By Gregg Stebben, Men’s Health
WASHINGTON — They call it “the sharing economy” — companies and websites
such as Uber and Lyft and AirBnB. But what happens when not everyone wants to
share?
This is a question which cities all across the country are struggling with,
including Raleigh, North Carolina, where I live. And probably the city where
you live, too.
Uber and Lyft are both car-share services, where, instead of taking a taxi,
you
can pay a private citizen to give you a lift in their car. AirBnB is a home-
sharing service where you can stay in a private citizen’s home, instead of
staying in a hotel.
Before you write off all of these services as silly or marginal or weird, you
should know just last week Inc. Magazine named AirBnB as its Company of the
Year. They said:
“[The AirBnB] website surpassed 800,000 listings worldwide, which means they
now offer more lodging than Hilton Worldwide or InterContinental Hotels Group
or any other hotel chain in the world.”
I asked the Raleigh zoning department
six months ago whether renting part of my home on AirBnB would be legal. Its
response:
- “We’re not sure.”
- “As an agency, we’re reactive. So even if it’s not legal we would never
cite you, unless someone complained.”
That sounded like an unofficial green light to me, so I joined several hundred
others in the city of Raleigh and began renting out part of my home (a
separate unit) to total strangers on AirBnB.
To date, our guests have included retired couples, parents visiting their
children at nearby North Carolina State, couples coming to town for weddings,
two fellow tech entrepreneurs who came to Raleigh for a tech conference and a
musician who was performing in a local club.
Renting out part of your house to total strangers may sound totally weird, but
there’s been nothing weird about any of our guests. They
have all been courteous, clean,
respectful and social. We’ve joined some guests for dinner at local eateries,
invited another couple to join us as we socialized in our living room with
friends and went to see our musician guest perform.
For my wife, Jody, and I, hosting guests on AirBnB has been a great lifestyle
choice, and it’s enabled us to do a great job of promoting many of the great
features of the great city where we live.
If you visit the listing for
our home on the AirBnB site, you can read the reviews from all of
our guests and see that it’s been an equally positive experience for them.
So what’s the problem?
Someone complained. About Jody and I.
There are an estimated 300 AirBnB hosts
in the city of Raleigh, and to date there’s been just this one anonymous
complaint.
Now, instead of being cavalier about this thing called AirBnB, the City of
Raleigh must act. The city now says that for most AirBnB hosts in Raleigh,
this type of short-term rental is a clear violation of zoning
regulations. Does that mean that the city should outlaw AirBnB where it
violates zoning laws, or does it mean the city should change the zoning
laws to accommodate short-term rentals like those that come from AirBnB?
What at first may seem like a simple question can quickly become quite
complicated.
For instance, as with many cities across the country, Raleigh
aggressively courts businesses and encourages them to relocate here. Many of
these companies are tech companies, and Raleigh is regularly recognized as one
of the fastest-growing tech hubs and innovation centers in the U.S.
So what happens if the City of Raleigh — or your city — bans a service like
AirBnB?
Let’s stick with Raleigh as a case study:
Earlier this year, Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane posted on her blog about the
warm reception she hoped to get from companies at SXSW in March 2014, as she
and her team went to the event to encourage businesses to relocate to Raleigh.
Now, let’s fast-forward to next year’s SXSW if Raleigh outlaws AirBnB. You can
almost hear the conversation now:
“Why would we want to relocate to Raleigh? Didn’t your city just ban AirBnB?
That doesn’t sound very tech-friendly to us.”
Now you can see why I’m passionate about the need for cities to do the right
thing when it comes to services such as AirbnB, Uber and Lyft. If Raleigh —
or your city — gets this wrong, all the great work to attract
new companies to relocate may go down the drain.
Yet at the same time, there are some in the community, such as hotels and taxi
companies, which have their own legitimate concerns that cannot be ignored.
What a complicated mess. There’s no denying that finding ways to make services
like AirBnB and Uber and Lyft part of the community will pose a challenge for
many cities. But other cities — such as San Francisco and Portland and
Amsterdam
and Hamburg — have successfully taken on the challenge and passed laws that
provide workable solutions.
So what’s the right answer for your city? I don’t know. And the truth is, your
Mayor and City Council probably don’t know, either. But if “sharing economy”
companies such as AirBnB, Uber and Lyft have become an issue where you live,
you can help your city leaders by taking the time to understand all sides of
the issue and then let them know you support their efforts to find
solutions that are the wisest and most strategic options possible.
Follow @GreggStebben, @WTOP and @WTOPtech on Twitter, and on the
