Right? This is a massively important job. Guy is in charge of how many with average daily ridership of 678k.

What he does has a massive impact on the city. If he’s able to help turn around the T and increase ridership, it could help traffic.

Fuck Skip Vallee

So here’s the problem with that 300, what does that mean? Is it entire homes? Private rooms? Total combined listings? Are these owner occupied or dedicated Airbnb listings? Why is this important? I’ll use my old listings as an example.

I created 4 separate listings for my house. 1 listing was to rent the entire home, and usually I’d go stay with my parents. The other 3 were private room rentals. Now the way I did it I don’t think it is common, but if there were other hosts doing it, that can potentially skew the numbers. Also in my house case, me stopping doesn’t necessarily result in increase of housing as I’m not renting out the rooms to long term tenants.

I also think owner occupied examples such as my own are a net gain for the city. There isn’t enough hotel rooms , and a ton of people are priced out regardless. Having cheaper options means more people can visit, equals more money. I collected rooms and meals tax and paid the city, the money I earned stays here versus the Hilton or other large chains. The people will also spend the money at local businesses.

I also for two years rented out a studio and put it on Airbnb. In that case I agree it shouldn’t be allowed. That is a text book reason that contributes in a negative way to the housing shortage.

So I believe Airbnb can be a good thing, but also agree it should be regulated in an intelligent way.

I will also add, I considered buying properties for Airbnb and I couldn’t make the numbers work in a way I thought was worth it. And this was back in 2015, when prices were high but not stupidly high. If anyone purchased around here for the sole reason to Airbnb, I bet they aren’t making as much of a profit as they thought they would.

As I a former host I was always skeptical of Airbnb impact on the city. There is no doubt it didn’t help, but I think it’s impact was far overstated. The inability to build enough housing to keep up demand has been a problem far earlier than 2012 when Airbnb really started to grow in the area. I recall seeing an old news clipping from the 80’s when Bernie was the mayor complaining about a lack of affordable housing.

I have definitely been called a spic, both at my own classmates as well as while playing soccer.

Now it’s more like an on again off again mud season

Omg yes. Mainly due to my Saint Bernard. 1. He loves the winter and eating snow. 2. He he stays so much cleaner in the winter, and doesn’t track in nearly as much dirt when there is snow on the ground.

Followed by Die Hard

Deputies are the absolute bottom of the barrel when it comes to police in Vermont.

Agreed, but whom I replied to was asking for context regarding the quote. And from that we get these additional pieces of information that aren’t very popular in our state.

I mean his support of protests over an “illegal election” isn’t a great look either. Nor is his belief there should be a federal abortion ban, no exceptions. Sigh.