Regarding Bill Hudson’s multi-installment series about Pagosa’s STR ‘problem’, I have two comments. First, the subject of STRs.
When regulation of STR’s was being debated in Florida I wrote (in another publication), “Restriction of vacation rentals is an exception to my strong opposition to government telling me what to do with my own property because there is another, more important, fundamental right involved. Availability of affordable housing for the locals.”
I offer a suggestion of some (so far unmentioned) potential consequences of allowing the STR situation to continue invading residential neighborhoods. Direct action by the neighborhood residents. That’s what happened in a neighborhood here.
An elderly couple who were long time residents of their neighborhood passed away and left their home to family. Despite the requests of neighbors not to do so, the family sold the home to an out-of-state investor who turned it into as STR. Making matters worse (in the eyes of Floridians), he was a damn Yankee.
It didn’t take long for the STR to become both an eyesore, and nuisance. Repeated calls to the yankee owner to address the problems went unanswered. So the neighbors decided to make it financially unfeasible to continue running as an STR.
Every time the tenants of the STR got even slightly noisy, neighbors called the sheriff. Even when there was no noise, neighbors reported suspicions that drug dealing was going on there, and renters found themselves getting questioned by sheriff’s drug agents. If the renters had children, and were partying, neighbors called child protective services over concerns the children were being given alcohol.
A retired police officer neighbor whose back yard abutted the STR back yard would sit in his yard drinking beer, cleaning his AR-15, and staring intently at the renters whenever they went into their back yard. Another adjacent neighbor let his large dog loose in his fenced front yard, and the dog would aggressively charge the fence and bark at renters whenever they came out to their cars. Things escalated to the point that on mornings after parties, renters would come out to find all the tires on their vehicles deflated.
Because of the less-than-conducive to a relaxing vacation atmosphere, renters gave the location very negative reviews online. Within a year the owner had to substantially reduce the rate to attract tenants. But even that eventually didn’t work. Within three years of becoming an STR, the property was sold, at a loss to the investor, to a young family who were welcomed into the neighborhood.
I am certainly not advocating such direct action. But the owners of STRs, and public officials who ignore the wishes of their own constituents, need to understand that even decent law-abiding citizens can be pushed too far.
While on the subject of Bill’s series, most of which I agree with, I feel compelled to ask if I correctly understood what he had to say about retirees.
Mrs Beatty and I worked all our lives since we were both teenagers. Over a half century for me, and nearly so for her. That whole time we had social security withheld form our pay (without our consent) on the premiss that we’d get it back some day. Throughout our working lives we lived frugally, saved and invested rather than live a more extravagant lifestyle that we certainly could have afforded.
Now, because neither of us has the energy or health to pursue the professions we are trained for, preferring to let others have their turn, Mr. Hudson places us in the same “entitled” category as millennials living in their parent’s basements because they can’t find jobs worthy of what they believe themselves entitled too. Surely, Mr. Hudson can’t be serious?
We are supporting ourselves on the pension I earned during a career in public service supplemented by what we saved and invested, together with the Social Security that was confiscated from us our entire working lives. To borrow from that great American, the late Charlie Daniels:
“We ain’t asking nobody for nothin’, we haven’t gotten on our own!”
We aren’t “entitled” to retirement. We worked our asses off and earned it.
Surely, Mr. Hudson can recognize that distinction.
Gary Beatty lives between Florida and Pagosa Springs. He retired after 30 years as a prosecutor for the State of Florida, has a doctorate in law, is Board Certified in Criminal Trial law by the Florida Supreme Court, and is now a law professor.