
Barcelona cracks down on Airbnb rentals with illegal apartment squads - kawera
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/02/airbnb-faces-crackdown-on-illegal-apartment-rentals-in-barcelona
======
malandrew
> Anti-tourist graffiti has begun to appear, with “No tourists past this
> point” painted on a street in the old city and “Why call it tourist season
> if we can’t shoot them?” near the popular Park Güell. In recent weeks,
> several hotels have also been attacked with stones and paint bombs.

Wow. This is shocking when Barcelona is a city that earns a sizable chunk of
revenue from tourism. The annual report published by the Barcelona Tourism
agency shows significant growth in tourism since 2000. With this in mind,
AirBnB appears to be used as a scapegoat here.

[http://professional.barcelonaturisme.com/imgfiles/estad/OTBC...](http://professional.barcelonaturisme.com/imgfiles/estad/OTBC_Informe_Anual_2015.pdf)

~~~
faragon
Anti-tourist movement in Barcelona is a minority, mainly from extreme-left
parties and activists from Catalan nationalist parties. I live in Barcelona,
and I'm ashamed of those xenophobic acts. My guess is that over 90% of
Barcelona population don't endorse such xenophobic attitude.

Despite being affected personally, e.g. because of tourism flat rental makes
generic rental to have huge price increases (15% year to year increase (!)),
I'm not against tourism, because tourism also means less unemployment, and
most people having a better situation. Also, having people from around the
world willing to visit the city where I live is amazing, and I'm very proud of
it. Being Spain still recovering from the long, huge, and terrible financial
and housing bubble crisis since 2007, I'm terrified with those radicals
blaming the tourists for a problem that should be fixed by local rulers.

In my opinion, the major of Barcelona city (not the province), Mrs Ada Colau
(former radical-left activist) should put her efforts into increasing housing
offer, so the demand-offer reaches a reasonable equilibrium (e.g. fiscal
discounts for empty flats put in the rental market, fiscal discounts for
building flats in former industrial places that are like ghost neighborhoods,
etc.).

From my side, you're very welcome to visit Barcelona as tourist, as worker, or
as whatever you want while you do more good than harm :-)

~~~
dnautics
It's kind of crazy because I suspect a large portion of the tourist crowd
(especially those from the us) would probably sympathize with Catalan
separatism.

~~~
faragon
I hope not. In my opinion, the Catalan separatist movement is clearly not
democratic (despite using agitprop equaling self-determination to democracy,
which is a fallacy), and often, xenophobic ("Spain robs us"). I hope that once
the economy gets fully recovered, nationalist people will go back to a more
rational position.

~~~
dnautics
How is "Spain robs us" xenophobic? I don't think when americans, for example
say, "washington robs us" that's xenophobic at all. It does xenophobic when
it's coupled to antitourist sentiment or excluding people from moving to
Catalonia (which I don't doubt it is, at the level of the political party)

> once the economy gets fully recovered.

I guess part of my point is that spain's economy won't recover so long as the
entrenched political class that feels like it's _entitled_ to the gains
catalonia's relatively performant economy.

The same pattern holds true with the EU writ large. For example the entirely
disingenous anti-austerity rhetoric in greece vs. germany: news flash,
austerity only hurts the poor when you direct the pain of deficit reduction
against the poorest and refuse to give up the sweet deals that fill the
pockets of rich politically connected interests.

------
mpblampo
I'm pretty sure "eye of the storm" refers to the calm in the center of a
hurricane. This writer seems to use it to mean that AirBNB is suffering the
worst damage.

~~~
sundaeofshock
"Amid growing evidence that the massive upsurge in tourist apartments is
driving rents up and residents out, the city has launched a crackdown on
illegal, unlicensed apartments, and Airbnb, the dominant platform, is in the
eye of the storm, although not the only offender."

Sure looks to me like the author is suggesting that Airbnb is is in the center
of a storm causing damage to the city of Barcelona.

~~~
algesten
Which I agree with. Airbnb is great when it's not run for profit. People
purchasing second homes to rent out are ruining nice places.

~~~
askAwayMan
Out the of the five I stayed in the past four years, they've all been second
homes rented out with the exception of one in Portland, Maine.

~~~
wcummings
Ive stayed in what could only be called illegal hotels in NYC. In one case I
was furnished with keys in a real estate/property mgmt office. Probably
depends a lot on your price point tbh.

