Hacker News Reader

AirBNB guests typically don't contribute to the community.

But they probably contribute _more_ to the local economy in terms of partying, dining out, shopping, etc. As someone who lives in a neighbourhood with great community, I wouldn't trade it for anything, but I could see how this might be a struggle for numbers-focused politicians.

That's why there are zoning laws and regulated properties called hotels. I mean would you want you neighbor to convert their residence to a auto body shop for example? No, and that is a major part of why commercial zoning laws exist.

I think we're saying the same thing. The point of zoning is to protect a commons— an area that we agree collectively will have a particular use even if that use might have lower direct economic value in the short term than some of the other potential uses.

Airbnb works actively to undermine that protection and permit extraction of the short term value, damaging the underlying communities. All I'm saying is that it could be a challenge for short-sighted politicians to look at the economic activity being generated and say "no, we don't want that, take your business elsewhere."

Reply on news.ycombinator.com