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The City of Bonavista has taken a new approach to dealing with airbnb hosts who represent unfair competition for hotels and bread-and-breakfast ins because they don't pay business taxes. They cut your sewer and water lines.
Bonavista cuts off services for Airbnb operators with unpaid business tax bills.
"We have gone to some pretty serious measures to collect. We have literally dug up driveways and turned off water (and) sewer service until the bill is paid, cutting them off completely from all municipal services.
-- Mayor John Norman
If people can't even drive their car onto your property, take a shower, use the toilet, you're pretty motivated to pony up.
The mayor said the taxation method has been successful, but he acknowledges not all Airbnb owners are pleased.
"I don't think some are happy about it, but it is what it is."
This is a pretty effective fix to unfair competition by airbnb hosts. The next question is, how can we apply the same thinking to uber and lyft?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Wednesday September 11 2019, @01:30PM (3 children)
The city is spending $10 billion on public transit improvements over the next 5 years. We've already upgraded the bus fleet to hybrids with air conditioning, and increased frequency of operation. We're adding 800 electric buses, which will be even quieter, a $5 billion regional light rail system that can move 100,000 people an hour (upgradable to 240,000 people an hour if needed) between stations, a new $800 million dollar maintenance facility and garage, and new subway extensions.
Canada is hardly a shithole. We pay for these muncipal improvements through (gasp) taxes. Hotels and inns pay their fair share, Airbnb operators don't (and generally dodge all income taxes).
We also have universal health care, something that every other G7 country except the US has. In my province we have a universal public drug insurance plan which everyone has to sign up for who doesn't have a private plan, and pay the premium.
Ironically, most people on private plans are pissed off that their private insurance costs more and covers less than the public plan (well, yeah, the profits have to come from somewhere, whereas the public plan is no-profit), and would love to be able to switch, but the law is, your company offers a private plan, you have to take it.
This was a sop to private insurance companies. One that it turns out was stupidly expensive for their users.
So, where I live, I have public transit that is usually within a minute of the schedule (gps and computer routing letting the driver know if they're running early or late), no bills when you leave the hospital, no insurance forms while waiting to be admitted - just show your health insurance card, nobody dying because they can't afford insulin.
Yep, Canada is a real shithole. Not like, say, Chicago or Washington, DC. Or the MAGA states.
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(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday September 13 2019, @11:42PM (2 children)
Let's be accurate, shall we? The profit motive isn't the most expensive cost of a business nor will it's absence make the other costs magically go away. If you're seeing a huge drop in cost with the public plan, it's because they're plugging the holes with other peoples' money.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday September 15 2019, @12:33AM (1 child)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday September 16 2019, @02:00AM
My view here is that the prime value of the business sectors that Airbnb and Uber are in is that they route around some serious economic damage in our societies. It's not Chinese investors buying up our precious homes that is the problem in places like Vancouver. It's the decades of regulations and obstructions. Orwellian two minute hates against "foreign owners" may feel good, but it's a sign that you're doing something wrong [xkcd.com] even if we don't know the particulars of your situation.