------
jzl
Barcelona has had a huge market for apartment sharing since long before
Airbnb. I travelled there in 2000 and remember stepping off the train into the
train station and being bombarded with people offering a room to stay in their
place for a reasonable fee. As I knew from research this was going to happen
that's exactly what I planned on doing. I picked the most trustworthy-seeming
person I could find and stayed in their place for a week. Had an amazing time.

Full credit to Airbnb for bringing this process into the digital/smartphone
age, but the roots for this in some cities, like Barcelona, was always there.

------
bjl
Good. Hotels and hostels are for tourists, apartments should be for residents.

~~~
atemerev
Let the market decide. I am a resident, and I rent an apartment, but I have no
objection over AirBnB. Tourists are good. Spain's economy is struggling.
Renting an apartment to tourists via AirBnb is a lifesaver for some of my
friends in Barcelona, who lived for some time without the ability to find any
job (unemployment rates in Spain are ridiculous).

~~~
wrasee
That does kind of miss the whole point of the article. If you are a resident,
you rent an apartment, and pay an extra 23% that in part is due to the ease at
which firms like AirBnB let speculators buy up apartments and rent them out to
tourists for a profit.

Tourism is good for Spain, that's not lost on anyone. But the profits are not
evenly distributed. Not all social problems can be solved by the market.

~~~
atemerev
Why the profits should be "evenly" distributed? Even distribution is unfair.
Fairness is way more important than equality (in fact, "equality", if unfair,
is definitely something you wouldn't want to create).

If my friend can rent her apartment for some amount of money and it helps her
to survive jobless periods, why she (or I) should bother that somebody is
doing it on the larger scale for larger profits? Good for them. And preventing
these profits by prohibiting AirBnb will also kill her small income stream,
which is way more important to her than it is for the rich guys (who will just
invest freed money to something else).

------
msoad
I'm planning to visit Barcelona. Seeing all those anti-tourist signs makes me
wonder if I'll be welcome there.

It's funny how people of a city who earn lots of money from tourists hate the
tourists this much!

~~~
jacquesm
Yes, just imagine that a city tries to deal with being overrun. They don't
hate the tourists, they try to stay as organized as they can.

There is such a thing as being too popular and the tourists converging on
Barcelona are starting to make life for the people that live there harder and
harder (rising rents, for once thing).

You'll be more than welcome in Barcelona, it's a fantastic place to visit
though you'll have to count with insane waiting times at the various 'sights'
that are on every tourists 'must see' list.

But try to play by the rules if you can.

~~~
horsecaptin
I'm sure you are welcoming, but when the streets are painted with anti tourist
messaging, then "you'll be more than welcome" sounds a bit hollow.

~~~
jacquesm
I've been in Barcelona multiple times over the last few years and it's one of
my favorite cities. There are few places where the locals are as accommodating
towards tourists but there are limits to how big a proportion of tourists :
citizens you can have before there have to be some rules.

The fact that rent prices have jumped up tremendously to the point where
locals are pushed out of Barcelona to make way for yet more professionally run
AirBnB hotels (which are open 24x7 and all year round) does not help either.

If you see this as 'anti-tourist' imagine that the town or city where you
currently live becomes the next hot thing in tourism and you'll be forced to
go live somewhere else, or it will be impossible for you to get a spot on the
beach in your city and so on. Sooner or later you too would be a big proponent
of some reasonable restrictions.

I've seen some incredibly rude and downright criminal things in and near
Barcelona on account of people who were just there for a few days, if anything
the population is very restrained in how they are dealing with this,
_especially_ because it is for a large fraction of them their daily bread and
butter.

But I'm really not surprised by what is happening there, the same is happening
in many other tourist spots the world over (Amsterdam being another one, for
instance).

~~~
horsecaptin
I've lived in a handful of "next hot thing" towns. In the United States and
Canada and have yet to see anti-tourist stories that seem to originate out of
parts of Europe.

~~~
wott
Which "next hot thing" touristic towns are there in USA and Canada?

~~~
relyio
Paris, Texas!

------
olliej
That headline seems very ambiguous :)

------
faragon
No, because of tourist rentals are not enough for covering the local demand,
the problem is 10x bigger.

Regarding people needs, in my opinion the problem is that people in charge in
local government (Barcelona city) is not focused in solving the problems, but
in agitprop for increasing their own power (currently the extreme-left is
governing Barcelona in minority). Also, regional government (Catalonia) is
focused in doing separatist agitprop in order to hide their corruption. In top
of that, central government (government of the country, Spain) has no
competences to help in the housing problems, as most competences in that
regard are local/regional.

~~~
bcncit
Thank you for clarifying.

