Protect Neighborhoods

Susan Shields is exactly on point in her March 22 letter dissecting the nonsense of the S.B. City Council’s decision to once again punt down the road the question of the blatant violation of city laws restricting the rental of rooms and other properties to tourists.

Spending another $1.5 million to see if there is a problem is even worse. Anyone in living in residential Santa Barbara knows that such off the books rentals are endemic. How hard is it to look online to find out who is advertising rentals in this town and then to check the legality of such rentals and then send a letter to the illegal rental ads telling them to cease.

Unfortunately, the council’s interest seems more in collecting the temporary occupancy tax (TOT) than in protecting neighborhoods from such nuisance by actually stopping the practice. Why can’t we elect people who will protect people instead of business and money interests?