Is the US a dystopia?

that's "make $2400/month"

― nickn, Wednesday, January 1, 2025 10:07 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

ya sorry typo

xp NYC banned airbnb and rents and vacancy rates did not change. short term rentals in residential buildings/neighborhoods are worth regulating aggressively for lots of reasons but they are at most a second or third order reason rent is a problem in most American cities.

Wait is airb&b really banned in NYC or just regulated?

New York City, New York: Rentals under 30 days are prohibited unless the host is present on the property. Hosts are required to obtain a license and relatively few licenses have been issued.[153]

the real reason rent is a problem is because of landlordism

xxp pretty much banned for practical purposes https://gothamist.com/news/after-crackdown-nyc-only-has-405-legal-airbnb-and-other-short-term-rentals-available

sorry paywalled, free link https://archive.is/20241217204055/https://gothamist.com/news/after-crackdown-nyc-only-has-405-legal-airbnb-and-other-short-term-rentals-available

the situation might change again though https://hellgatenyc.com/nyc-airbnb-wars-are-heating-up-again/

_they need to build and build until the supply shortage is solved_

It's not clear to me exactly what this shortage looks like in real terms. I'd love to see accurate data about how many existing housing units that could be used as full-time residences have been converted to AirB&Bs or similar short term/vacation rentals. Short term rentals rates are substantially higher than yearly leases or monthly rentals, which makes them especially attractive to landlords looking for investment property. Also the lack of effective oversight of those conversions. One of the consequences of a decade of near-zero interest rates was to greatly accelerate the acquisition of real estate for investment purposes, but especially residential real estate.

https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/5b4e21541900002b00c65f11.jpeg

San Francisco recently created legislation and changed building codes to allow for easier conversion of downtown office buildings to housing with extra allowances for affordable units iirc … because in general, it is cheaper to convert existing buildings than to build new ones in denser urban areas

the real reason rent is a problem is because of landlordism

well, yes, but more along the lines of who owns the housing. you look at the Bay or New York or any large city and most of the rental housing stock is owned by enormous corporations that are poorly regulated and can raise rent without providing an iota of a reason or any extra services “just because.”

sure, certain smaller landlords are also scum but in a different way.

It would warm the cockles of my heart to see state & local governments get aggressive on this crisis to the point of using eminent domain as a big hammer to force REITs and other corporate landlords to understand that cooperation and 'penciling out' a smaller profit is a better option than coerced divestment with the loss of ownership and all future profits.

Smaller landlords are now using rent-setting software, which is basically a third-party workaround for price-fixing collusion.

Smaller landlords are now using rent-setting software, which is basically a third-party workaround for price-fixing collusion.

It would warm the cockles of my heart to see state & local governments get aggressive on this crisis to the point of using eminent domain as a big hammer to force REITs and other corporate landlords to understand that cooperation and 'penciling out' a smaller profit is a better option than coerced divestment with the loss of ownership and all future profits.

I didn't say I expected it, only that it would be heartwarming. ;-)

California had a very reasonable ballot measure last year to extend rent control to almost all rental housing (buildings with less than 4 units, buildings constructed after 1995) … and it didn’t pass … because of the real estate lobby basically lol

I didn't say I expected it, only that it would be heartwarming. ;-)

"Some “investment property” is actually vacant"

eh, I mean yes, but the vacancy rate is in American cities is small, typically low single figures %. it's 3.2% in NYC so the average unit is vacant for one month every 3 years. it's literally what you would expect to allow units to be turned over between tenants (repairs, find new tenants, etc.). outside a couple of places (e.g. SF) it can't get much lower.

long term willful vacancy of units that would have willing tenants blights individual high end apartment buildings in commercial neighborhoods, and it's a huge problem for commercial buildings themselves, but does not occur on scale that has any impact on the housing crisis. it's an easy thing for local politicians to make noise about because "vacancy taxes" are easy wins that allow them to claim they are "tackling the housing crisis" without doing things that might actually work but are unpopular with reliable voters. the fact that everyone supports vacancy taxes is a clue that the phenomenon they seek to stop is already very rare.

one might think of the simple solution of local governments using funds for homeless services to rent these vacant units for homeless people and then they would have housing … but no

i hate CA local government more than most but in their defense ... you know why this doesn't happen, right?

The oversight issue is tricky… do local governments pay staff to scour Air BnB, Vrbo, etc and then match that data to their databases of buildings and units and then send threatening letters to owners?

yes? airbnb was effectively banned in NYC 15 months ago. the number of listings has dropped from 25,000 to 2,000 (most of which are permitted rather than in violation of the law). local governments do tons of things that cost more and are harder to do than regulate short term rentals. it if you think it will make a difference to rents, you can make it happen. (it won't help rents, but there are other reasons to ban it.)

