Like the letter writers in Sept. 29’s paper, my husband and I live near Cal Poly. We make peace with the students by enforcing the law: We call the police for noise after 10 p.m. We regularly clean up broken bottles and squashed cans and email the city about old furniture. The situation is improving, but it still takes vigilance on our part to keep the chaos at bay.
We could sell the place like many longtime homeowners here have done — it would make fine student housing — but we love it. To pay for its upkeep, we started taking in guests for a few nights through the website, Airbnb.com. The extra income allowed us to pay for long-overdue maintenance and even to visit our faraway children. We love hosting international guests and they love being here and spending their money.
Now the city is enforcing a zoning ordinance which forces Airbnb businesses to close. We’ll go back to renting rooms to students and in spring consider whether to put the house on the market.
Does this make sense? Doesn’t the city want to save our beautiful residential neighborhoods?
Comments