Showing posts with label Vacation Rentals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vacation Rentals. Show all posts

Thursday, January 20, 2022

In 2022, as in 2021, the City of #HollywoodFL's Vacation Rental rules are useless, universally ignored, and yet exactly what City Hall and the City Commission want: a distraction from how truly ineffective they are in doing their job handling pretty much everything else! 🙄🤨🤔


Above, one of my many photos of Hollywood Beach, circa December 9, 2020

In 2022, as in 2021, the City of #HollywoodFL's Vacation Rental rules are useless, universally ignored, and yet exactly what City Hall and the City Commission want: a distraction from how truly ineffective they are in doing thr job handling pretty much everything else! 🙄🤨🤔

Eleven months later, what I wrote about Hollywood and Vacation Rentals last year on this blog is still 100% true, as is the fact that many people in Hollywood have a genuine fetish about VRs and  #Airbnb that is all out of proportion to reality.


Unfortunately for Common Sense, the City of Hollywood's new #VacationRental rules are a HUGE fail, and a step backwards. Simply put, the City and its officials have NOT actively and honestly engaged the honest stakeholders in this effort, yet at the same time, also allowed genuine troublemakers to continue angering neighbors, who quite rightfully feel aggrieved and taken advantage of, and are looking for some party to blame and hold responsible.
https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/unfortunately-city-of-hollywoods-new.html


To say that the level of intellectual discourse re Vacation Rentals on some websites, esp. NextDoor, https://nextdoor.com/p/S3HPh3D6gJ6Y is often as simplistic and one-sided as it is, though, perhaps, cathartic to the person venting, is self-evident.
In some cases, some of those people whose comments I read might as well be wearing t-shirts with a diagonal arrow that reads, "I'm with Stupid."

But as we know, there's a big difference between light and illumination.

As I've written many times in fact-filled posts on my popular blog here, the City of Hollywood's Vacation Rental program was, is, and remains a snapshot of a disaster because, among other things, as I predicted years ago, when I publicly said at a Hollywood City Commission meeting that it would never crack 25% participation. 

Not so long as the City Commission, the City Manager's office, the Chamber of Commerce and the Civic Associations buried their heads in the sand, and didn't see it as the opportunity it was and is.

A fact made worse by a South Florida media that continually asks the same handful of people in Hollywood what they think -the Usual Suspects- and their response was and remains, almost always, that the sky is falling.
24/7/365.

Even when it's not.

The city administration, the mayor and the City Commission have utterly failed to try to understand the myriad reasons why people are visiting here in such numbers.

It's NOT  just because of the weather or because of a conference or symposium or a concert taking place nearby at the Hard Rock Guitar Hotel casino or at Hard Rock Stadium. 

All of these parties have failed to do even the most basic research, or ask the questions that they should have asked years ago and already know the answers to now.
But they don't. 
They remain like hamsters on a hamster wheel.
Round and round and round and round...

They've consistently failed to quantify what visitors contribute daily, weekly, monthly and yearly to the local economy, even as many Hollywood businesses barely stay afloat, as all the empty storefronts on Hollywood Blvd. and Harrison Street and 19th and 20th Avenue remind anyone who simply walks by.



Try NOT to notice all the restaurants that are only open Thursday thru Sunday.

Even worse, they've all failed to appreciate and incentivize the VR people in Hollywood who DID follow the law, and spent a lot of money to do so.

The city and its elected officials continually look the other way at public meetings as those few people who are doing the right thing are thrown to the wolves, left to fend for themselves, as irate people talk only about the worst-case scenarios and realities that the city has failed to resolve.

Also, it's a certifiable fact that the city website's VR directory is NOT intuitive and is completely useless, especially for visitors who would actually want to stay at licensed VR properties. 
But the city prefers the list be the way it is -useless.

Which sums up their strategy for so many things going on in this city.

Governing magazine
THE FUTURE OF WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW
Why Cities Can’t Afford to Put the Squeeze on Airbnbs
A mobile workforce needs housing options beyond long leases, but regulations stand in the way of short-term rentals.
October 11, 2021
By Scott Beyer

There’s a perception among public officials that Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms are a problematic form of housing. The assumption is that homeowners or investors rent their spare units to vacationers, thereby taking supply from full-time residents who need rental housing. Many cities have passed ordinances that restrict the use of housing for these rentals.

