Can strict regulations on Airbnb solve the housing crisis? Probably not, but they’re a good start.
No reason for local policymakers to let Airbnb bypass tax or regulatory obligations
Issues that Barcelona en Comú is tackling come up against limitations set by Catalan and Spanish law. The city lacks authority to regulate housing, although the city has created new affordable housing, has successfully limited the reach of Airbnb...
The United Auto Workers won a union contract covering nearly 150 cafeteria workers at four Airbnb facilities. It’s the latest development in a unionization trend among tech companies’ sub-contracted staff. Share Better, a group backed by Unite Here, the hotel industry, housing groups and elected officials, said Thursday that the new Airbnb effort doesn’t go far enough.
The so-called gig-economy is celebrated, maligned, fetishized, and qualified by analysts. Whether it is called the collaborative, platform, crowd-sourcing, or sharing-economy, the rise of peer-to-peer exchanges does raise important questions for workers. Do emerging ‘sharing-economy’ platforms such as Uber and Airbnb mark a significant shift in production and distribution systems? Are they emancipatory or exploitive?
A proposed deal between SEIU and Airbnb has been criticized by housing groups and labor activists, including some SEIU members, concerned that Airbnb has exacerbated housing crises in cities across the US, including in San Francisco, where Airbnb is headquartered.
After the defeat of San Francisco Prop F, Airbnb's Conley celebrated Silicon Valley media’s “Glowing perspective on Airbnb’s prospect,” tweeting, ”With Prop F Gone, Airbnb Is Now Unbeatable.” Less well known has been Conley’s side job, before and during his Airbnb tenure, as visionary leader and chief pitchman for Tres Santos, a mega-resort under construction in Todos Santos, a small Mexican fishing and farming town on Baja’s Pacific Coast.
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