Sounds like they previously banned short-term rentals but had trouble enforcing, thus this new regulation.
> The coastal town of about 7,000 residents has prohibited rentals under 30 days since January 2019, but is now making simply posting an ad for one of these illegal properties a punishable offense. Each day an advertisement remains online counts as a new violation, according to the new ordinance that was passed unanimously on Oct. 21, and the fines escalate sharply: $1,500 for a first offense, $3,000 for a second violation within the same year, and $5,000 for each additional violation.
> Sausalito code enforcement officer Justin Goger-Malo, who took the position in February of this year, explained why this change was so crucial at a City Council meeting on Tuesday. Previously, enforcing proved to be a frustrating bottleneck as property owners disputed citations. “We’ll send out a citation, the property owner will then send us a screenshot which says, ‘Look, here it says my account’s been suspended and I canceled two reservations,’” Goger-Malo said. “It’s very easy to fake something like that.” Goger-Malo described working through six or seven cases simultaneously and receiving various forms of pushback from property owners claiming they had stopped short-term rentals or switched to longer terms.
> The advertising ban eliminates this enforcement gap. “It’s going to allow us to say, ‘You advertised it. We see that it says there’s been a rental completed,’” said Goger-Malo. “Even if you’ve canceled that rental, we now have the means going forward to be able to take some of our time back in investigating these claims and say it’s the advertising that you’re being fined for now.”
SilverElfin•2h ago
Isn’t this basically restricting speech? Especially if you’re advertising to people across states, I would think this violates interstate commerce.
anigbrowl•1h ago
No.
Cheer2171•1h ago
God don't you love it when techies try to play lawyer? No. No. No. No. No.
The city has made short term rentals illegal. You think your have a first amendment right to sell heroin on Facebook marketplace?
AJMaxwell•59m ago
No. It's not considered interstate commerce when one purchases goods or services in a state one is visiting. No goods or services crossed state lines.
mint5•1h ago
So what happens if someone posts a fraudulent listing of one’s property and then reports it to the city?
Cheer2171•52m ago
Then that person is making three felonies: fraud, perjury, and frameup. AirBNB requires a lot of verification, you can't just use Tor, protonmail, and a VoIP number to list a place. That person would leave such a digital trail that would be easy to find with a subpeona. And both AirBNB and the person framed have every incentive to help with that investigation.
randycupertino•2h ago
> The coastal town of about 7,000 residents has prohibited rentals under 30 days since January 2019, but is now making simply posting an ad for one of these illegal properties a punishable offense. Each day an advertisement remains online counts as a new violation, according to the new ordinance that was passed unanimously on Oct. 21, and the fines escalate sharply: $1,500 for a first offense, $3,000 for a second violation within the same year, and $5,000 for each additional violation.
> Sausalito code enforcement officer Justin Goger-Malo, who took the position in February of this year, explained why this change was so crucial at a City Council meeting on Tuesday. Previously, enforcing proved to be a frustrating bottleneck as property owners disputed citations. “We’ll send out a citation, the property owner will then send us a screenshot which says, ‘Look, here it says my account’s been suspended and I canceled two reservations,’” Goger-Malo said. “It’s very easy to fake something like that.” Goger-Malo described working through six or seven cases simultaneously and receiving various forms of pushback from property owners claiming they had stopped short-term rentals or switched to longer terms.
> The advertising ban eliminates this enforcement gap. “It’s going to allow us to say, ‘You advertised it. We see that it says there’s been a rental completed,’” said Goger-Malo. “Even if you’ve canceled that rental, we now have the means going forward to be able to take some of our time back in investigating these claims and say it’s the advertising that you’re being fined for now.”