Racism is a completely separate issue from the “gentrification” and 
“reduction of housing stock”.

First off, I have zero complaints about people that buy property, fix it up, and thus make it better and able to charge more for it. The idea that this is wrong is something I don’t accept.

Someone wants to open up some kind of “boring” franchise to compete against the mom & pop? So what? If it’s truly against the “character” of the area the people will stick with the mom & pop. And if they don’t? Too bad, that happens with freedom of choice.

People using things like airbnb for short term rentals vs long term because its more profitable. So? Private property should be allowed to be used as the owner wishes until it actually infringes on the REAL rights of someone else. That’s where not renting to a black person gets problematic.

There are some very good reasons why NOT to go into longer term rental situations with people. The problem is, every so often you get someone who decides they can stay without paying rent and then you need to spend a lot of time/effort/money evicting them. Short term people don’t need to be evicted, you just chuck them out. I’ve known people to nearly lose their homes because someone rents for a month or two and then stops paying, and yet for some reason the banks expect the mortgage to still get paid, go figure.