WADE RATHKE is the founder of ACORN, Chief Organizer at ACORN International, and Author of "Nuts & Bolts", "Citizen Wealth", "Global Grassroots", and "The Battle for the 9th Ward".
Pearl River There were some pieces of the Airbnb business model that had appeal. Homeowners that were willing to open their own homes to visiting guests seemed like it could build relationships and even, dare I say, community, especially when visiting foreign lands. Our family had that experience staying in Mexico City one Christmas and …
New Orleans Airbnb is in trouble. The Wall Street Journal reports that “bookings last week were down year-on-year around 95% in Asia, 75% in Europe – the company’s biggest market – and 50% in the US…” They added that a “report last week by Airbnb-analytics firm AirDNA also showed bookings tanking in big cities …
New Orleans I wanted to share what I hoped was a simple story of one woman’s persistence prevailing over a giant, rogue company and the ineffectual enforcement by a city of its regulations governing the company. That story had as its activist, community hero a woman named Ada Phleger, a young attorney in the Federal …
New Orleans Over recent weeks there has been a spit fight involving the controversial in-home rental app, Airbnb, and various labor unions, including the frequently controversial Service Employees International Union and its even more controversial former president, Andy Stern, and the now much less widely known hotel workers union, Unite HERE, and a bunch of …
New Orleans Airbnb, Uber, Twitter, Facebook, whatever, you pick what new phone app-driven techno billionaire wannabes, you worry about, and I’ll pick mine. Deep in your heart, you know Uber is taking advantage of its drivers and ripping everyone off on taxes and Social Security, but perhaps more deeply, the taxicab industry seemed be asking …