"A ruler who lacks understanding is a great oppressor,
But he who hates covetousness will prolong his days."
Proverbs 28:16
Fantastic Statesman op-ed this morning from TPPF about council's anti-AirBNB ordinance:
Already, Uber and Lyft have been driven out of town thanks to municipal micromanagement and ballot language chicanery. Now, the short-term rental industry, which includes companies like HomeAway, Airbnb, and VRBO, also finds itself under assault from an overzealous city council hellbent on regulating every aspect of daily life.
Central in this skirmish is Austin’s new ordinance governing short-term rentals, or STRs. The ordinance, which was approved in February by an overwhelming majority of the Austin City Council by a 9-2 vote, is a near-perfect example of the nanny state run amok.
Read the whole thing here.....But as intrusive and inappropriate as these regulations are, it’s the city’s new enforcement powers that are truly unsettling.
To make sure that people are abiding by all of its new rules, Austin has given its code officials the ability to conduct warrantless searches, at all reasonable times, of “all buildings, dwelling units, guest rooms and premises” in search of possible code violations. And since some of the restrictions don’t go into effect until after 10 p.m., officials could well show up in the dead of night to search every nook and cranny of an STR looking for any sign of bad behavior — all without a warrant.
Giving city officials the power to search residential properties without a warrant is not just unwise; it’s downright un-American.
Americans have certain fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. and Texas Constitutions. These are not forfeit simply because a person stays as a guest at a short-term rental. Nor are they surrendered because a person legally owns and operates a certain kind of investment property. Austin’s ordinance runs so far afoul of these basic tenets of American society that it deserves nothing short of total repeal.
And that’s where we step in.
Authority Having Jurisdiction, as I was once an elected Alderman here in Texas, the City of Austin can Not give what no American City Council ever had constitutional authority to do
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ReplyDeleteThe castle doctrine may cause problems if some city official starts snooping around a outside house late at night and ends up getting shot.
ReplyDeleteBut actually a homeless person does have a constitutional right to sit down when he needs to. The City has other ordinacrs to deal with obstruction or similar problems, ot had no need to pass an ordinance that attempts to take away any person's constitutional rights.
ReplyDeleteBut actually a homeless person does have a constitutional right to sit down when he needs to. The City has other ordinacrs to deal with obstruction or similar problems, ot had no need to pass an ordinance that attempts to take away any person's constitutional rights.
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