Headlines have to balance accuracy and brevity. This one accomplishes that goal – short but every word true. So would “Fascist Florida Governor Panders to White Supremacists with Another Empty Law”, which is allowable because BoingBoing makes no claim to being a straight news outlet.
Sure, but I think the Florida law appears to be dealing with a security concern related to foreign interference from countries openly hostile to the United States. How it is understood by mouth-breathing white supremacists I’m not sure.
It’s not just how it “may” be perceived, it’s explicitly how DeSantis has been selling it, that context was in the article. He’s specifically pushing this perception of it, and laws can always be selectively enforced, especially for someone like Ron who thrives on being sued for his racist bullshit and selective enforcement. The knock-on effects of racist policies are well known.
This sums up the majority of what DeSantis has or attempted to implement. He knows most of it won’t stand up in court but it doesn’t matter. It’s racist, whatever-phobic, isolationist, etc, and it plays very well with his base and the hardcore base of republicans. You want their vote, you need to hurt someone.
Yeah that was my thought. This is performative in Florida unless there’s some quirk in there that’s somehow aimed at Disney based on their recent spat.
But places with super high density that have had a ton of speculation as a means of investment… which also includes home grown AirBnB folks buying up tracts of housing… it would make sense.
Indeed, the main target of this new law was the parking of money in expensive Vancouver condos, as alluded to above regarding London and other cities with similar issues.
Whether it will work or not remains to be seen. I have my doubts for the reasons others pointed to upthread, but the law does genuinely come from a sincere place of trying to help people get housing. We have new laws restricting AirBNBs in Vancouver for the same reasons.
Canada also has much older laws restricting the ability of non-residents (regardless of citizenship) to inherit land. If you are an expat living outside the country and your dad dies, you can’t inherit his land. The land is sold (if it can’t go to another next of kin) and you’re given the money. It’s a weird old-timey kind of law to prevent Canada from falling under foreign control “accidentally” or some such. It’s silly, but it is still on the books. When I lived outside Canada, I had a special life insurance policy on my dad specifically to cover the taxes from that land sale should he happen to die while I was away, because I wouldn’t have gotten his land and the taxes from the sale would be steep.
I wouldn’t be so sure. They were all granted special statuses, and so consider themselves having arrived “The Right Way” and can be just as viciously anti-“Wrong Way”-immigrant as the next asshole. They also are explicitly and specifically anti-communist, being expats from a communist revolution, so this plays right to them.
In NSW in Australia, they charge an additional 8% stamp duty on house purchases if you are a foreign purchaser, which basically defined as being not resident in Australia for tax purposes.
Sydney has massive housing issues and this is a small sop, they need to do a lot more to resolve the lack of available and affordable housing there.
Given the density of critical infrastructure facilities in Florida’s major metro areas, that covers much of those regions. It certainly rules out areas in Brevard County close to Port Canaveral seaport and Cape Canaveral’s spaceport. In addition, there are several water treatment plants, airports and chemical manufacturing facilities in Central Florida, which would rule out much of the region.
moreover, it puts the realtors on the hook to determine all of this, and they aren’t going to want to get near a deal that could run the afoul of the law. if you have a chinese sounding name in florida: good luck.
even for existing owners there’s a hook:
People from those nations who already own Florida properties can keep them, regardless of location, but have to register them with the state starting in January 2024. Those who fail to register face a fine of $1,000 a day.