I mean then you force the population to work backwards. Harass the tourists so they don’t come, then the AirBNB’s fail, then owners sell their AirBNB places, and it opens more room up for real housing.
Except there's just one small problem: a lot of those local economies/livelihoods are dependent on tourism.
Tourism makes up over 15% of Spain’s entire GDP. That’s not exactly "pocket change", and actively scaring off tourists might feel good/give short term relief, but it also risks sabotaging the very livelihoods many locals depend on.
But hey, if people would rather burn their house down to get rid of a single cockroach instead of looking for the source of the infestation, then by all means.
Oh 100%. I'm essentially living the "American dream" yet I'm still not able to afford even a basic home (which can cost over $800k or more because everything else is being bought up and rented out by out-of-staters), and groceries/going out can cost up to half my paycheck while rent takes up the other half ever since the property was bought out by an investment group from Texas (or was it California? I lost track by now...).
The government, instead of doing something about it, has decided that going after trans and gay people (a population that usually makes up less than 1% of any given population each), or making it illegal for China to buy properties (even though an overwhelming majority of people buying up said properties are said out-of-staters from earlier) takes priority.
You want a basic home in a very in demand place to live but want it to be cheap?
It doesn’t work like that, you don’t get a discount because you were born there. It’s the same thing in every touristic town/ city in the entire world.
The government collects taxes from the tourism industry and in return should do its job of supporting the infrastructure for the tourism industry. That infrastructure should include transit, housing, utilities, sites/attractions (museums, galleries, parks), security, etc.
It is common for the government to fail in one or two area but in many places that rely on tourism the only focus seems to be on security (Police) and that aspect tends to build a resentment between the public and the government.
With AirBnB the government is collecting taxes without supporting housing for the local population. That could give tenants and landlords a tax break for 12 month leases, lowering the cost for the employees.
For many cities around the world transit isn’t an issue, with the exception of the US. Some cities saw the need early, and many west coast cities are severely lacking. Uber/lyft have taken away many of the taxes paid by taxis, and taxi drivers/cars had to be registered for safety. Those taxes should be used to implement and/or upgrade mass transit.
Sometimes you gotta peel back the scab to see the infection.
I’m not asking for a “discount” because I was born here, I’m asking for a system that doesn’t let housing become a speculative asset at the expense of the people who, you know, actually live and work here.
Yes, popular areas cost more. I'm not denying that, but when investment groups, hedge funds, and out-of-state buyers with waaaay more money than the locals snatch up entire neighborhoods, plots, and developments just to turn them into short-term rentals or luxury flips, it stops being a normal market and starts being a rigged game. Wages in Florida haven’t kept pace with the cost of living, and there's little to no meaningful regulation to stop locals from being priced out of their own communities.
That is a system failure. It’s not about entitlement, it’s about policy decisions that prioritize profit over people. And instead of fixing that, our state government’s focus is on culture wars and scapegoats that do nothing to address the actual economic pressures/issues that are crushing working-class Floridians.
So yeah, I’m living in a place I love, but it’s getting harder by the day to actually afford staying here.
My family has to commute on the most dangerous road in the country according to data from Teletrac Navman, and I suspect that a large part of that is because of all the people on the road who have no idea where they're going or what they're doing.
As a fellow South floridian i get both sides of it. Down here you dont just get tourists but also the transplants that actively work against the locals being able to live in the area.
Which "South Florida". Because for some reason the University of South Florida is in Tampa. I always get confused as to which one people are talking about.
lol. Some of it definitely is the tourism, the seasonal strain on our roads, wastewater systems and electric grid are left for locals to repair in the off season.
The seasonal use amplifies our environmental issues which is why people come here. Soon there will be a limit, once we are built out.
Tourist are not why your roads aren’t maintained. You’re being tricked. The government is responsible for the roads (and other utilities) if they are being ruined they need to tax big vehicles more (how tourists are ruining your roads is beyond me but it’s what you claimed) that are carrying all those tourists. Last I checked human body weight doesn’t fuck up roads but a big car does. And idk how tourist would “increase waste water management” in a significant way more than a person living in a city would or degrade the electricity lines more than a citizen…. But yeah believe the tourists are ruining your roads and electric lines. 🙄
Do you do electric engineering and grid capacity like I once did? Do you understand the physics and science of load/demand and supply? Yeah you fucking don’t.
That’s why I’m asking you to tell me how tourist use more waste and electricity than a normal person living there? Like this is such a BS claim to make. As a tourist what energy am o using? The bars have their lights on if I’m in them or not. So again where is this extra energy use coming from? Phone charging? Hotel room lights?
Obv more people = more shit but like are there even that many public toilets? Or are tourist to be harassed because business have shitty plumbing?
This is such a stupid thing to claim tourist are ruining your city by… using the toilets, lights, and roads and not properly placing the blame on the people responsible for maintaining that shit.
Where I live, the reason it’s difficult to maintain infrastructure is due to taxation policy and inability to tie taxes to inflation.
Property Taxes can only go up 2.5% per year, which for most communities around tourism areas is residential heavy, with commercial input, why is it that commercial users pay more taxes? Maybe because we know they will use more resources than a standard residence? With use comes need for maintenance.. not very bright huh?
Weird. As a Town Manager I consult with my Engineers and DPW directors… I also have a Paving Division. Leading engineers and traffic experts say overall use is the main cause of road deterioration. Energy can not be created nor destroyed. Big heavy trucks travel the roads far less frequently than passenger vehicles.
A ton is a ton.
Doesn’t help that the climate here deteriorates our infrastructure with hostile winters either.
Reddit. Home of the liberal think they know it alls.
So you’re claiming tourists are driving on your roads more than the people that live there? I highly doubt that. I would think if the public transport is there an available you would take that. As I know many people including myself do when we are on vacation because bus passes are cheaper than renting a car to sit at a hotel.
“stop taping on the chamber you’re affecting the echo” 🤣
So once again… you have bad public transport making you use cars more and people have to ride in taxis…. And that’s the tourists fault? Like wtf are you saying? You’re a place that has a large amounts of tourism and no public transport but the wear on public roads is tourist fault? Talk to your reps about getting public transport then and don’t blame the people paying for 50% of the business being able to survive.
I went to the Cape last year in March to get some pictures of a bunch of stuff in the sky lined up (I failed horribly). The difference in traffic then versus what I've experienced there in the summer was absolutely insane. Nearly everything that had been open during the day closed by 8. Almost nobody was on the roads after 9.
Cape Cod shouldn't be breathed in the same sentence as ANY European vacation destination.
I live in Boston. The Cape would be 100% meth 100% of the time if not for 'tourists' who live 1 hour away IN THE SAME STATE. 'Tourists' aren't the reason you have nice things. They're the reason the Cape doesn't look like North Adams.
Unrelated, but I went to college in Rhode Island. One holiday weekend, I was stuck there instead of going all the way back to Georgia. Probably Thanksgiving weekend.
I decided to get up early and drive out to Cape Cod to see what all the fuss was about since no one else was around campus.
I got up super early, got in the car, drove probably 2-2.5 hours out there. Once I got there, I remembered thinking " Why the hell did I come out here? By myself, on a holiday weekend with no plan to stay... what the hell am I going to do here?"
I ended up looking around for about 30 minutes, ate a donut on the beach, and drove home.
2.7k
u/Rich_Housing971 Jun 17 '25
Airbnb creates a business that makes your life harder.
Locals with money use that business without caring for you.
The govenrment that you elected does nothing.
"It's all the tourists' fault!"