Sticker price isn't the price you pay at the till. Why? Why do you do that.

Massive gaps between the walls and doors of public lavatory cubicles. This is not some mystical, advanced technology. Get it together.

It was eventually removed from the woman’s abdomen in 2021, approximately 18 months after the initial procedure and a number of visits to her GP. On one occasion, her pain was so severe that she visited the emergency department at Auckland city hospital.

I wish this was surprising.

From heart disease to IUDs: How doctors dismiss women’s pain

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/interactive/2022/women-pain-gender-bias-doctors

‘I was told to live with it’: women tell of doctors dismissing their pain

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/apr/16/painkillers-women-tell-of-doctors-dismissing-their-pain

I quit with the death of RiF.

How is a law ending the stealth conversion of residentially zoned areas into commercial a net negative for housing?

For non-UK readers: UK councils have limited revenue-raising powers compared to local government in other countries, and rely on 3 sources of income:

• Central government grants
• Council tax (on residential properties)
• Business rates (on commercial properties)

This amounts to c. 7% of the total UK tax base, versus c. 32% collected locally in Germany or 50% collected locally in Canada.

Central government grants were cut by 40% in real terms between 09/10 and 19/20 from £46.5bn to £28.0bn.

Council tax has gone up 30% over the same period, but it can't go up more than 2% annually without passing a referendum (unlikely). Some councils in dire straits have recently been allowed to raise it 5%.

Local authorities have been underfunded for over a decade. Other UK councils which have already declared bankruptcy, either through running out of money, or through losing vast amounts of money in risky schemes attempting to replace missing central funding:

• Northamptonshire
• Hackney
• Slough
• Thurrock
• Croydon
• Woking

This is a thoughtful reply. I will just say that the UK also has public toilets all over the place, and a desire for people to not screw & get high in the cubicles. Ditto many other countries. But I've never been anywhere else with this door gap problem, where no-one gets privacy.

I did once use a UK bathroom in a supermarket where the lighting was all blue, which makes it hard to find a vein to inject. But the doors still closed properly.

Zoning laws exist for a reason.

Apartments are residentially zoned. Hotels are commercially zoned (for good reason).

Turning residential homes into unregulated mini-hotels at scale depletes housing stock, and is a nuisance to residents.

This law effectively blocks residential homes from continuing to be used as hotel businesses operating out of residentially zoned areas, allowing residential units to once again be used as housing, and removing the nuisance to residents.

Please explain why you see this as a NIMBY net negative for housing.

If the owners are living in it at the same time, and you're renting out a room, that's hardly a hotel.

They increase the overall cost of both buying and renting a property within that market, and are a nuisance for existing residents.

Historically -- in the UK, at least -- the market equilibrium has been that the rich own all the property and the poor pay rent until they die, aware that they can be served an eviction notice at any time.

This has not proven to be a popular policy. In 1918 all British men, regardless of whether they owned property or not, got the vote, and since then politicians have found it useful to not have the majority of voters perpetually furious about it.

Units made available as short-term rentals must also abide by building and fire codes, including one that prohibits placing locks between rooms and having certain sprinkler and fire alarm systems on the property.

The horror.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-05/airbnb-s-new-nyc-regulations-what-renters-and-hosts-need-to-know

Return of the Obra Dinn.

3 July 1979: CIA initiates Operation Cyclone, financing the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan.

25 December 1979: Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

1989: Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.

1992: Democratic Republic of Afghanistan collapses; start of the Afghan Civil War.

1992: Operation Cyclone ends, after funneling thousands of tons of weaponry worth several billion US dollars to militant Islamic groups, including groups with jihadist ties.

1994: Emergence of the Taliban.

Equal pay is something women have had to fight for.

In this case,

the court found hundreds of mostly female employees working in roles such as teaching assistants, cleaners and catering staff missed out on bonuses which were given to staff in traditionally male-dominated roles such as refuse collectors and street cleaners.

Women in the UK only gained the right to equal pay in 1970.

Come visit the UK. We have fluid ounces too, but only for baking. Your drink will be served by the millilitre, unless it's beer in a pub, or milk in a home, in which case it will be served by the pint.

