Comment by DanielBMarkham | Hacker News Reader

Comment by DanielBMarkham | Hacker News Reader

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Interesting startup lesson here.

NYC -- famous for high cost-of-living. So folks start micro-leasing as a way to recoup costs. Several startups are created as a way to coordinate these micro-leases.

Response? Government steps in and shuts it down.

The reason social problems, like housing shortages and the political responses, are important to talk about on HN is that big companies solve big problems, and nothing happens in a vacuum. Sometimes your biggest competitor can be the political status quo.

I find the governor's remarks true, yet unconvincing. Kind of like a lot of politician-speak. Politicians (of all stripes) learn from the legal, public relations, and polling professions how to take any position on any side of an argument and make it sound somewhat plausible and reasonable for Joe Six Pack giving the entire matter 5 minutes thought.

In the absence of public uproar, this was done for commercial reasons. Dig deep enough and you'll find somebody with a checkbook.

No, what I think you will find are people who believe that operating a commercial enterprise, which is what micro-leasing is, needing to be subject to regulation, licensing, insurance and liability - which they are currently aren't. I also believe you'll find people concerned about the possibility of renters being taken advantage of with no legal recourse.

It's pretty simple.

I was going to use a bit of napkin logic to explore what you've said, but on further inspection your logic is circular, so needs no further exploration.

If these things should be regulated because they are of a type of thing to be regulated? Then we haven't really advanced the discussion much, have we?

Maybe you want to have a "big government" argument, but forget all of that. I'll assume you are correct. This is a type of thing that of necessity needs regulation. There are other enterprises just like this one who were not regulated. So why now? Why this? Certainly you don't feel like the actions were just random -- somebody rolls a dice and picks these guys out. I mean, as good and as wonderful and as healthy as all these restrictions are, they have to come from somewhere, right?

Pick your favorite thing you wanted the government to do or not do over the last 20 years that never happened. Why did the government do some things and not others? Is there some secret logic or calculus that is used to determine which things to fix and which not to fix? Or is it just votes?

I mean, you understand the reason for political parties, right? The use of force to protect interests. The speeches are all about bunnies and apple pie and protecting orphans, but bunnies and apple pies and orphans don't vote or make campaign contributions, do they?

Sorry about the cynicism, but there's a very interesting economic lesson going on here that has to do with startups, so I thought it worthwhile to point out.

Not trying to get in an argument, although I have no doubt that I've gotten into one. So I'm done here.

What other enterprises similar to AirBnB that aren't regulated?

Restaurants? Regulated. Car rental? Regulated. Retail? Regulated. Banking? Regulated. Hotels? Regulated. Bed and Breakfasts? Regulated in the state of New York. Bars? Regulated. Movie Theaters? Regulated.

Name me one thing that isn't regulated, subject to zoning, subject to inspection, subject to fire and/or safety codes?

It isn't a matter of big government or whatever weird diatribe trip you are on, it's a question of consumer protection, it's a question of taxation, it's a question of safety and fire codes, and it's a question of the rights of other tenets living in the building to not be subject to a random rotation of people in their homes.

http://politifi.com/news/Students-young-professionals-duped-...

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/03/26/party_boy_bounced_f...

I agree with most of what you said, but why is random rotation of people is bad for other tenants.

Also, isn't this a part of what New York is? I'd love to live in this city for a month or two or what is possible on a visa, but this will make such dream impossible.

For the fifth time on HN: Manhattan is the most dense housing in the US. The vast majority of Americans and most visitors to the states don't live in anything comparable. Further, unless you live in a prewar, lots of housing in Manhattan is pretty inexpensively built -- especially anything dating from the 60s and 70s, of which there is a lot. Little concern was paid to sound insulation, and often the walls between neighboring apartments are no thicker than the walls between rooms. Thus, people are much more circumspect about the noise they make and their behavior in order to live and get along in such housing.

Further, long term tenants know they will have to see and get along with each other so there are further incentives to not being noisy or obnoxious.

On the other hand, short term tenants often want to party and have no such incentives not to be shitty neighbors. This isn't merely theory but also my experience living next to a short term place in SF. Thus, many denizens of NYC and SF do not want such neighbors.

I agree with you, and obviously there have been many comments made here.

I find ,in this instance, it simply amazing how quickly the government was able to come to the aid of big business when big business was threatened by a startup.

In other instances, we have observed this at the federal level, but it takes many years, lobbyists, and congresscritters to do so (DMCA, ACTA, etc).

Imagine if the newspapers were able to prevent craigslist's success by protecting the newspapers' classified advertising revenue through state legislation, requiring licensing fees and inspections for the distribution of classified advertising within the state.

I can imagine many other startups being destroyed by this type of "necessary regulation".

I must say, that besides money, this must be one of the best validations of a startup's success. Unfortunate, though.

Because having regulations, licenses, insurance and liability, is just absolutely necessary - as it has been for innkeepers during medieval times, the Victorian era, etc...

Your worship of government is misguided.

You appear to have ignored every other thread and story about this issue, in which it was established pretty plainly that there is a public concern about short-term apartment rentals.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1471771

> Dig deep enough and you'll find somebody with a checkbook.

Yep. Nothing happens without a member of some good old boys' club benefiting from it somehow.

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