SHORT-TERM RENTALS: What about the East Sherman motels?

Please tell me I’m not the only one who finds the attempts by the city council to eliminate vacation rentals ironic. While they target those who responsibly operate short-term vacation rentals, they continue to completely ignore the proliferation of low-rent, fleabag motels on East Sherman Avenue.

Talk about destroying our neighborhoods, the crack house-type, no-tell-motels, like those on East Sherman, generate a disproportionate amount of crime, including drug use, prostitution, larceny and public intoxication. Many have operated as unofficial halfway houses for hardcore criminals, including sex offenders. They are also a public health risk as they are undoubtedly vectors for bed bugs and venereal diseases. They are so “short-term” they even advertise “hourly rates.”

These dumps have blighted our city, depressed property values and eroded the safety of our community for long enough. People that come to our city and stay in vacation rentals spend lots of money and leave — that drives our economy. People that come to our city and stay in fleabag motels make trouble and consume public resources — that drains our economy.

Observing the city council’s no bid selection of Granicus to regulate vacation rentals — while they’ve ignored true blight — it’s hard not to form the opinion that council members must be taking some kind of shady kickbacks from Granicus. They’ve sure never lifted a finger to regulate problematic rentals in the past, but once easy money was identified, the skunk appeared and it stinks.

TODD HOFFMAN

Coeur d’Alene