How can you spot a shitty neighbor?
Sometimes
it’s as plain as the nose on your face.
Good
neighbors are likely to check in on you if you’ve been out of sight for a week
and are known to have health problems. Sometimes neighbors turn into friends,
but even when they don’t, they play a special role in providing that underrated
gift, known as peace of mind.
Who doesn’t
want to live in a neighborhood where neighbors are looking out for neighbors
and where mischief-makers and criminals might sense that vigilant eyeballs are
scanning the neighborhood?
Unfortunately, all of those eyeballs are useless when it comes to one special category of neighborhood disruptors.
At the
Watertown City Council meeting on Tuesday, April 9, the room was packed with
residents who showed up to make their voices heard on an issue that asked two
fundamental questions: Do strong, stable neighborhoods matter? And does local
government have a responsibility to preserve them?
The specific
issue on the Council’s agenda was a category of home-operated businesses known
as short-term rentals (STRs), which have thrived in Watertown as unsanctioned,
unregulated “shadow” businesses.
At this
meeting, the Council would be voting on an ordinance that would legalize STRs.
If you’ve
paid the slightest attention to this issue, you’ve heard residents’ horror
stories of strangers showing up in their neighborhoods, occupying one or more homes,
throwing loud, late-night parties, monopolizing on-street parking space, and
moving out a few days later while leaving trash on the sidewalks and streets
for someone else to clean up.
Those carefree
merry-makers were “guests” of opportunistic homeowners who decided to
periodically turn their homes into small hotels.
The politics
associated with STRs is interesting. There is one side that loves them and one
side that hates them.
Some
progressives love them because they see STR operators as victims of an unfair
economic system who need the money to keep their heads above water. Progressives
to the rescue!
Some libertarians
love STRs because property rights are sacred and the government should not be
sticking their noses where their noses don’t belong. My home is my castle!
How do we
explain progressives and libertarians becoming unlikely political bedfellows?
The answer
might be summed up in a line from Glenn Frye’s song about the drug trade, Smuggler’s
Blues:
It's the lure of EASY money, it's gotta VERY strong appeal...
.png)
On the other side, those who hate STRs are individuals of every political stripe who rank neighborhood preservation near the top in their value system.
At the April 9 meeting, twenty-one residents voiced their opposition to the ordinance − fifteen from the podium, five on Zoom, and one by email – some of them sharing their personal STR horror stories publicly the first, second, or third time.
Three residents voiced their support for the ordinance – two from the podium and one by email.
(one
commenter went to the podium and came down firmly on both sides of the issue.)
Perhaps Watertown resident, Ruth Rappaport’s testimony provided us with the best visual – three STRs, each accommodating up to ten “guests,” flooding her very small street with cars, taxis, Ubers, and noise at all hours of the day and night, and drawing rodents to overstuffed trash receptacles, that were left on the street for multiple days.
Under such
conditions, one’s sense of personal safety, where normal renters become
familiar to the neighbors, is sacrificed in favor of quick and easy conscience-free
cash.
Some
residents came to the podium and spoke for a second time, adding to their lists
of complaints and putting the finishing touches on their opposition to what
they regarded as a menace to the community.
Now it was up
to the nine Council members to determine the fate of the ordinance. Could the
overwhelming opposition coming from the room and from Zoom help persuade at
least four Councilors to vote NO, preventing a supermajority of the six Councilors
needed to pass this screamingly anti-neighborhood ordinance?
Or would the
few Councilors who strongly support the legalization of STRs present arguments
so convincing that they would win over the majority of their fellow Council members?
The
spotlight was squarely on Councilor Feltner who championed the STR cause, which
would allow, in some cases, an STR operator to rent to up to ten guests at a
time.
Her
presentation was passionate, emotional, and no doubt sincere, but it was a
flop. She made this bombshell statement:
“I
know that if we take this away, there are people who will not be able to stay
in their homes.”
She did not
tell us who those people were who would not be able to stay in their homes. Would knowing the names of these community
members have mattered in determining the outcome of the vote? We will never
know.
Had these
members of our community shown up at the meeting and told their stories, might
that have changed the dynamic in the room? In such a high-stakes meeting, with
so much to lose, why on earth would they have remained silent and invisible?
People do
not tell their best stories through an intermediary. And in this case, those
stories weren’t heard at all – just the second-hand report that they would lose
their homes.
Councilor Feltner pointed to public meetings
where “there’s been a lot of negative energy…where neighbors were not being the
most friendly to each other…” as justification for them remaining silent and
invisible and revealing their potential hardship only to her.
Did
Councilor Feltner implore them to show up and tell their stories? If she did and
they refused, then they hung her out to dry.
Councilor
Gardner told us that she also had heard from quite a few residents including
some who told her that they would have to sell their homes and move out of
Watertown if they were prevented from operating their “hometels” (my word, not
hers).
All of those
potential victims, along with Councilor Feltner’s, remained nameless and
faceless. Not one of them showed up, either in person or on Zoom, to tell their
story at the one forum that would mean the difference between staying in
Watertown or packing up and moving to Buffalo.
Here's a fun
question. During her lengthy comment in defense of STR operators, who
desperately need the money that only STRs can deliver (seriously?) did this
progressive Councilor ever utter the libertarian-ish statement: “I would like
to respect their property rights…”?
Of course,
she did. As I said, this is a strange issue.
But if
Councilor Gardner made one significant contribution during this consequential public
forum, it was this:
She calmed
the minds of all District A residents who own ski condos (You have probably
bumped into some of them at Coolidge Hardware or Donohue’s Bar & Grill) by
informing them that when she rented out her ski condo, she returned to find her
possessions, including her wine glasses and teacups intact.
If you had
told me before this Council meeting began that it would end in a SIX to THREE vote
against adopting the ordinance, I would have bet you all of my wine glasses and
teacups that you were nuts.
But that is
exactly what happened.
Nobody in
the room said it as concisely and as eloquently as Councilor Airasian:
“For
me, this comes down to a quality-of-life issue and Watertown’s neighborhoods
are precious, and now more than ever they need to be protected. I feel like
there has been a tremendous amount of pressure put on some of the neighborhoods
with all the development going on. If people want to come to this area, there
are places for them to go other than our neighborhoods.”
The only
worthy response that I can come up with is Hallelujah, Councilor Airasian.
Oh, and one
more thing.
I am a
homeowner and I am a staunch believer in property rights. I am also a staunch
believer in the principle expressed in this famous statement:
The
right to swing your fist ends at another person’s nose.
The six Councilors
who voted to kill the STR ordinance were in no way voting against the swinging
fists of property rights.
They
listened to the testimonies. They heard the first-hand horror stories and they voted
to put a stop to the neighborhood bleeding.
Many thanks
to Councilors Airasian, Izzo, Gannon, Palomba, Council Vice-President
Piccirilli, and Council President Sideris.
Unlikely
political bedfellows, to be sure.
Did I
mention that this was a strange issue?
Bruce Coltin, The Battle For Watertown
.
