New York Daily News
By Kenneth Lovett
05.15.2017
Hotel union to target Lentol in district over Airbnb
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/hotel-union-target-lentol-district-airbnb-article-1.3165953
Here is an expanded version of the second item of my “Albany Insider” column that was cut for space from Monday’s print editions:
Veteran Assemblyman Joseph Lentol has sparked the ire of the influential state Hotel and Motel Trades Council over a pro-Airbnb bill he recently introduced.
While stopping short of threatening to back a primary against Lentol, HTC says it is is preparing a widespread voter outreach campaign in the Brooklyn Democrat’s district.
”We are going to be very aggressively mobilizing, educating and registering our approximately 1,500 members in his district,” said Neal Kwatra, a consultant to the union. “We will also be registering the tens of thousands of unregistered voters in his district and educating them about the detrimental impact Airbnb has on affordable housing stock.”
Lentol’s district has 1,493 HTC members iand 21,500 unregistered, but eligible, voters, according to the union. A source close to the union said that the union’s members in his district would make up 36% of the votes cast in the 2014 Democratic primary.
The union also says that the problem of illegal Airbnb commercial listings is particularly bad in Williamsburg, which is in Lentol’s district.
Lentol’s pro-Airbnb bill to allow short-term rentals in New York City has drawn heat, including on social media, from some of the assemblyman’s legislative colleauges and Airbnb opponents.
Lentol, saying he’s open to changes to his bill, was non plussed.
“If they’re threatening me, what can I tell you?” he said. “I’ve been threatened before. If that’s the kind of operation that they (HTC) run and they don’t want to sit down and discuss issues, it’s kind of sad.”
He added: “I’m not surprised. If you don’t have the argument, you have to use other tactics, don’t you?”
Lentol said he doesn’t mind discussing and educating voters about the issue and has already begun talks with tenant organizations over the bill.
“There’s always room for chaning the bill,” he said. “It’s not my bill. It’s Airbnb’s bill at the moment.
I’m not going to pass a bill that the tenant organizations are against. We’re going to try and accommodate everybody. The bill isn’t written perfectly yet and we’ll seek perfection to protect all interests, including the hotel industry.”
He said in the end he’s looking for a final bill that will allow “everybody to participate in the economy.”
“There’s room for every platform, including Airbnb,” Lentol said.