For once, the City Council is on the verge of doing something sane: Relaxing the insane ban on Airbnb in one- and two-family owner-occupied homes.
Such short-term rentals pose no threat to hotels, nor to the housing supply: Such houses barely exist in the prime tourist areas; this would mainly just let folks in more remote stretches of the city make a few bucks hosting guests who are, for example, attending a wedding in Staten Island.
The commonsense measure does three things: Allow New Yorkers to share homes while away; increase the guest limit from two to four, and permit internal door locks to provide privacy for guests and hosts.
That’s it.
In “hotel desert” communities outside Manhattan, Airbnb rentals would be a godsend — and more than likely increase visitor spending and so boost embattled outer borough small businesses.
Even Christian Klossner, the city bureaucrat who testified against the bill at last week’s council hearing, had to admit the anti-Airbnb Local Law 18 hasn’t eased the housing shortage because it was never designed to lower rents.
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Klossner plainly just want to fend off any threat to the onerous short-term-rental-registration system and roust enforcement mechanism — that is, his power base at the city Office of Special Enforcement.
Kudos to the council members daring to stand up to the relentless hotel unions by supporting this mild tweak to the Airbnb ban.
The bill would still leave the city with the world’s toughest anti-short-term-rental regime; the council should rush it through for Mayor Eric Adams’ signature to offer a small year-end gift to to beleaguered homeowners.