As a Barcelona citizen, I was with the impression that Spain's central
government furious attack against Catalonia people's right to self-
determination was to simply to distract the fact that the central government
party (Partido Popular) has over 900 politicians currently on trial with
charges of corruption (more than any other party in the whole Europe).

In fact, I thought central government's current situation was great material
for a potential sequel of a great movie. The sequel could be called "Wag the
Dog 2" with Robert de Niro as adviser of central goverment's president Mariano
Rajoy, who as you know will be forced to declare in one these trials for
corruption.

So, in your opinion the best solution for Barcelona is that Spain's central
government should take over and fix our housing issues in Barcelona?

Thanks in advance for elaborating on the reasons why you think it is a good
idea after the chaos they created in Barcelona's airport with something much
simpler as passport control.

~~~
faragon
You're a Spanish citizen, as there is no such thing as per-city citizenship in
Spain. BTW, you can twist the words at your convenience, if that makes you
happy.

~~~
bcncit
Currently, I am technically a Spanish citizen. I like people from Spain, their
food and their culture, and I even find it kind of cool that they have a king,
although I do not feel he is my king in any way.

When I watch a soccer game with the Spain's national team I can equally
celebrate a goal scored by them or against them if I like the goal. With
Catalonia's national team (who only are allowed to play once a year) or my
local team FC Barcelona (I even have a season ticket) the feelings are totally
different.

Also I do not feel at all the Spanish flag is my flag. To be frank, I even
have a sense of foreigness when I look at the Spanish flag, possibly because
it still somehow suggests repression to me.

I strongly believe that people in Catalonia should have the right of self-
determination. The culture, the language, even the traits are distinct enough
to deserve it, and not be bullied because of it.

That Catalan people have the right of self-determination does not mean that
all Catalan people who think they should have that right would vote to leave
Spain.

I am totally neutral about if the outcome of a referendum is to leave Spain or
to stay in Spain (both things have upsides and downsides at short and long
term), but I'm not neutral about Catalonia's people having the right of self-
determination, we should have it.

~~~
faragon
You can believe in whatever you want, have aversion to symbols, think how
special you are vs other co-citizens, etc.: your free-speech is protected by
the Spanish Constitution, the UE, and the UN. Mine is protected, too, and in
my opinion the Catalan region culture is pretty similar to the culture of the
rest of Spain, and the ones painting the Catalan region as "different", in the
ethic sense, lie, or simply don't consider the majority of the Catalan
population as human beings having the same rights (check Catalan people
family-names: are in the same proportion as the rest of Spain; you can check
also religion, gastronomy, even trash-TV show taste is similar to the Spanish
average, etc.).

Regarding the "Catalan people", I am "Catalan people", too, and the only
oppression I see in the Catalan region is the one pushed by the Catalan
regional government towards forcing uniform ethnic brainwash from public
administration and schools, in Catalan-only, instead of bilingual Spanish-
Catalan. A reminder: not only Catalan-speakers -mother tongue- (35% of
inhabitants of the Catalan region) have rights, Spanish-speakers (55% of
inhabitants of the Catalan region) have rights, too. So next time you fight
for your rights, be sure you're really fighting for your rights (I would
endorse you), and not for quitting/removing/stealing other people's rights (I
would not endorse you). Respect works both ways.

Kind regards.

~~~
bcncit
Sorry, I believe I misunderstood you. I thought you were _against_ granting
the right of self-determination to Catalan people, that is, the people who
lives in Catalonia whatever language they speak. I did not catch that you
endorsed fighting for rights.

Just wanted to clarify that I do not particularly support all Catalan
Government policies, in fact, just a few of them.

There are many important other rights that need to be addressed such as the
right to die with dignity (this is long overdue) or the right receiving
education in your language, at least for major languages such as Catalan,
Spanish, Arabic or English.

Please note that this is not an issue only local to Barcelona, this is an
issue that also face people who speak Catalan, English or Arabic at home and
live, for example, in Madrid and only receive education in Spanish (is that
also "uniform ethnic brainwash"!?).

My guess is that authorizities in Barcelona or Madrid do not grant this right
as to avoid segregation, but we will not know unless they try it and see
actual segregation. The other alternative of teaching everybody evenly in all
significant languages in our society (Catalan, Spanish, Arabic and English)
might overwhelm kids.

I'm not sure if you have any actual experience with the Catalan education
system or just read about it on the yellow press and that build your opinion
to define it "uniform etnic brainwash". Would you share if you have any actual
experience with it and what impact it had on you or your children?