LLC literally means Limited Liability Company.

The owners of the LLC are protected from some or all liability for acts and debts of the LLC, depending on state shield laws.

"Authentic engagement"? It's been a matter of minutes since you accused people on Lemmy of being sockpuppets...

Just not nearly so many, and with so little regulation.

Widening the Overton Window. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window

I don't see how that matters. A spare room is a spare room whether it's in the basement, the first floor, or the attic.

There are typically limits on residential building occupancy. To put the kibosh on things like this, for example:

Landlord who packed 40 tenants in four-bed Wembley home given first ever Brent Council banning order https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-rent-landlord-banned-brent-council-letting-out-properties-b1100768.html

I assume NYC has similar regulations. If the ordinary residents are also in the property, things could get quite snug.

Growth in home-sharing through Airbnb contributes to about one-fifth of the average annual increase in U.S. rents and about one-seventh of the average annual increase in U.S. housing prices.

Those struggling renters might not be struggling so much if other people renting out their apartments on AirBnB weren't pushing up their rent by an extra 20%.

Housing markets have problems. AirBnB is not a responsible solution to those problems.

https://hbr.org/2019/04/research-when-airbnb-listings-in-a-city-increase-so-do-rent-prices

Someone who owns a piece of land should be freely allowed to construct any residential structure they want, so long as the building is safe. 

A bold opinion that seems to have been quite conclusively rejected in cities across the world.

Sir, pride in the sanctity of the Queue is reason enough alone.

Seriously though, being in places where people don't queue properly is miserable. That's something America should be applauded for.

Are you, by any chance, padding your income by subletting your rental home on AirBnB?

Yes, maternity leave! The US approach is bonkers.

In terms of European nuclear weapons, the UK and France already have their own nuclear arsenals. But the broader content of your comment is bang on.

"Not having enough money to make what you are renting out safe for occupancy" is not an acceptable defence to renting out something that is unsafe for occupancy.

Fire doors will shortly be compulsory in all AirBnB properties in the UK. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/holiday-let-owners-airbnb-measures-fire-safety-crackdown

Approximately 18,000 Airbnbs in the UK do not have smoke detectors and nearly 65,000 have no carbon monoxide alarms, according to figures from analysts AirDNA.

Shocking. Safety regulations are written in blood.

You can only starve a government body of funding -- making it muddle along depleting its reserves and selling off assets -- for so long until a final bill tips it over the edge, so I'd argue that if it wasn't this bill it would be another bill.

Other councils took risky approaches to replace money cut under Austerity:

Woking said that against its available core funding of £16m in the 2023-24 financial year, the council faced a deficit of £1.2bn.

Racked up to finance the building and acquisition of a vast empire of commercial assets, its investments included a complex of sky-high towers – standing as the tallest buildings outside a big city in England – including a four-star Hilton hotel, public plazas, parking facilities and shops.

Many councils piled into property and other commercial enterprises to raise money to fill gaping holes in their budgets and to undertake regeneration projects after sharp cuts to central government funding introduced under the Conservatives’ austerity drive.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jun/07/woking-council-declares-bankruptcy-with-12bn-deficit

But turning half the units in that tall building full of dense housing into short-term lets that are a nuisance to the people who actually live there is okay in your book? Because, as you say, objecting to that would be "NIMBY".

Airbnb is way more profitable than conventional letting. Why would anyone offer stable leases to poor people when they can rent out the whole place for higher rates?

In some parts of my country, it is becoming functionality impossible for families to rent a property for a stable term, because landlords want properties vacant over the holidays for short-term lets.

https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/59744/1/airbnb-is-making-life-hell-for-young-renters-in-tourist-hotspots-cornwall

But you think unregulated AirBnB is somehow a positive for housing?

Then stop disseminating this information online. For now.

You say you're taking legal action. Hand all of this to your lawyer, and follow your lawyer's advice. I am very confident they will advise you to stop posting this in a public forum.

In the meantime, I strongly urge you to talk to a trusted family member, friend, or medical professional. It sounds like you are highly stressed. In the short term, forget any perceived public health emergency. Take care of your own health first.