But that misidentifies the short-term rental customer base. This kind of housing is no longer just for vacationers; it’s for workers who need temporary housing for too short a time to sign a six- or 12-month lease. By serving them, too, short-term rental companies are providing a crucial form of workforce housing that is needed in our dynamic, mobile economy. “24 percent of our business is not travel,” Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky told Yahoo Finance recently.

The large number of Airbnb clients looking for a month-plus stay is diverse. Some are remote workers who do not need to be in a fixed location. This includes those who are employed in one city but may have reason to live for a month or two in a different one.

Read the rest of the article at: 
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Thursday, October 11, 2018

Over a year later, where are the positive results of the City of Hollywood's new Vacation Rental ordinance? How's the compliance rate? About what WE expected and less than the city promised.


Over a year later, where are the positive results of the City of Hollywood's new Vacation Rental ordinance? How's the compliance rate? 
About what WE expected and less than the city promised.

 Because I am the way that I am and interested in the sorts of myriad things that I am, and write and Tweet about a LOT, including the #GigEconomy and #Airbnb and public policy, I mention this in case you are interested in some things that touch on all of these things.

 Just got this in the mail today:
Rebecca Stone, Skift Research: The Roadblocks Airbnb Must Tackle on Its Way to Possible IPO: Skift’s Latest Research

As of today I plan on doing an updated blog post sometime in the next few weeks that'll seriously examine and re-examine what I believe to have been the completely ineffective changes the City of Hollywood made last summer to their Vacation Rental ordinance.

Those of you among the public and the press who attended that afternoon might recall that I spoke towards the very end of that Hollywood City Commission meeting on whether to give the city more aggressive (regressive!) tools to enforce the city's new changes to the existing ordinance, after many representatives of the Vacation Rental, real estate and Small Business industry spoke, including Tom Martinelli, Airbnb's Florida Government Relations Director based out of Miami.

 I spoke after people from Airbnb, individual Airbnb or VR hosts and other industry members spoke had the chance to articulate their frustration with the city's refusal to work in good faith with them, to say nothing of many of the City Commissioners NOT understanding that they could NOT simply go back on contracts and MOU's with individual hosts and give the city personal confidential information.

 Among other things I said that it was, sad to say, yet another example of a South Florida municipality putting its faith in the power of a govt. bureaucracy rather than empowering responsible Vacation Rental hosts, in this case, in Hollywood -where I live and know many such hosts- and trusting human behavior, and actually making it easier for Vacation Rental hosts to comply.
A win-win scenario for everyone.

BUT to do so on terms that did NOT open hosts up to what could be unlimited and unwarranted intrusion by city officials (or their hired hands) looking to play gold prospector and recoup money for the city's coffers for its own past failure to have adequate code compliance in place and be able to catch additions made to houses at the time they took place 20, 30 or 40 years ago, rather than try to go after current owners or renters.

 Many of the latter have invested in their future by renting houses in Hollywood that would otherwise be empty if not dowdy, but which are now much-improved by their interest in making it as attractive as possible.

 In many cases, better taken care of than if the city itself owned them, as hearings I attended earlier this year regarding the city's attempt to sell some city-owned parcels proved 
conclusively, when a mirror was held up to the city's owned homes and the eyesores many of them have remained in many neighborhoods.

 It was also hard not to notice that there seemed to be a very lackluster effort shown by the city to go after the repeat offenders that cause a majority of the complaints that are both valid and intrusive to their neighbor's Quality of Life. 

The fact that the city and the person running the program for it, Lorie Mertens-Black, seemed to fail to invite several responsible and articulate Airbnb hosts who were in compliance to speak at their July dog-and-pony show weeks before,

 

Updated: A veritable trainwreck of a public meeting. Wednesday's embarrassing 

Vacation Rental Ordinance Amendment presentation at Hollywood City Hall was 

not a pretty sight by any stretch of the imagination


 gave me plenty of angst and ammo for what happened when the City Commission voted. 

