venice residents and members of Unite Here Local 11 union gathered at he corner of Westminster and Electric to march to Globe property rentals to protest the short-term rental market.
Line formed in single file from both sides of the street.
“Rent to Locals” read the sign that many marchers had.
NOTE: The following is a link to KCAL filming of event. Update did several interviews but recording did not take place.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/video/11336021-venice-residents-say-company-is-renting-homes-to-tourists-pricing-them-out/
Members of the Unite Here Local 11 union and residents of Venice gathered Wednesday at the corner of Westminster and Electric to march to the Globe headquarters at 1231 Electric to protest the short-term rentals (STR) taking place in Venice.
Globe is claimed to be a large home and condo renter of short-term rentals in the Venice area. Unite Here Local 11 represents more than 20,000 workers employed in hotels, restaurants, airports, sports arenas, and convention centers throughout Southern California. These workers, as well as Venice residents, feel they are being priced out of the rental market.
Keep Neighborhoods First organization claims Venice is the hot bed for short-term rentals. There is no doubt that Venice is a tourist attraction and destination. Many want to stay in Venice. The claim is that STR take away rentals from the regular market, thus raising the rents because of supply. Many say that even rentals under rent control have been taken off the market, at a cost, to use as short-term rentals.
On the other hand capitalism is the name of the game in this country. Why wouldn’t one do a short-term rental if one could make more money? There is a transient tax of 14 percent. Higher rent dollars mean more money for owner, more money for taxes—both federal and state income and transient taxes for the city. And then the more money earned, the more money spent.
In addition to shrinking the rental market, neighbors complain that with an STR near by they are suddenly living next door to a hotel and/or a party house. There is an increase in noise and activity and no one knows who “that group” is that just moved in for the night, the weekend. Many ask: What happened to the neighborhood? Is a neighborhood now one house and hotels next door and across the street?
Councilman Mike Bonin is addressing the situation. He has already put in play committees to study how best to “control,” “handle” this phenomenon that has arisen suddenly, but not just in Los Angeles.
New York City has banned short-term rentals in residentially zoned areas. Several other cities have curtailed the market.
Alan Bell, assistant planning director, said short-term rentals of 30 days or less were illegal in R-1, R-2, and R-3 zonings. Venice is all R-1, R-2, and R-3. Only in the commercial zoned areas would they be legal in Venice yet they are all over.
One resident asked: “Why would I rent my house for $3500 a month when I can get $7000?
[…] Wednesday Unite Here Local 11 and Venice residents gathered at Electric and Westminster to march to Globe Home and Condo rentals in protest to their short-term rental policy. See Venice Update article. […]
Many of these AirBNB rentals are illegal. Zoning prohibits them (and this is not new) and so the owners know/should have known that they can’t operate these kinds of rentals – no excuses. But land law is land law, so the same people protesting these AirBNB’s need to acknowledge the other zoning laws that exist and respect property owners’ rights to do things with their properties that are legally allowed and certainly were legally allowed when the property owner bought the property. A lot of anti-development forces in Venice reek of hypocrisy. They demand these AirBNB parcels to be used in accordance with the zoning and land laws they agree with, but then seek to prevent property owners from using their property in a legal way that said forces disagree with. Everyone in Venice is looking out for their own best interest: long-term renters want to keep their below market rent forever, property owners want to push the envelope to get the best economic return on their investment, homeless advocates want to keep out higher income “gentrifiers” because they are less tolerant of crime and grime on their doorstep.