I tell a lie. There is, in fact, an excellent case study for what happens without zoning laws. Houston.

Let's take a look at that:

Houston Derided as the Worst City in America in New Rankings https://www.papercitymag.com/culture/houston-worst-city-in-america-new-rankings-boston-2nd-worst

Houston among U.S. cities with worst air pollution, study finds, with minority areas hit the hardest https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/trending/article/cities-with-worst-air-quality-houston-pollution-17829505.php

Stats Reveal Truth About Houston's Housing Crisis https://www.texasobserver.org/houston-is-hailed-as-a-national-success-for-fighting-homelessness-but-the-reality-isnt-quite-as-rosy/

Houston’s Affordable Housing Problem Is Going To Intensify https://itexgrp.com/houstons-affordable-housing-problem-is-going-to-intensify

Houston, San Antonio and Dallas among cities with the most housing problems https://voz.us/houston-san-antonio-and-dallas-among-cities-with-the-most-housing-problems

Houston 1 of 4 cities with worst housing availability https://news.yahoo.com/houston-1-4-cities-worst-010144144.html

Yes. The correct answer is "Not too bad, you?" and after they've also not answered truthfully the conversation may begin.

I find this viewpoint fascinating. Like arguing that trying to put out a burning building will hurt poor people trying to keep warm.

The housing market as a whole is the problem, one which AirBnB is exacerbating. That it locally enriches those renters able to find people willing to rent out their homes -- which I'm guessing is disproportionately going to be people without elderly family members & kids -- doesn't mean it isn't detrimental to the housing market as a whole, particularly at the lower end, and to everyone who rents.

Evidently AirBnB is not the only problem here, and building more residential homes is needed. But

discouraging using housing as an "investment" which then discourages predatory housing practices

is exactly what is happening here. If you can buy an empty property & rent it out to tourists for a chunk of money -- with better returns than you can get on the stock market -- people with capital will cheerfully do that. Except now with these rules there's little point in them trying that in NYC.

Renters are free to continue to use AirBnB to continue to pay their rent (bans on subletting notwithstanding) as long as they're still living in it at the time.

Long term capital considerations re. investment in real estate are a separate issue. Historically, housing has not performed like this.

Thank you for your comment. I can't speak for the entire world, but in the UK a 1 cm" gap in the door of a public toilet would be massive and unacceptable. It's not enough that someone can only see into a stall through a gap in the door if they are "right up to it"; they should not be able to see in at all. Public toilets in other countries have doors with gaps you can't leer through at all.

Re. the "gaps meaning ventilation", surely the "big gap at the bottom" and the fact that the whole top is open will be contributing more to ventilation?

You say you think this might be a regional thing in the US. Okay, could be. I have personally encountered this issue in Washington, California, North Carolina, DC, Massachusetts, Georgia, Texas, Oregon, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Maybe not. Ample time to make an independent judgement whether to downvote.

OP, if you suspect financial crimes are being committed, you should not be tipping off those involved by publicising this.

I understand that. OP expressly described this basement experience as "renting out spare rooms", though, so I hope you'll understand why I'm treating this as a spare room being rented out.

I live in London and am very familiar with the issue of affordable self-contained accommodation being flipped into overpriced Airbnb units, and I would agree with you that such units should be retained as residential housing.

I don't get it either. Ignoring the inherent power imbalance between a single worker and an employer, good luck getting Gardening Leave in an at-will workplace.

https://www.gov.uk/handing-in-your-notice/gardening-leave

It's not very good now that the Tories have starved it of funds for over a decade with a view to selling it off.

In 2005, Direct Democracy: An Agenda For A New Model Party was co-authored Jeremy Hunt Michael Gove, David Gauke, and Kwasi Kwarteng, among others.

On page 78, it states that

Our ambition should be to break down the barriers between private and public provision, in effect denationalising the provision of health care in Britain.

And on page 74 asserts that

patients, either through the tax system or by way of universal insurance, [should] purchase health care from the provider of their choice

NHS c. 2009 was excellent. Don't forget that.