 As we all saw to our exasperation when we saw how my logic and common sense was received last summer. Badly.
After all, there was money to be made!

 I predicted that the compliance rate would be much less than what they expected or had been led to believe by vendors, and would... well, to quote myself:
"As long as the city makes it about meting out individual and collective punishment
and making money via fees, based on what I have personally seen and heard at city
meetings and in conversations with many successful Airbnb and Vacation Rental
hosts in Hollywood, I see little prospect that the city's compliance rate will ever get
much over 40% with the proposed changes."

That's still my perspective as I start cobbling together that new post, and no facts or
evidence I have seen or received from the city of late shows me that I'm wrong.
The fact that this was so predictable doesn't bring me any joy. 

Let me leave you with a sweet teaser of things to come: The city's VR licensing program
is now so inaccurate that it shows properties on its site that may not even be in compliance
any more, since it is accurate as of... Sept. 30th.
"The map illustrates all approved Vacation Rental Licenses that will expire on September 30, 2018."

Why should it even be more than a week inaccurate if the whole point of it is to BE accurate? Also, HOW and WHY would any out-of-town traveler go to the city's website, a site that they wouldn't even know exists? They wouldn't. 

But the city acts like people would do that.

Yet again, completely ignoring human behavior when it comes to this subject.



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Wednesday, August 30, 2017

New #VacationRental ordinance/fees and #Confederate Street sign re-naming on tap this afternoon for Hollywood City Commission

May 3, 2017 photo, looking west at Hollywood City Hall, Hollywood, Florida, as seen from in front of the  Hollywood branch of the Broward County Public Library. © 2017 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved


Revised and Updated August 29, 2017 2:15 PM
Just one of the MANY questions I've heard for the Hollywood City Commission to answer, based on my many conversations around the area:.
Airbnb was created in Aug. 2008. Since then, how many times have you personally stayed overnight at a facility that was NOT a hotel and was located in someone's home who was not a family member or friend?

 The reason for the question, cobbled together from several similar question?
People want to know your actual personal experience/expertise to speak publicly on 
the issue, not hear you relate a series of anecdotes or Talking points from influential residents or various Hollywood neighborhood Civic Associations.

The reality is that based on their own numbers from this summer, Hollywood currently has, at best, a 15% compliance rate, and some people say those numbers are "soft."
. 
As most of you know by now, including from my pointed July 3rd blog post on this subject,
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/sharingeconomy-hollywood-city.html
in my opinion, these proposals  -below- WON'T improve that, and only serves to highlight the city's myopia and general clumsiness in handling the issue.
As long as the city makes it about meting out individual and collective punishment and making money via fees, based on what I have personally seen and heard at city meetings and in conversations with many successful Airbnb and Vacation Rental hosts in Hollywood, I see little prospect that the city's compliance rate will ever get much over 40% with the proposed changes.

 In the coming days, I'll share here on the blog what I said at the meeting -and meant to say!
My first time speaking before the City Commission publicly in the past year.



 These are Time-Certain items scheduled to start at or around 1:30 PM

R-2017-250
41
Appeal of revoke vac rental license
Resolution
A Resolution Of The City Commission Of The City Of Hollywood, Florida, Considering An Appeal Of The Revocation Of A VacationRental License For The Property Located At 929 North Southlake Drive, Pursuant To The Provisions Of The City Of Hollywood Code Of Ordinance.  


PO-2017-11
42
VRL Ordinance
Ordinance
An Ordinance Of The City Of Hollywood, Florida, Amending Chapter 119 Of The Code Of Ordinances Entitled “Vacation Rental License Program” To Revise The Definition Of A Vacation Rental, And To Require Compliance Inspections For Vacation Rentals; Providing For Severability; Providing For Conflicts; Providing For An Effective Date.  

R-2017-177
43
VRL Fee Increase
Resolution
A Resolution Of The City Commission Of The City Of Hollywood, Florida, Amending R-2015-328 To Increase The Application Fee For Vacation Rental Licenses Within The City Of Hollywood To $500.00 And The Renewal Fee To $350.00, Establishing An Application Fee For Vacation Rental Licenses For Applicants Whose Primary Residence Is Partially Being Rented And Establishing An Inspection Fee.

