Readers React: Airbnb and the corporatization of neighborhoods

To the editor: On our block alone, five otherwise full-time residentially livable units have been emptied and turned into advertised vacation rentals. Additionally, dozens of not full-time occupied homes in adjacent blocks are also illegally listed for those short-term visitors wishing to pretend they really live here while on vacation. (“What Airbnb’s Bay Area win means for L.A.,” editorial, Nov. 5)

Tenants are being evicted under abuse of the Ellis Act, with many bungalows then demolished and replaced with box McMansions advertised online for as much as $1,000 or more per night.

This gutting of community is not the “sharing economy” but rather a $25-billion corporatization of one neighborhood after another.

Soon, there will be no “neighbors” for the vacationers to pretend they are mixing with.

Ty Geltmaker and James Rosen, West Hollywood

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