Times are Changing

“Come gather round people, wherever you roam, and admit that the waters around you have grown” - Bob Dylan

I live on Pearl Street, in the neighborhood near downtown Mystic. My wife and I moved here five years ago to be close to family and to the ocean. We also really liked the ability to walk to great restaurants and nightlife. While I’m relatively new as a resident, my connections to the area go back more than half a century.

As I read the accounts of my friends and neighbors on this page, I’m struck that this debate is really about the character Mystic. There are some who want to roll back time to before Mystic was written up in the New York papers as a great place to visit. Perhaps they don’t value the investment businesses like Pizzetta, Port of Call, and Bank and Bridge are making. Perhaps they think investment continues without tourists. Short-term rentals are an integral part of Mystic’s vibrant downtown, enabling downtown businesses to thrive and providing jobs and income to craftsmen. These businesses also employ many people directly.

Living in downtown, I can also vouch that short-term rental guests are not the only ones who raise a ruckus. A few days ago, as I was on my way into town along Gravel Street. I walked by a house with a group of youths playing beer pong on the lawn. They were exactly as you would imagine a boisterous group to be. I could still hear them as I got in my boat across the river. They’re the kids of the residents, so it’s okay. I’m sure that if they had been short-term rental guests the event would have been written up here as an example of the evils that irresponsible hosts are bringing to town. It’s fair to say that double standards like this only exist when there’s a lot of emotion involved in an issue.

My wife and I host AirBnB guests in our studio. We’ve contributed more than 1,000 individual overnight stays since we started. They nearly always eat three meals a day in town and shop in the stores. We’ve never had a complaint from a neighbor or a guest.

A vibrant downtown depends on short-term rentals. There is no way to replace the guest capacity in the near-term. Shutting down short-term rentals would start a cycle that would jeopardize investment by businesses, setting Mystic back years and throwing sand in the gears of entrepreneurship. I doubt that those who oppose short-term rentals really want this outcome.

I’m hopeful that the town can foster constructive dialogue to remove emotion from the discussion and create some means of managing short-terms rentals to the satisfaction of all. They are an essential part of Mystic’s economic ecosystem. The times are changing.