These Time-Certain items are scheduled to start at or around 4:00 PM
R-2017-251
45
Rename Forrest Street & Forrest Drive
Resolution
A Resolution Of The City Commission Of The City Of Hollywood, Florida, Approving/Denying The Application To Rename Forrest Street And Forrest Drive To Savannah Street and Savannah Drive.  


R-2017-252
46
Rename Hood Street
Resolution
A Resolution Of The City Commission Of The City Of Hollywood, Florida, Approving/Denying The Application To Rename Hood Street To Macon Street. 

R-2017-253
47
Rename Lee Street
Resolution
A Resolution Of The City Commission Of The City Of Hollywood, Florida, Approving/Denying The Application To Rename Lee Street To Louisville Street.

D-2017-02
48
Street Names to Street Numbers
Discussion Item
Discussion By The City Commission On Changing All Street Names To Street Numbers.

D-2017-03
49
Moratorium on Street Renaming
Discussion Item
Discussion By The City Commission On Imposing A Moratorium On Future Renaming Of Streets.
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Monday, July 3, 2017

#SharingEconomy - Hollywood City Commission's 2nd hearing on its latest version of its ill-considered Vacation Rental legislation come up Monday afternoon. Will reasonable compromise and specificity finally trump arrogance and greed? Would be nice for a change! #tourism

#SharingEconomy - Hollywood City Commission's 2nd hearing on its latest version of its ill-considered Vacation Rental legislation come up Monday afternoon. 
Will reasonable compromise and specificity finally trump arrogance and greed? Would be nice for a change! #tourism

 Updated on July 3rd at 2:55 PM -see bottom

I'm writing this blog post on Sunday night, the night before the Hollywood City Commission's second hearing on its latest version of its ill-considered Vacation Rental legislation, agenda item #34. Meeting starts promptly at 1 PM. 

There is clearly a case to be made on Monday afternoon for compromise and reasonable, achievable legislation that resolves most of the legitimate concerns of Hollywood City Hall, pacifies the angry, vituperative and influential neighbors from Hollywood Lakes, and, of course, helps raise the morale and hopes of very-concerned Airbnb hosts, who for months have wanted greater specificity and yet were made had to fly under-the-radar like they were Public Enemy Number One, because of the consistently unfair and one-sided manner that this issue has been publicly handled and presented in Hollywood (and Broward) for far too long.

 Having read every single article about Vacation Rentals that has appeared in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Miami Herald, Tampa Bay Times or Florida Trend magazine of the past three years, and checked the video archives of WFOR, NBC6, WSVN and Local10, all before the city of Hollywood's pubic presentation one month ago, I can vouch that I was right all along in my thinking even before I started doing my research.

This area of Florida is rich in public officials and bureaucrats eager to appear in public to be seen as playing the role of vigilant defenders of neighborhood Quality of Life, but behind 
closed doors, they play their preferred role of thinly-disguised holdup men, eager for a big score of cold hard cash at the expense of Airbnb, travel hosts and others for the public kitty.
More money to spend on stuff!

No matter what individual travel hosts say at the hearing, compelling or not, regardless of whom they are affiliated with, or even what Tom Martinelli, the head of Public Policy in Florida for Airbnb might say or suggest at the meeting that sounds logical or inspired, the die is already cast.
The electeds and the bureaucrats will be the ones wearing the White Hats afterward, not anyone else, even if you are the one who saves a deal that threatens to come apart because of their greed or desire to be shown driving a hard bargain against big, bad Airbnb & Company.
Our South Florida pols and bureaucrats, they sure do love them some straw men!

In public, they expect hosts and the Vacation Rental industry to jump thru their hoops and be happy about it, and for others to provide enormous amounts of information to them, while they in turn are vague about what they can give interested individuals and groups in the way of information or assurances.
Or conveniently forget about past promises to treat everyone fairly.

 Having gone to so many Hollywood City Commission meetings over the years, and about 85% of the ones held since the November election brought two new faces to the dais, Mayor Josh Levy and District 1 Commissioner Debra Case, I must say that I was NOT at all prepared that at the first hearing on this matter that so many Hollywood Commissioners appeared so publicly tone-deaf and myopic. 
Even to the idea of multiple competing companies cooperating on an issue past a certain point not being seen as a possible cause for anti-trust or legal action by someone.
It was just par for the course as this issue has chugged along.
They just don't see the bigger issues involved, just their own POV.

