Listen now | Author and activist Leslie Kern joins me to discuss the unseen and unconsidered questions around gentrification, displacement, housing, and mutual aid
This is an excellent interview. I have thought a lot about these issues with regard to the nearby college town where I used to live and alsothe city of Santa Fe, where I lived for a year in 1995. Both of those places are really struggling with affordable housing and the proliferation of airbnbs as well as a few landlords controlling most of the housing in the college town. The large state university keeps increasing enrollment, but the administration does very little to accommodate the students who have to live there. What has happened here in State College, PA (and I have observed the same thing in Ithaca, NY) is that a handful of landlords have turned the older neighborhoods that once housed lifelong residents into student ghettos. In addition, in State College local residents are turning to Airbnb to rent out their homes for football weekends, going so far as to move into a hotel so visitors can stay in their home! Believe it or not they can make enough profit for that approach to work!
When we lived in Santa Fe in 1995, our neighborhood was considered to be a sketchy barrio. The roots of this belief were racist, of course. More and more of the local folks were being driven out by people from California, and more recently Texas, buying up housing for second homes and Airbnbs. Santa Fe is a tourist town, as I am sure you know. But it’s also the state capital and many of the folks who work for the state cannot afford to live there but must commute from other communities. Recently the city of Santa Fe overwhelmingly passed a “mansion tax” on any home sold for over $1,000,000. It’s 3% on anything higher than 1 million. Realtors fought it, of course, but the state Supreme Court declined to hear the case and it went into effect in January.
Thank you for your kind words regarding the interview and commenting on what's happening in Santa Fe. I must say that I'm no longer surprised at reading this. It does seem to be an epidemic, and most likely an issue that will define the times to come. My hope is that, at some point, landlordism, rent, and gentrification will indeed become things that everyone will be against.
This is an excellent interview. I have thought a lot about these issues with regard to the nearby college town where I used to live and alsothe city of Santa Fe, where I lived for a year in 1995. Both of those places are really struggling with affordable housing and the proliferation of airbnbs as well as a few landlords controlling most of the housing in the college town. The large state university keeps increasing enrollment, but the administration does very little to accommodate the students who have to live there. What has happened here in State College, PA (and I have observed the same thing in Ithaca, NY) is that a handful of landlords have turned the older neighborhoods that once housed lifelong residents into student ghettos. In addition, in State College local residents are turning to Airbnb to rent out their homes for football weekends, going so far as to move into a hotel so visitors can stay in their home! Believe it or not they can make enough profit for that approach to work!
When we lived in Santa Fe in 1995, our neighborhood was considered to be a sketchy barrio. The roots of this belief were racist, of course. More and more of the local folks were being driven out by people from California, and more recently Texas, buying up housing for second homes and Airbnbs. Santa Fe is a tourist town, as I am sure you know. But it’s also the state capital and many of the folks who work for the state cannot afford to live there but must commute from other communities. Recently the city of Santa Fe overwhelmingly passed a “mansion tax” on any home sold for over $1,000,000. It’s 3% on anything higher than 1 million. Realtors fought it, of course, but the state Supreme Court declined to hear the case and it went into effect in January.
Hey Martha!
Thank you for your kind words regarding the interview and commenting on what's happening in Santa Fe. I must say that I'm no longer surprised at reading this. It does seem to be an epidemic, and most likely an issue that will define the times to come. My hope is that, at some point, landlordism, rent, and gentrification will indeed become things that everyone will be against.