 |
|
|
|||||
Lawmakers on Maui passed legislation Thursday aimed at eliminating a large percentage of the Hawaiian island’s vacation rentals to address a housing shortage exacerbated by the wildfire that destroyed most of Lahaina two years ago.It’s the latest action by a top global tourist destination to push back against the infiltration of vacationers into residential neighborhoods and tourism overwhelming their communities. In May, Spain ordered Airbnb to block more than 65,000 holiday listings on its platform for having violated rules. Last month, thousands of protesters in European cities like Barcelona and Venice, Italy, marched against the ills of overtourism.The Maui County Council’s housing committee voted 6-3 to pass the bill, which would close a loophole that has allowed owners of condos in apartment zones to rent their units for days or weeks at a time instead of a minimum of 180 days. The mandate would take effect in the West Maui district that includes Lahaina in 2028. The rest of the county would have until 2030 to comply.The council still needs to vote on the bill, but the committee’s result is a strong indication of the final outcome because all nine council members sit on the housing panel. The mayor is expected to sign the bill, which he proposed.“Bill 9 is a critical first step in restoring our commitment to prioritize housing for local residents and securing a future where our keiki can live, grow, and thrive in the place they call home,” Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said in a statement, using the Hawaiian word for children. Vacation rentals take up one-fifth of Maui’s housing Vacation rentals currently account for 21% of all housing in the county, which has a population of about 165,000 people.An analysis by University of Hawaii economists predicted the measure would add 6,127 units to Maui’s long-term housing stock, increasing supply by 13%.Opponents questioned whether local residents could afford the condos in question, noting that many of the buildings they are in are aging and their units come with high mortgages, insurance payments, maintenance and special assessment costs.Alicia Humiston said her condo is in a hotel zone so it won’t be affected. But she predicted the measure will hurt housekeepers, plumbers, electricians and other small business owners who help maintain vacation rentals.“It’s not what’s best for the the community,” said Humiston, who is president of the Rentals by Owner Awareness Association.Bissen proposed the legislation last year after wildfire survivors and activists camped out on a beach popular with tourists to demand change. Mayor says tourism will continue but must not ‘hollow out our neighborhoods’ The University of Hawaii study said only about 600 new housing units are built in the county each year so converting the vacation rentals would be equivalent to a decade’s worth of new housing development. Condo prices would drop 20-40%, the study estimated.The report also predicted one-quarter of Maui County’s visitor accommodations would vanish and visitor spending would sink 15%. It estimated gross domestic product would contract by 4%.The mayor said such economic analysis failed to tell a full story, noting families are torn apart when high housing costs drive out relatives and that cultural knowledge disappears when generations leave Maui.The mayor told the council the bill was one part of a broader housing strategy that would include building new housing, investing in infrastructure and stopping illegally operated vacation rentals. He said there were limits to how much new housing could be built because of constraints on water supplies and sewer infrastructure.Tourism would continue on Maui but must do so in a way “that doesn’t hollow out our neighborhoods,” the mayor said.The mayor’s staff told council members that visitor spending would decline with the measure but most of the drop would be on lodging. Because 94% of those who own vacation rentals in apartment zones don’t live on Maui, they said much of this income already flows off-island. They predicted the county budget could withstand an estimated $61 million decline in annual tax revenue resulting from the measure. Audrey McAvoy, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
Apple says the upcoming iOS 26, expected in a polished release version in September, will support devices back to the iPhone 11 from September 2019 and second-generation iPhone SE from April 2020both with A13 Bionic processors. For those who don’t want to wait, the iOS26 public beta release is now available. It previews many updates, including call and text spam filtering, and revamped designs for apps such as Camera, Wallet, and especially CarPlay. Apple has revived the translucent look of the Liquid Glass interface after toning it down in the third beta released for app developers on July 7. Some of the biggest changes in iOS 26 are for the newest modelsstarting with the iPhone 15 Prowith upgrades to the Apple Intelligence AI suite, such as live translation and visual search across apps. iOS 26 on older iPhones: mostly positive signs But how well will iOS 26 support older devices? To get a sense, I ran formal tests with an SE2 running developer beta 3, and also lived with it as my personal phone for over a week. I then upgraded to developer beta 4 and finally the public beta this week. It’s common for