 For those of you who are new to this issue or who might've forgotten what led to this point, one month ago I wrote an honest and well-circulated account of the city's quite disastrous dog-and-pony show led by Laurie Mertens-Black, the closest thing to a lynch mob I have ever seen in Hollywood -at least in a civic setting.

The many Hollywood Police who were there seemed not at all interested in preventing the constant verbal threats and taunts that filled the air as you would reasonably expect. 
That's how nuts it was.
I urge you to take a look at it before tomorrow's meeting starts.

Updated: A veritable trainwreck of a public meeting. Wednesday's embarrassing 

Vacation Rental Ordinance Amendment presentation at Hollywood City Hall was 

not a pretty sight by any stretch of the imagination


Now you can guess why I didn't speak that night?
Why I didn't ask any of the dozen of good questions that I had researched and written out in advance, just in case we had to hand in our questions instead of being able to ask them ourselves, an oft-used trick in South Florida political and govt. circles to prevent well-informed citizens from being able to ask hard questions.
Or even more importantly, follow-up questions!

Speaking truth to power is not now or ever been a problem for me, but doing so at the same time as I feel like I'm hitting my head against a wall -and accomplishing nothing- is a different thing altogether.
I chose to save my powder and live to fight another day.

When I'm finished here, I'll be sending out some 125-odd emails around -and some tweets via my Twitter handle, @hbbtruth- to some local TV & print reporters to persuade, induce or otherwise get them to show up and give an honest account of what transpires Monday afternoon, instead of following the now-familiar Miami TV narrative of finding the angriest "citizen" in the room, and then making that person and their particular case/cause/issue the new "norm."

Besides being guided by my own personal opinions about how this particular 
#sharingeconomy issue has been handled, poorly, as it has been in almost every city after another in South Florida -to say nothing of poorly covered by the South Florida news media- by trying to adopt a one-size-fits-all mindset, instead of trying to go after persistent bad actors who comprise a disproportionate share of all complaints, I'm also guided by my own personal experiences with Airbnb, as well as other guests who have used it in this area and throughout South Florida and Europe.

Take my word for it, I have talked with them for HOURS about their Airbnb experiences as well as what they like and dislike about the South Florida, Broward and Fort Lauderdale
and Hollywood hospitality and tourism scene.
I only wish the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau did as much talking to actual travelers as I do, since it's clear that follow up and understanding consumers is NOT high on their list of things to do.
Perhaps if the CVB did as much talking with paying consumers s I have, they would realize how much travelers to our area feel taken advantage of, especially at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

As it happens, I am very, very close to someone who is a very successful Airbnb host in the area. I would likely have brought her with me to the last City Commission meeting on this issue except for the fact that she was traveling in Europe then.
Staying at Airbnb properties while there, of course.

if anyone wants to have some pre-game talk about all of this, I'll be in the lobby outside Hollywood City Hall Chambers about 30 minutes prior to the meeting, in what is Hollywood's de facto 'spin room.'





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Thursday, June 15, 2017

Monday's important meeting offers long-overdue opportunities for Hollywood and Hallandale Beach residents/elected officials to say critical things to local state officials who constantly work AGAINST their best-interests. Like voting against Sunshine Laws that ensure transparency and accountability.






Monday's important meeting offers long-overdue opportunities for Hollywood and Hallandale Beach residents/elected officials to say critical things to local state officials who constantly work AGAINST their best-interests. 
Like FL state Rep. Shevrin Jones voting against Florida's Sunshine Laws that ensure transparency and accountability.