Brandon Sutton is pretty good at breaking down a lot of recent American developments and which bits of the reactionaries are fighting with the others and why

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK7LmOR7PWc

utopia is just around the corner...

https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/472031225_1326988342032418_4104726699847201130_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpg_tt6&_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=833d8c&_nc_ohc=tr4vxfY6LZMQ7kNvgEUjLBc&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-2.xx&_nc_gid=A9vGMtRBTY0AWLjvDBQuE9V&oh=00_AYB2GDXdY4Z30QWwe_-ODYM6rxSZcJf0kKCJZNN66dJoog&oe=677CE4D1

my kid took the best 2025 Amerika photo. props to Cyrus.

https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/472478048_10162763034747137_719260018055399549_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=WJ9ORuA1BZMQ7kNvgFM6K9h&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-2.xx&_nc_gid=ANH1fCSRR0op-lzY9rpDYoo&oh=00_AYAoAvKQOhW1nHpPGtY8E1-3Phypfl5Z0acIN9GA0DNdLg&oe=677CCFC4

https://voiceofsandiego.org/2025/01/01/in-2025-san-diego-cant-look-away-from-the-screaming/

https://voiceofsandiego.org/2025/01/01/in-2025-san-diego-cant-look-away-from-the-screaming/

― sleeve

portland's the same way

i see men around me screaming (always white men)

i tried screaming myself, for a while

lost a lot of friends that way

a lot of my energy these days goes into finding ways to not scream while still, like

talking to other people

finding healthy ways to talk to other people

i feel like most people don't know what's happening and maybe like

can't cognitively accept it even if they do know

a lot of us do know, and what the hell can we do about it?

they don't tell men this, but a lot of women know that if you get attacked, you don't yell "rape", you yell "fire"

because if you yell "rape" nobody does anything

my kid took the best 2025 Amerika photo. props to Cyrus.

great photo, it belongs in the "Is the US a utopia?" thread obv

was gonna say, I like gravy

For You: If you like gravy then you might like...

shit that looks like an onion article but isn't

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/01/pacific-palisades-fire-altadena-santa-monica-los-angeles-donald-trump-elon-musk-misinformation-disinformation-lies-conspiracy-theories/

this is more about how things are going to be from now on than it is about the LA wildfires, so I figured this was a better place for this link.

The end wokeness account are praying.

Holy crap. One of the most terrifying things I have ever seen. Pray.

pic.twitter.com/EpJm5InANa

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 8, 2025

to be fair that's better than the usual reactionary response of "this is God's punishment for gay people existing"

is the terrifying thing that someone is standing in his house filming while wildfires are inches away from it?

Honestly, the footage will end up getting bought by some producer and used in something… this is going to be like 9/11 where film/tv will become “dated” by depicting structures that are now destroyed.

Why are those people still in the house???!

Probably got sold on some kind of natural heat spa.

that dog needs better owners

yeah my wife was watching this yesterday...is there any word what happened to these people? because that does not seem good

they probably got out bc dudes who look like that always get out

https://www.404media.co/were-fine-los-angeles-wildfires/

We got in the car. We started driving. I watched a driverless Waymo navigate streets in which the traffic lights were out because the power was out. My fiancé took two work meetings on the road, tethered to her phone, our dog sitting on her lap. We stopped at a fast food drive through.

Hot new wellness trans: fire baths

Trend !!!!

the dystopian part of that might be the fiance taking two work meetings on her phone while escaping.

also being engaged to a guy who worked for Vice.

https://dnyuz.com/2025/01/09/the-army-of-god-comes-out-of-the-shadows/

not necessarily limited to the US but a crypto 'prediction market' where people gamble on the extent of wildfires is pretty dystopic!

https://polymarket.com/event/how-many-acres-will-palisades-fire-burn-by-friday?tid=1736377893344

SOMEONE WORKING FOR THE CITY REACHED OUT TO OUR MUTUAL AID FOR MASKS I AM SCREAMING

— hard boiled megg (@badgalmeggy) January 9, 2025

I quit that platform so I can't read the comments but I love a mutual aid + local government partnership! Get it girl. That's power. When they know you can steward resources and connect with people better than they can, you can use that. Mwah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B19qb1Az94

Yeah every few Tiktok videos right now are someone sharing information about the Resnicks in some way! TT does so much work for people with these highly specific bodies of knowledge, allowing them to get their message out, and obv no one knows what the algos are doing on there but I've never been shown the breadth of content and people on any other platform. Not even close. There's been a steep increase in ads and shopping shit that you can scroll right past but is low-key annoying, but even with that change, the access to people and information is invaluable.