such early versions to be buggy. Much to my surprise, even the experience with developer beta 3 was very smooth, with no major issues in performance and none in battery life. The public beta brought some incremental improvements, especially in graphics performance. These are good signs for September’s release version. Of course, that’s not a guarantee. Online discussions of the developer beta 3 were mixed, with some testers reporting battery issues and sluggish performance. Some issues diminished in beta 4, but other random bugs with apps, such as CarPlay compatibility, emerged. The iOS 26 public beta appears to be very close to or even the same as the latest developer beta, but all its fixes and foibles won’t be clear until a lot of people try it for a while. And the Apple Beta Software Agreement exempts the company from any responsibility if things go south. The ideal way is to use an old phone you don’t need; the next best is to first back up your phone and learn how to restore it if things go wrong. However, my positive experiences with the iOS 26 betas jibe with early impressions from several pros whose job includes testing new software on old devices. Tom Quinlan, a longtime technician at Apple-authorized service provider Charlotte Street Computers in Asheville, North Carolina, tried Developer Beta 3 on an iPhone 11 and came away impressed. I must say it did NOT feel sluggish, he writes in an email. I am very surprised. Used-device sellers are another early indicator. A few of our team members are running the [Developer Beta 3] for iOS 26 on their devices and are fans of the new release, says Michael Lipson, director of technology at Swappa, an online marketplace. They ran the software on an iPhone 12 and a third-gen iPhone SE. Performance comparison: iOS18.5 versus iOS 26 beta In my tests with the SE2, shows played just as smoothly in the Amazon Prime Video app on iOS 18.5 and iOS 26 developer and public betas. Response times when tapping, scrolling, or opening apps (Photos, Camera, Mail, Reminders, Clock) were comparable at first. Over the week, though, I did notice occasional sluggishness in the interface of developer beta 3. I will keep an eye on the public beta in the coming days. My tests with the 3DMark Wild Life graphics benchmark showed insignificant differences, with average scores of 6,082 on iOS 18.5 vs. 5,766 on iOS 26 public beta. For real-world perspective: Average frame rates dropped from 36.4 fps to 34.5 fps. Battery life was unchanged. I tested the SE2 (which had 88% of its original battery capacity) by playing shows in the Apple Podcasts app, with a half-light/half-dark screen. I set brightness at 50% and disabled low power mode. Running the battery from 80% to zero took close to five hours with all OS versions. Is it safe to install iOS 26 public beta now? Beta versions carry risks, but so do release builds. Last years iPadOS 18 bricked some iPads with M4 processors, prompting Apple to rush out version 18.0.1 with fixes. If you’re not prepared for possible glitches, the public beta may not be for you. And it won’t hurt to wait a few days after the release version drops to see how it shakes out. Predictions for September are favorable for all iPhones. Based on past versions [of iOS], it should run perfectly, and theres no reason not to update to iOS 26, writes Kewin Charron, senior lead refurbishment operations manager at Back Market, a Swappa competitor. But hes not committing to a time frame for their sellers, saying it will depend on how stable they find the nearly final beta version, called release candidate, to be. Sellers really want to avoid support headaches, and you may, too.
Category:
E-Commerce
TikTok has become obsessed with an alleged shoplifter who spent seven straight hours in a Target before being detained by security on her way out. Now, people are making pilgrimages to the Target store in Illinois. The woman, a tourist visiting the U.S., allegedly stole approximately $1,300 worth of merchandise from Target on May 1. After body camera footage of her detainment was uploaded to the Body Cam Edition YouTube channel last week, it quickly went viral, thanks in part to her now-infamous defense: But if Im paying for it, what is the harm? The 20-minute video has since been clipped and shared widely across social media, with segments racking up millions of views. How is it even logistically possible for someone to spend seven consecutive hours in one store? one YouTube commenter asked. Do you just walk around in circles? Some have dubbed her an icon, with videos ranking the best moments from the footage. Others within driving distance of the Target have taken it upon themselves to visit the location, the Daily Dot reported. Target lady Target tour, one TikTok user posted, adding they have nothing better to do. A true historical landmark, another wrote, showing footage of the actual door behind which the woman was detained. Following the viral story, the U.S. embassy in India issued a statement about the Target shoplifter, the Independent reported. Committing assault, theft, or burglary in the United States wont just cause you legal issuesit could lead to your visa being revoked and make you ineligible for future U.S. visas, it stated. The United States values law and order and expects foreign visitors to follow all U.S. laws.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||