— from Gregory Oaksen —
Residents are reporting that the tourist onslaught has begun on Orcas. Tourists coming here now are thoughtlessly exposing locals to the virus. Where are these people staying? They can’t all be “essential” workers.
In spite of the downturn in vacation rentals, many are still active. Airbnb continues to offer listings on Orcas leaving it up to the individual owner to meet local regulations. Many local owners are responsible and are following the rules. However, as we know, the majority of vacation rental owners in San Juan County live outside the county.
In a recent article about Airbnb in Wired on-line magazine, James Temperton cites the fact that “…of the 1.1 million Airbnb listings in the U.S., some 600,000 are from hosts that have at least two other listings.” Futhermore, Airbnb “…isn’t a holiday rental company, it’s a hotel chain.” And it’s the world’s biggest. (www.wired.co.uk/article/airbnb-coronavirus-
losses).
Absentee owners don’t live here and do not participate in the
community. Income generated here goes elsewhere. It’s a business.
The more that off-islanders come here without self-isolation for two
weeks, the more likely we are open to a more serious second wave
of the virus as happened with the Spanish Flu. Temperton describes
the serious financial problems facing Airbnb due to the virus, but I
don’t think Airbnb is going away. There’s just too much money to
be made. For the current and long term health of our island
community we must enact real controls on vacation rentals.
Thanks Greg! Love the title and you are so correct!
One of the responsibilities of the County official(s) overseeing the transient rental “industry” should be to determine whether individual renters are violating the current prohibition against such rentals at least until May 31. If they are, their permits should be revoked and they should be fined.
Not too difficult to figure out for yourself who is renting: go to airbnb, select a property, book, then cancel within 48 hours.
Your not in my back yard comments are painful to my wife and I. We moved her last year to get away from the crazy people in the Bay Area of California.
Most thins on Orcas are biking and hiking. These are very low risk exposures. America needs to get back to work and doesn’t need a bunch of NIMBYs clogging things up. This is a tourist driven economy here.
Give it a rest.
We did enact controls on vacation rentals. Go read the code.
(Not disagreeing about violators of COVID precautions who rent against the orders.)
Gregory, the history of the Spanish flu is not clearly an analogue, given its spread in the crowded conditions, near-starvation and poor nutrition of the general population following World War I. There’s an excellent new history of the Spanish flu in the US by Alfred Crosby.
Further, the so-called second wave originally projected for this fall is really just an ongoing extension of the same epidemic, which has been only temporarily suppressed, since the virus has not been eradicated. The WHO is now stating the virus could be with us indefinitely, and we need to learn to “manage” it, rather than believe we can eradicate it.
While islanders can have a spirited discussion on the subject of limiting vacation rentals, let’s not hijack the medical facts of this sad period to justify a political agenda.
My understanding is nobody knows where this going so we need to do what we can to limit the spread. Yes, this not 1918 but many parts of the world suffer malnutrition and lack clean water the are susceptible to catastrophic spread of the virus. Our health care system and federal leadership is appalling. It’s up to us to limit
the spread.
We have laws and regulations to protect the common good. We have Phase 1 regulations limiting nonessential travel and transient housing, and we have meager vacation rental county regulations. Those who chose to ignore these regulations threaten the common good and common sense.
The county has been unwilling or unable to enforce it’s own vacation rental regulations. The inundation of tourists on Orcas has already begun. Without enforcement it appears the regulations are useless.
Are we sure that the tourists visiting our island are not only visiting for the day (and not staying overnight)? I know, still not legal under the governor’s orders. But I think when he opened up the parks, the part about remaining in your own community was not made clear enough or off islanders ignore it. Just want to throw this thought in here to help see another side before we do too much assuming that our neighbors may not have our best interests at heart.
Well said Ms. Treener!
And let’s not hijack the “common good” either. From what I’ve observed over the last several years, in this venue, there are radically different ideas on our island as to just what that might be.
Indeed, I can’t resist. Compelled to join the discussion I offer this: Orcas has a stable population of about 5000. Each summer week we add approximately 10,000 new transients to the resident population, some remain 4-5 nights, others less with a smattering of day trippers. The transient population, a combo of mostly Washingtonians, but a righteous number from California, Oregon, New York, Canada, and Asia. Selecting 14-16 weeks as the summer season, conservatively, we would have approximately 160,000 different visiting faces. With a coronavirus infection rate of approximately of 1%, yes, the rate is up for debate at this point of the contagion; we would have approximately 1600 positives visiting the island. Who would the 1600 positives be most likely to infect? Locals working in retail, restaurants, the library, food markets, Medical Center, and gatherings. Today, we have 8 confirmed cases. SJC government and locals have joined hands in a sterling effort to keep infections rates low.