Right-wing whining about “property rights” has resumed in South Portland, again in response to the City Council’s passing ordinances intended to bring order to the booming trade in short-term house rentals in the city. And, again, the whiners are petitioning to rescind these ordinances. They have some pretty nice property of their own but, true to form, claim to be looking out not for themselves but for the rest of us, for the little guy.

“Sure, I’m OK,” John Murphy, a petitioner, told a local weekly, “but what about all of the … regular working people (who) depend on their property for their retirement?”

The property he’s talking about, he admits himself, isn’t the house they live in but the second one they’ve bought to rent out short-term through websites like Airbnb. “They should not be put out,” Murphy maintained, “just because they’ve invested in a second home they don’t live in.”

But what about all the regular working people who don’t own a second – or third – investment property? What about us regular people whose only homes are being surrounded by mini-motels filled night after night by anonymous strangers and operated by absentee landlords? Aren’t we being “put out” by how this guts our neighborhoods? And aren’t we a lot more “regular” than than the people who own second and third houses they have no intention of living in?

The political right has a long, dark history of promoting “property rights” to extend its privilege while declaring concern for regular working people. If you don’t buy that argument from Donald Trump, you shouldn’t buy it from the paid canvassers who will approach you in South Portland with a tale of woe about “government overreach” and the fate of “regular people.” We, your neighbors, are regular people. Please don’t sign that petition.

Jeff Steinbrink

South Portland

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