Anaheim Union High School District calls for Ban on STRs

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We received this press release from UniteHere11 regarding the contentious Short Term Rental (STR) issue where property owners rent out homes via services such as AirBnB.

ANAHEIM, Calif.— On Tuesday May 17, over 100 Anaheim residents and workers picketed Anaheim City Hall demanding that Anaheim City Council follow AUHSD’s lead.

The Anaheim Union High School District passed a resolution on May 10 calling for a ban on Short Term Rentals (STRs) in the city of Anaheim.  STRs hurt schools:

–       They de-fund schools by eliminating housing for families with children

–       They make many students feel unsafe in their neighborhoods

–       They exacerbate Anaheim’s affordable housing crisis, destabilizing students’ families

–       They undermine good hotel jobs on which many AUHSD families depend

Loara High School senior Mathew Mariscal told the crowd, “An STR stranger told my friends and I to move from our own pool area.  He said he was paying to stay there for the week and we need to get out of his way. We can’t enjoy the fresh air at home anymore.  My mom keeps our door locked all the time ever since an STR guest walked into our house thinking it was their hotel.”

“Parents, teachers and students tell me about the negative impacts of STRs in their neighborhoods,” said AUHSD Trustee Al Jabbar.  “Kids feel unsafe around all these strangers.  And if families feel unsafe, they’re going to leave the city.  That ultimately decreases our enrollment and our funding.  The AUHSD Trustees feel the Anaheim City Council needs to ban existing STRs, future STRs, and to do it now.”

“I’m afraid future generations won’t enjoy Anaheim the way my family did because of STRs,” said Martin Lopez, a long-time Anaheim resident and voting-rights advocate.  “Some kids have no one to play with because half the houses on their block have become STRs.”

Stoddard Park community leader Jeanine Robbins demanded action from the City: “I’m a member of the City’s Resident Taskforce on STRs, and to be honest we’re fed up with how the City, both Staff and Council, have handled this issue.” Said Robbins, “I’m so proud of AUHSD for calling for a complete ban on STRs.  I hope Anaheim City Council takes their lead.”

 

5 Comments

  1. Gosh darn it – because we can’t use other words…
    This has now been freaking out the neighbors for 2 years minimum and the city is moving at the speed of city.
    But we are the people that live here and this is not a pot shop that hurts no one.
    Somehow they closed down pot shops right away is what I was told.

    The city staff is getting paid a lot, I mean a real lot, hundreds of thousands of bucks each. We pay their wages to bend us over. Like a prostitute paying you for your visit.
    “Oh thank you for slapping me around and doing what you did to me for 4 hours. The bruises should heal soon and I will clean up the blood here is $1,000 come again”.
    And it is hard to sit down after a visit without a really soft chair pad. They need to put that in their brochure for Anaheim. If you move here bring chair pads and lots of Vaseline.

    sam

    • I disagree. Mayor Tait has been supportive of resident’s concerns about STRs for some time, and although the city has taken its sweet time in addressing this huge problem, the Mayor led the vote late last night to impose a ban STRs. That’s the kind of leadership that we expect, not the indifferent dissent expressed by council members Kring and Murray. I hope they’re ready to experience the consequences of ignoring the will of the residents, taxpayers, community and business leaders, and hospitality workers when elections roll around. We’re going to remember in November!

      And… Hats off to the AUHSD Trustees for their decisive leadership on this key issue for the future of our students and our schools! Well done!

  2. First off, this makes local labor look like lap dogs for big business and advocates for Establishment Anaheim. Gross.

    Second, this kind of action represents the decay of the political-economic system that has been in place since Roosevelt. Instead of political insiders bringing together labor and business to bring about progress benefitting everyone, you have insiders gaming the system to benefit the rich while making nominal, populist, overtures to the masses.

    The implicit contempt for public opinion says it all and pretty much reveal where this is coming from… Keep out the stranger! Think of the children! Nevermind that the ultimate result of banning rental properties in Anaheim will bolster special corporate interest entrenched in City Hall and the Chamber of Commerce. And by the way, it does not bolster as much as assuage fears of an outside boogeyman taking away business.

    Meanwhile, middle-class people who tradinonally amass wealth over generations through real estate are getting the shaft. It’s not fair, it’s not right, and it is an example of why people are so disgusted with the political establishment.

    And the Airbnb crowd is generally pretty liberal… in a pacific-northwest kinda way…

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