First, familiar vehicles disappeared. Then it was a coupe from New York. After that a black pickup from Florida.

“They’ve got a condo in Toronto now,” the next door neighbour offered. “So they’ve decided to rent out the house — hired a company to do that for them. Not happy about it.”

Sure enough, that address is a new line in NOTL’s registry of short-term rentals. The list has 385 entries on it, the bulk of which are located in Old Town.

And there’s serious money, here. The weensy, dodgy old green cottage down the street from the newest rental collects $400 a night from guests. A block away, on the water, the fee is over seven hundred. Just the other side of Queen, the town’s most uppity B&B is asking $1,500 per diem.

No wonder the Chamber of Commerce has thrown its support behind our short-term rental cartel and supports the Shaw sucking residential housing into its new commercial mega-theatre on Victoria Street. Money talks. Tucking in those tourists — as many as possible — pays big.

The latest news with short-term rentals (STRs) is that council will probably approve the permanent freeze on licences for unhosted cottage and villa rentals, of which there are 231. As those properties are sold off, the licences will expire. That could take forever.

“The industry keeps going on about how eliminating unhosted properties would be detrimental to tourism,” says Norm Arsenault, who sat on an advisory committee.

“However, that is hyperbole at best since unhosted STRs will be around for years if not decades because that is how long some of the current operators have been in business.”

True. Nor does the proposed slate of changes remove short-term rentals with pools or hot tubs, which have been flashpoints of irritation for neighbours tired of hearing shrieking, cavorting, moist visitors.

Unhosted short-term rentals are a bad idea. Period. Most municipalities in Canada have banned them. Having an Airbnb unit in your house is far different from buying a property and operating a ghost hotel with nobody living there full-time.

It displaces long-term tenants. It hollows out ‘hoods. It blows off neighbours. It commercializes spaces intended for living.

Worse, the NOTL tax system ends up penalizing residents by favouring the short-term rental czars. Locals pay heavily to live in an expensive place like this while the rental operators profit from the income while also being spared commercial property tax rates. That may make the Chamber of Commerce giddy, but it’s dumb policy.

Of course, the short-term rentals also compete with hotels — which pay oodles of tax. (By the way, have you seen the 40 new vacay rentals erected as part of the Garrison Village Airport Hotel? OMG.)

Oh well. Maybe this is just the price to pay for living in a place that has horses with giant hairy hooves, acres and acres of grapes instead of townhouses and more gelato than Italy. Is there another town anywhere so perfect it’s in danger of being loved to death? Doubtful.

But wait. We also have drama.

Last week letter-writer Kate Morris took exception to my recent reference to Robin Ridesic, who approached me (on my front lawn) as a Shaw director to straighten me out regarding the Royal George Theatre rebuild.

You may recall I said this about her: “Part of the charm offensive is Robin Ridesic, who lectured me in person about the righteousness of the Shaw proposal. She’s a festival director (and is charming).”

That lit Kate. She went ad hominem.

“To trivialize her contribution with patronizing commentary says more about the author. It’s especially rich coming from someone who was best known for weighing in on real estate speculation and finance in Toronto, holding himself up as the voice of the locals despite only having lived here for a couple of years.”

For the record, far worse things have been said about me by very accomplished people. Including at least one sitting prime minister.

But Kate caused my picture to be in the paper twice. Seemed like a win.

Garth Turner is a NOTL resident, journalist, author, wealth manager and former federal MP and minister. garth@garth.ca