As most of you know by now, I was an eyewitness two weeks ago to the very contentious meeting at Hollywood City Hall regarding the City of Hollywood's presentation to the public about their new proposed rules re vacation rentals.
A few hours later, I added some much-needed facts and context I had written in my notepad but had neglected to include in my original blog post that many of you received via an email.
If you didn't see the updated version, please see it now at 

Wed.'s veritable trainwreck of a mtg. in #HollywoodFL re a VacationRental Ordinance Amend. at City Hall.🤔

I mention this because on Monday, I was looking again at the email I received last week from Terry Cantrell, head of the HLCA -see below- and Tuesday from the City of Hollywood and noticed something that I hadn't seen before: 
the contact info for the public meeting in Hallandale Beach next Monday night with local state legislators, where the subject of vacation rentals is sure to come up and be argued over.

State Town Hall Meeting
Monday, June 19

Members of the State Legislative delegation will host a Town Hall Meeting for Hollywood and Hallandale Beach residents on Monday, June 19th at the Hallandale Beach Community Center at 410 SE 3rd Street from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. The public is invited to join State Senator Gary Farmer and State Representatives Shevrin Jones & Joseph Geller to get an update on the most recent legislative session and discuss topics related to Hollywood and Hallandale Beach including the environment, neighborhood vacation rentals, education and property insurance. Refreshments will be provided. To RSVP, please email Gottlieb.Jennifer@FLSenate.gov or call 954.467.4227.

Do you have any idea if the Jennifer Gottlieb listed here as working for the FL Senate -and presumably state Sen. Gary Farmer- is THE Jennifer Gottlieb, or simply another woman with the same name?

Since I was traveling and away from the area for two years, it's possible nearly everyone but me knows the answer to this, but none of the people I've asked so far could say so one way or the other.

I'm asking because the Jennifer Gottlieb who was formerly on the Broward School Board was NOT one of my favorite people, and was a frequent target of mine on my blog of fact-filled news regarding her latest public policy antics, attempts at misdirection, and splitting of hairs on matters involving ethics and public accountability.

Like these posts from 2010 and 2011:

No, the buck never ever stopped with her.

My fact-filled blog posts that posed inconvenient questions/facts JG and Ann Murray and their colleagues wished to ignore, and more recent ones about the awful/mendacious words and actions that the Broward School Board has done under Supt. Robert Runcie on the behalf of kids, parents and Broward taxpayers -and their and our collective future- are one of the reasons that I'm BLOCKED on Twitter from accessing and commenting on
Broward Schools and Runcie tweets. 

They prefer their fact-challenged spin to context, nuance and doses of reality.








Any insight from anyone who actually knows the answer about this JG question would be greatly appreciated.

I'll have some pointed thoughts and questions to share with you about that Monday night meeting -and its hosts- as well as remind you of some of the #facts and #issues likely to come up at it, posted on my blog on Saturday, so please check here by Noontime Saturday.

 That will likely include "correcting" some things that state Rep. Joe Geller, the subject of many posts here on the blog the past few years re his curious and troubling choice of words, actions and ethics the past few years, has already been saying things publicly in Hallandale Beach that might surprise many of you who have actually been following the news in Tallahassee and pride yourself on knowing the #facts.

I probably am not shocking you when I tell you that having seen him in action myself recently, Geller's recounting of #reality and #facts in the past Florida legislative session, to say nothing of an individual legislator's original intent with a bill,  or a member's rationale for votes or trends and the larger scheme of things in Tallahassee, is far different than yours and mine. 
And most every other Florida legislator who was actually there, too.

 Yes, for Joe Geller, as well as Shevrin Jones, facts remain a troublesome thing.


----------------

From: Hollywood Lakes Civic Assn. 
Date: Wed, Jun 7, 2017 at 11:18 AM
Subject: Town Hall Meeting Upcoming



Lakes logo new
  
Lakes Residents,

There will be a Town Hall Meeting in Hallandale Beach on Monday, June 19th. See flyer below. This will be an important meeting as two critical issues that affect the Lakes neighborhood will be discussed: vacation rentals and mooring buoys. We encourage all concerned Lakes residents to attend.







HLCA



Hollywood Lakes Civic Assn., P.O. Box 223922, Hollywood, FL 33022

----


#HollywoodFL, City of Hallandale Beach, City of Hollywood (FL), FL legislature, Gary Farmer, Hollywood Lakes, Joseph S. Geller, Shevrin Jones, Terry Cantrell, Vacation Rentals, Sunshine Laws, 
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