I can't count the number of cheesy, narcissistic/artistic films I've seen centred around New York/Paris/London where people's accents are overblown beyond credibility and the main protagonist is exceedingly rich to live out the life that they do... but is unaware of their exceeding wealth and is therefore unable to communicate that to the audience.
As a decent earner, I cannot find myself relating to these characters in these settings since its like watching a millionaire discussing their financial problems.... but my girlfriend and her friends all seem to love and relate to the characters and the depicted "normal" lifestyle, despite sharing nothing in common.
and that fantasy of being subsidized by said obliviously wealthy is probable enough to attain by your girlfriend and her friends if they focus on that part of their culture
if this option was available for you it would be something to fawn over and much easier to relate
Before YouTube, most people know New York only from highly unrealistic sitcoms like Friends. Now you can have virtual tour through several apartments and streets, and see it for yourself.
Desirable places like NYC have always been competitive markets to rent in, and we know that there’s a long term trend of migration toward population centers which is slowly making things worse.
But there’s another factor that seems like it isn’t getting it’s fair share of blame - the accelerant that is social media. There’s been a huge rise in micro-influencers showing us what the good life looks like in desirable places, whether we are talking about a neighborhood of NYC or a western mountain town. A decade or two ago, these desirable places were on the radar of a small number of people to build a life in, now the pool is much larger.
Airbnb deserves some criticism, but short term rentals are getting more than their fair share of blame because they are a convenient boogeyman to point at. The end result is that we see regulation like this one that is more punitive than effective.