Now that Joe Gebbia, the billionaire co-founder of Airbnb, is joining Elon Musk’s attempt to dismantle the federal government, I would like to remind everyone of a little history.
Airbnb was started in San Francisco, and for its first few years, every single listing in this city was illegal. The company’s entire business model was illegal. It was also deeply damaging to tenants, many of whom lost their homes so the place could be turned into a hotel room.
Ed Lee was the mayor. He did nothing, nothing, to enforce the city laws against short-term rentals. Airbnb was a tech company; the mayor loved tech companies. His administration also did nothing to stop Uber and Lyft, which were violating city law every single day.
In those days, if you were a tech startup, you didn’t have to worry about local laws. Move fast, break things; it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission. Never mind if you are ruing the lives of low-income renters and struggling cab drivers; they don’t count.
A lot of folks argued that these companies should be shut down until they were regulated. And eventually, some modest regulations came along—but nothing that would force Airbnb to pay back the hotel taxes it cheated the city out of, or change its business model to avoid displacing tenants.
London Breed, Malia Cohen, and Scott Wiener were all on the board at the time. They all sided with Airbnb. Repeatedly.
David Chiu, who is now the city attorney, was Airbnb’s guy at City Hall. He carried the legislation that retroactively legalized the transformation of apartments into hotel rooms. Even after that law was passed, half of the Airbnb units in the city were illegal. Nobody stopped them.
David Campos was the leader of the effort to hold Airbnb accountable. With the help of the tech industry, Chiu defeated Campos for a state Assembly seat. Jane Kim supported Campos; With the help of the tech industry, Wiener beat Kim for a state Senate seat.
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Regulating Airbnb in its hometown would have set a standard for other cities, maybe causing the company to grow more slowly, or not at all.
Now that the money that one of the founders made breaking the city’s laws is helping to destroy democracy in the United States, let us remember who was on his side back when it mattered.
