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Krueger Statement on Use of Airbnb for Floating Brothels

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41–50 of 89 posts

Re: Krueger Statement on Use of Airbnb for Floating Brothels

#41
post #29

> (underlined) Today it's a prostitution ring, tomorrow it could be an illegal gambling ring, and maybe next week it could be a drug operation. This is textbook 'slippery slope' fallacy. https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/slippery-slope You said that if we allow A to happen, then Z will eventually happen too, therefore A should not happen.

A slippery slope is fallacious if there's no argument for the the progression down the slope. Lots of valid arguments take the form of a slippery slope. In this case, there is in fact an escalating progression of bad things happening in Airbnb rentals; in rough order: * Criminal enterprises buying entire buildings and turning them into unlawful hotels * Renters trashing Airbnb rentals * Floating brothels The leap fro…

Yes, it's a good thing we've solved all the crimes with actual victims so we can move on to regulating behavior between consenting adults.

Re: Krueger Statement on Use of Airbnb for Floating Brothels

#42
So is every apartment. In buildings near where I lived in Dublin there were known brothels in rented residential apartments. Long before there was Airbnb, obviously.

This is a standard part of success: criminals hack the system. Much like AWS being used for bitcoin mining, and every cash-in-cash-out system being used for money laundering.

Re: Krueger Statement on Use of Airbnb for Floating Brothels

#43
post #41
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A slippery slope is fallacious if there's no argument for the the progression down the slope. Lots of valid arguments take the form of a slippery slope. In this case, there is in fact an escalating progression of bad things happening in Airbnb rentals; in rough order: * Criminal enterprises buying entire buildings and turning them into unlawful hotels * Renters trashing Airbnb rentals * Floating brothels The leap fro…

Yes, it's a good thing we've solved all the crimes with actual victims so we can move on to regulating behavior between consenting adults.

I'm guessing the neighbors of these short term rental properties didn't consent to Airbnb's customers rezoning their neighborhoods for them.

Re: Krueger Statement on Use of Airbnb for Floating Brothels

#45
post #29

> (underlined) Today it's a prostitution ring, tomorrow it could be an illegal gambling ring, and maybe next week it could be a drug operation. This is textbook 'slippery slope' fallacy. https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/slippery-slope You said that if we allow A to happen, then Z will eventually happen too, therefore A should not happen.

A slippery slope is fallacious if there's no argument for the the progression down the slope. Lots of valid arguments take the form of a slippery slope. In this case, there is in fact an escalating progression of bad things happening in Airbnb rentals; in rough order: * Criminal enterprises buying entire buildings and turning them into unlawful hotels * Renters trashing Airbnb rentals * Floating brothels The leap fro…

Illegal gambling is hardly a problem anymore since there are so many legal places to gamble. I think she just picked a random item from her mental bucket of "things that sound scary and bad".

Re: Krueger Statement on Use of Airbnb for Floating Brothels

#46
post #2

From the press release: "Prostitution wasn't really at the top of our minds when we passed the 2010 law helping NYC enforce against illegal short-term rentals, but in hindsight it seems kind of obvious." You have to admit, I think the enterprising minds here at HN also failed to foresee this.

You mean that people would use AirBNBs for the same things they use normal apartments for?!?!?!?

Most likely it's that most of HN doesn't care what consenting adults do on their own time.

Re: Krueger Statement on Use of Airbnb for Floating Brothels

#47
post #43
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's a good thing we've solved all the crimes with actual victims so we can move on to regulating behavior between consenting adults.

I'm guessing the neighbors of these short term rental properties didn't consent to Airbnb's customers rezoning their neighborhoods for them.

I'm guessing that since the person in the article was informed by the police and not her neighbors, that no one had any clue.

Re: Krueger Statement on Use of Airbnb for Floating Brothels

#48
post #41
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A slippery slope is fallacious if there's no argument for the the progression down the slope. Lots of valid arguments take the form of a slippery slope. In this case, there is in fact an escalating progression of bad things happening in Airbnb rentals; in rough order: * Criminal enterprises buying entire buildings and turning them into unlawful hotels * Renters trashing Airbnb rentals * Floating brothels The leap fro…

Yes, it's a good thing we've solved all the crimes with actual victims so we can move on to regulating behavior between consenting adults.

[deleted]

Re: Krueger Statement on Use of Airbnb for Floating Brothels

#49
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So basically, she's admitting that the property is more valuable than its current use, and the city is actively denying itself tax revenue because of it.

I think she's taking the position that there's inherent value in providing affordable residential property in New York which exceeds the value in extracting maximum tax revenue from every square inch of the city. At the very least, I find that to be a defensible position.

@moron4hire: It's a good point. But there are side effects of reducing residential property. What happens to the city's economy when everyone's commute is doubled because housing in the city is becoming prohibitively expensive as supply shrinks? Without zoning laws, how do you attract people to move to your city when there's no guarantee their apartment building will still be an apartment building once the lease is up?

To answer the question, I think it's the city government's job to balance the interests of people and businesses that reside in the city. In a perfect world, every side effect and externality would be neatly quantifiable, and municipal leadership would be fair and evenhanded. For now, we have to trust that the feedback loop of election will produce pretty good solutions to problems. I can't think of a better way to approach things in the current system.

Re: Krueger Statement on Use of Airbnb for Floating Brothels

#50
post #9

This is the NY Post'a article which the kreuger text references, it's in the headline article but for those skimming the comments or who missed the hyperlink: http://nypost.com/2014/04/14/hookers-using-airbnb-to-use-apa...

That article is .. not helpful. So baby swipes and 'at least ten condoms' is a proof of prostitution? That .. doesn't quite add up. I mean, you actually buy condoms in packs of 10-12 here and the baby swipe thing is inconclusive. Maybe the claim in the headline is right, probably the story is backed by real facts. That article though? That's really useless.

Except that her guest was slashed with a knife by a client in her apartment; I think you missed that part.
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