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I agree with this thinking. Funny the city is using short term housing as long term shelters, but then bans using long term housing for short term rental because that distorts the market so! Hypocritical, yes, but the winner of the hypocritical scenario is the local citizen, and the loser, the tourist, which is typical of NYC and many other cities.

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is that a problem...? should a city not prioritize its citizens over random vacationers?

> but the winner of the hypocritical scenario is the local citizen, and the loser, the tourist, which is typical of NYC and many other cities.

We aren’t talking about war crimes, so yeah this all sounds completely normal and kind of a truism?

Why would or should a local polity put the interests of outsiders ahead of those of its own citizens, especially with regards to housing?

Because people don't always understand the whole picture when it comes to their interests.

Perhaps it's a city where tourism is incredibly important for prosperity. Maybe making things harder on tourists will result in problems for local businesses, or lower tax revenue that impacts the services the city can provide to its residents.

And maybe not -- but it's plausible, and city officials need to take this sort of thing into account.

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