The Callen Report
By Kate Callen
What happens when local government plunges into an ethical vortex, public coffers empty out, news organizations hit the skids, greed turns neighbors against neighbors, and people who used to be calm become very angry?
You get citizen watchdogs like Nice Neighbors San Diego.
Founded by Jay Goldberg, who works for Google and calls himself a “volunteer short-term rental compliance watchdog,” Nice Neighbors has an interactive website that is stunning in its sophistication.
The homepage features a map of short-term rental (STR) licenses that looks like a disease outbreak zone in a pandemic. Browsers can click a button to report a possible STR. The “Tools” webpage allows searches for valid STR licenses and Airbnb listings.
Goldberg, who grew up in Del Mar, started work on the site in 2022 “because I felt that technology was not being applied to accomplish basic compliance – who’s doing what where.
“I want to live in a San Diego where we don’t have animosity between the haves and the have nots,” he continued. “This really aggressive profit-seeking behavior is destroying our communities.”
Goldberg emphasizes that he does not oppose STRs in moderation. The two practices he does oppose are the concentration of STRs in coastal communities and the callous eviction of current tenants by property owners who can make more money from tourists.
Right now, he is working on a case in La Jolla where rental apartments are being converted into STRs. “The tenants were noticed 60 days ago, and they have 30 days to move out.”
The Nice Neighbors map showing STRs as red dots has generated a lot of publicity (and outrage) since its release early this year. STRs are supposed to cap off at 1% of housing citywide, but the map shows higher percentages in coastal communities, topping off with 6.2% in Ocean Beach.
“That’s nearly seven times the agreed-upon cap,” said Goldberg. “Jen Campbell could have set 2% per planning area, but she didn’t.”
For a public watchdog who is stoking public opinion about public land use policy, Goldberg seems impassive. “The data doesn’t lie,” he said. “We just have to ask ourselves if we like what the data tell us or if we don’t.
Just took a quick look at my own block on the map, and about half of the dots are missing. Gee, do you think someone would operate one of those STRs without a license?
@virginiamae please do report these at niceneighbors.org. Click the Report button, it’s all over the page, and a link at the top as well.
Kate: Thanks for bringing this website to our attention. Jay, thanks for doing the heavy lifting. I am trying to download a list of all of the ADUs that are being used as STRs. Can you help me with that? If they weren’t permitted before the 2017 date, they must be reported to Code Enforcement. ADUs are have been touted by the state, the city and the press as “naturally occurring affordable housing” (NOAH) for San Diegans. If they are being used for short term vacation rentals, they are not providing this NOAH for San Diego residents.
Danna, can you send an email through the contact us link at the bottom of NiceNeighbors.org? There is no way to differentiate ADUs from other short-term units on Airbnb. I use a combination of the “property type” on Airbnb, and some other secret sauce. The applicable property types are: Entire loft, Entire rental unit, Entire guesthouse, Entire guestsuite, Entire cottage, Entire bungalow, Entire loft, Entire serviced apartment, Tiny home. There are around 2,500 listings matching these types. You can download Airbnb data from https://insideairbnb.com/get-the-data, or from NiceNeighbors.
I get ADU permitting data from the city at https://sandiego.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=e0b23e5b576842e8b799cf0248c3e125 which was designed by a city Business Intelligence Analyst, Mazen Abugharbieh.
But you can only download 1,000 rows as CSV ArcGIS of the 6,948 rows. ?
I’ve already done lots of work crossing these thousands of Airbnb listings to ADU records. There appear to be at least 500 casitas, ADUs, and guesthouses operating illegally as STR in San Diego. The city was indiscriminate in issuing STRO licenses for any dwelling units applied for.
I reached out via NiceNeighbors.org with contact information. Thanks again, Danna