Deal is getting worse all the time

Yesterday the mayor made kind of a big deal out of his move to broker a "compromise" on the short term rental question. But when the compromise is structured such that we're still turning entire apartments over to tourists all over the city, it's difficult to see just what residents are gaining from that.

But Landrieu for the first time said Monday in no uncertain terms that he would not support the most controversial type of rentals, of whole homes in residential areas. Thousands of such rentals are listed on websites such as Airbnb and HomeAway.

"That's going to be off the table. That's not going to happen," Landrieu said.

At the same time, Landrieu and Deputy Mayor Ryan Berni — who has served as the administration's point man on the issue — said workable regulations will have to allow for other types of short-term rentals. Those likely would include renting rooms and half-doubles, renting full condos or apartments in commercial and mixed-use complexes, and time-limited rentals of full houses for up to 30 days a year.

That's kind of giving the whole game away, dude. But okay. "Whole home" is apparently "off the table" by some tortured definition.

Or maybe not.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu declared on Monday that full-time, whole home short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods were "off the table" for his administration.
It turns out, a lot depends on how you define "full time."

A pair of ordinances the administration submitted to council members Monday afternoon -- after consultation with sites like Airbnb and Homeway -- would allow anyone who owns or leases a property in a residential area to rent it out up to 15 times each year for as many as 120 days. That essentially means residential properties could be turned over to short-term visitors for a total of four months while still being considered a "temporary" rental.

In other words, yeah, we're just gonna keep letting them do it.  Again, not sure exactly, who is on the other end of this "compromise."  It's definitely not New Orleans renters. Oh wait here it is. 

But a key element in crafting the proposal appears to be getting buy-in from the sites that host listings for short-term rentals. In his email, Berni said, "If this framework is put in place, the major platforms have agreed to voluntarily collect taxes on behalf of (short term rental) permit holders, pay a fee into the (Neighborhood Housing Improvement Fund) for affordable housing and provide certain pass-through data to the city on a quarterly basis, including the names and addresses of operators and the number of nights each operator has rented on the platform for the previous 12 months.

"This industry participation is critical to making anything work," he wrote.

LOL they wrote an ordinance based on that Airbnb told them they wanted. Way to look out for us, guys.  Thanks a lot.

Anyway, City Council takes this up on Thursday.  Can't wait to see how that goes.