In my actual experience, my three children have been fully exposed to the
"uniform ethnic brainwash" Catalan education and IMHO, their Spanish is better
than their Catalan is, even when we speak Catalan at home. They have some
knowledge of English, but they have no knowledge of Arabic.

~~~
faragon
You can twist the words whatever you want, if that makes you happy. The self-
determination right is only for very specific cases according the UN, and the
Catalan region does not qualify for that. Also, the EU representatives have
been very clear in that regard, as being an internal issue of Spain, and the
Spanish Parliament already voted, including a majority of Catalan
representatives, against a hypothetical secession, because being against the
Constitution. For being short, I do support the Spanish Constitution, the rule
of law, the Spanish government, the European Union, the NATO, and the United
Nations.

~~~
bcncit
The very same could be said about women being able to vote, same sex marriage
or in the US a black guy using the same restrooms as white people or being the
POTUS.

All these things were illegal by laws backed and supported by the highest,
most sensible and most respected authorities back in the time, even during
centuries.

But it was the determination of people to be able to make all these illegal
things fully legal nowadays. This is progress.

If people wants, anything is possible. Laws are to serve people, and if they
do not work, they should be changed.

People can even change a constitution.

To help you fully understand the context, the Spanish constitution was written
only 3 years after a military dictatorship that lasted 40 years (2
generations) with many people afraid of the military coming back and the
police charging in people's demonstrations.

I do not know if you ever have had to run in a demonstration with a policeman
running behind you with a gun with a clear intent to shoot you. I did and
believe me, it is really scary. You even develop a sense of foreigness for
certain symbols.

The Spanish constitution can and should be changed to meet the needs of people
in the 21st century. The one we have now is the bastard child of the turmoil
after the military dictatorship.

~~~
faragon
The US made a war against the "White Separatism" (Confederate States of
America), in order to protect the US Constitution and citizen rights. Even in
more recent times, e.g. in 1955 the US Constitution protected Rosa Parks
against those same xenophobic supremacists that lost the American Civil War,
and were using their regional power in order to impose ethnic totalitarianism.
So think your argument twice, and think if you're really on the side of the
"good ones", defending individual rights, or on the ethnic totalitarian side,
defending "tradition" vs civil rights. Another example: the National Guard (US
Army) forced the acceptance of black students, in order to ensure their
rights, honoring the US Constitution, and the rule of law. In the same way, I
hope the Spain Constitution will prevail, ensuring the rights of the citizens.
For the long term, I wish some kind of United States of Europe, for even
better civil rights protection, against disloyal regional administrations with
a hidden ethnic/separatist agenda against the rule of law (e.g. like current
French and German legislations, where disloyal/separatist regional governments
are explicitly forbidden in their Constitutions).

~~~
bcncit
I love immigration. I loved it when it was people from Spain 30 or 40 years
ago and I love it now from other countries, such as Morocco, China, Pakistan
or Europe, both legal and illegal. I helped illegal immigrants with their
paperwork to become legal immigrants. I do believe that the avalanche of ex-
pats that decided to settle in Barcelona in the last 50-years has allowed
Catalans to enjoy a more cosmopolitan environment. I even hired some of these
ex-pats.

I thought about twice per your request, and I'm afraid that with my support
for Catalonia's self-determination rights I'm defending individual rights.
Otherwise, I would become the first ethnic totalitarian on Earth who loved
immigration and helped immigrants to settle.

How do you like immigration yourself? I'm asking because the Head of the
Partido Popular (Spanish central government) in Catalonia hates it [1], he is
a declared xenophobe and such proneness to xenophobia often permeates to other
supporters of Partido Popular and similar right-wing parties.

[1]
[http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2015/07/28/catalunya/1438078282_...](http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2015/07/28/catalunya/1438078282_063848.html)

~~~
faragon
You "love" immigration, but you endorse the monolingual Catalan school,
despite being the language of a minority of the citizens in the region. Great
"democracy" example (democracy is not just "voting" -many dictatorships
allowed to "vote" to cut rights-, is the rule of law and respecting people's
rights).

For your information, I do like immigration, and I'm in favor of trilingual
school in the Catalan region of Spain (Spanish, Catalan, English), and the
more immigration coming to Spain, the better for the country, that would mean
that the economy is recovering and people is willing to bet for it. BTW, you
can not judge an organization based on the opinions of one person (even if
what you say about that person could be true, or not). Xenophobe examples by
the Catalan nationalism are endless.

I know the Catalan nationalism arguments, and I can dismount them one by one.
So you're wasting your time with your propaganda on me.

