There’s a positive side to all of the homeless folks in Ocean Beach – they help keep the vacationers who rent those short-term rentals down.
Here’s an honest-to-goodness review on TripAdvisor by a vacationer, “Morgan M”, who spent some time at a vacation rental at 1868 Bacon Street:
Kind of hippies you don’t wanna be friends with
Came with a college friend, her 2 year old and my 5 month old baby and our husbands.
The neighborhood isn’t very nice (but our rental was beautiful so we thought it would be a good area).
It has decent restaurants and great coffee shops.
We walked to dinner one night and never walked anywhere again. Even in daylight. I can get over the pot but the homeless on drugs asking for money and staring you down just isn’t comfortable with kids. I never saw one cop in the area.
Find a more family friendly beach. This is more a surf town.
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And?
I was so happy to see this article. OB is perfect exactly as it is, and shame on those folk who air bnb their homes. These short term vacation rentals are ruining every neighborhood and every city that allows them.
Wow that’s kind of one sided. Owing a property for the sole purpose of a STVR is one thing, but what about people who use air bnb while they are away or even use it air bnb a spare room while they are still there. I stayed in an air bnb recently in NYC. The host was not the owner of the building but rather the occupant of the apartment, and she was there with us the whole time.
Home sharing is not the problem. No one is against where the owner still lives in the home. It’s the investors who buy or rent for the sole purpose of using the units for short term rentals that are the problems.
Which is fine and I agree, but a lot of people are expressing a blanket no AIRBNB in OB. The irony being that AIRBNB was originally for home sharing but now it’s being used for STVRs.
Yes that’s an important distinction. Nobody really is opposed to homesharing. Just sometimes the terms are used loosely.
Yes and thank you. I think the key is no STVRs. STVRs have existed long before AIRBNB came into existence. AIRBNB is just a tool. I grew up in LA (moved to San Diego in ’86) and my family used to come down during the summer in the 70’s and rent a place for a week along the Mission Beach boardwalk. The way I remember it, the majority of houses and apartment complexes along the actual boardwalk (both on the west AND bay sides) were STVRs. I really don’t know how it affected the permanent residents who usually lived in the side areas (tho I remember my parents going out and getting drunk with many of them at The Beachcomber, so I guess they were fine with it). That was over 40 years ago and Mission Beach then and now is not Ocean Beach so I fully agree with the anti STVR sentiment. I just want to make sure when people say “AIRBNB” they really mean situations where the owner uses the property for the sole purpose of a STVR.
So as a community we should be glad that OB is viewed as unsafe and filled with homelessness and drug use all in the name of keeping tourists away who are using STVR? Absolutely ridiculous that this is considered news. I used to enjoy reading the Rag, however, lately it’s overly focused on STVR. Why not highlight the good things happening in our neighborhood?
Anne? How can you say that?
I really don’t care how my community is viewed by those who don’t live here.
Some of the STVRs and construction sites are turning into squatting spots for freeloaders.
This morning I threw out a horde of crap being stashed at the abstentee owned airbnb next door. No accountability, nobody home, just the neighbors left to deal with the consequences.
The irony that the address for the STVR is right above the Ocean Beach Mainstreet Association.
Yep. Just wait for your bicycle to get stolen or to be threatened by a homeless person in an alley. OB can be a dump but it’s that way on purpose. Nice during the day. Ugly at night.
In Asheville North Carolina, they advertise the Vacation Rental law on the radio, saying “If you don’t stay there, they don’t stay there.” They kept it simple, and people seem to understand it. That’s not how things are done in San Diego.