Lynnfield residents responded to the murder by closing rank. Immediately following the shooting, the town seized on the fact that someone in their midst was renting his home to God-only-knows-who and clamped down on all short-term rentals. Within days, Lynnfield’s building inspector drafted a cease-and-desist letter claiming that the homeowner, Alex Styller, had violated the town’s bylaws. The letter, which makes no mention of the shooting, notes that “a review of the ‘Airbnb’ web site” showed that Styller was renting his home on a short-term basis, which the letter claimed was a violation of local zoning ordinances. Styller, though, had no intention of rolling over. Instead, he phoned his lawyer and set into motion a fight that could have repercussions far beyond the tony suburb, providing a blueprint for towns everywhere that want to ban Airbnb—and the strangers who come with it. [Full Article]