To the editor:
We have all heard that “all politics is local,” but does it all have to be dirty, too? I ask because bucolic Great Barrington has witnessed some very urban underhandedness leading up to its Town Meeting.
Out of concern for diminishing rental housing stock, the selectboard undertook a thoughtful effort to draft a short-term rental bylaw seeking to delicately achieve two goals — enhance opportunities for long-term rentals without unreasonably limiting income-producing opportunities for homeowners. The selectboard should be thanked for weighing of various concerns and agreeing to several compromises on the way to a reasonable regulation.
The first underhanded action occurred while the selectboard’s drafting efforts were ongoing. Earlier this year ,a realtor-backed citizen petition successfully placed on the Town Meeting warrant a “short-term rental” bylaw regulation to entrench the right to rent. I am all for citizen initiatives, such as the recent ban on plastic water bottles, but the realtor-proposed “citizen” bylaw would be akin to Anheuser Busch promoting the banning of water bottles in order to sell more beer.
The second underhanded action was anonymously conflicting the selectboard from proceeding with the bylaw for a bit. It didn’t work, but Lee Atwater or Karl Rove would have been impressed with the effort nonetheless.
None of us should be confused. If you want to effect change by at least marginally increasing the available pool of long-term rental housing stock, please support the selectboard’s bylaw at Town Meeting. If the lack of affordable housing in Great Barrington is of no concern to you, you should either support the realtor-regulation or do nothing, which is exactly what that bylaw intends.
Peter J. Most
Great Barrington
