Live data from Hacker News

How Much Money Do Parking Lots Make?

melmagazine.com

91–100 of 129 posts

Re: How Much Money Do Parking Lots Make?

#92

> Bear in mind, though, an ideal lot wouldn’t be full of only office workers. They’re parked there all day! Ideally you get shoppers, who turn over their parking spot every hour or two. I wonder how much this actually matters? Money is money, whether it's coming from one person parked for 8 hours or four people each parked for 2 hours. Sure, most lots will charge a somewhat lower rate for a longer period of time (i.e…

Guaranteed money is better than maybe-money too. Most operators will take a guaranteed 8 hours compared to maybe filling a spot later. Taking this to the extreme, many places here sell monthly packages for commuters.

The variable hourly-rates is also a form of price anchoring and takes advantage of sunk costs. Look at Westfield's Sydney CBD rates here: https://www.westfield.com.au/sydney/parking

Once you pay that first $35 it's not so bad to stick around and spend a bit more. Westfield has a vested interest in this since they run the shopping centre, but other local operators have to compete with this so can't be too much more expensive.

Re: How Much Money Do Parking Lots Make?

#93

I like this billboard from the good old days https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Ev... . It says: "Everybody works but the vacant lot. I paid $3,600 for this lot and will hold till I get $6000. The profit is unearned increment made possible by the presence of this community and enterprise of its people. I take the profit without earning it." These lots produce negative externalities to society a…

YIMBY in SF Bay area should seriously consider buying billboard space for this on the 101.

Re: How Much Money Do Parking Lots Make?

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And not just that, but typical property taxes provide a disincentive to even improve your own property, since you'll pay more tax. They encourage blight. A good old wealth tax on everything would fix that.

Not really. If a wealth tax is implemented, you'll be amazed at how soon everyone moves their wealth outside of the US. You'd be very hard pressed to tax wealth outside the US. Distributing the tax across property, a progressive capital gains tax, a progressive corporate tax, and a small wealth tax is a much better option than a flat and high wealth tax.

>Not really. If a wealth tax is implemented, you'll be amazed at how soon everyone moves their wealth outside of the US. You'd be very hard pressed to tax wealth outside the US.

Taxing income outside the USA already happens. Taxing wealth would also happen.

There has been a huge push in the last decade to tighten up "anti-money laundering" (but usually anti-tax) laws. The cliche of the swiss bank account offering secrecy for Americans no longer exists - the Swiss now report holdings directly to the US and similar locales do likewise.

Re: How Much Money Do Parking Lots Make?

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Taxing property encourages speculation and under-development. Showing an alternative, Pennsylvania has several towns and cities with a split-rate tax, which means that there's a higher tax on the assessed land value than on the assessed value of the property. Taking this to an extreme, you can tax only the land value, not the property, providing a very strong incentive to make the best use of desirable land.…

> And not just that, but typical property taxes provide a disincentive to even improve your own property, since you'll pay more tax. They encourage blight. A good old wealth tax on everything would fix that.

Most OECD countries have dropped wealth taxes. They don’t work. In 1990, 12 OECD countries had wealth taxes, now, only 4. A wealth tax has a lot of unintended consequences and while it sounds good as a populist sound bite, reality isn’t so simplistic.

Re: How Much Money Do Parking Lots Make?

#96

I like this billboard from the good old days https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Ev... . It says: "Everybody works but the vacant lot. I paid $3,600 for this lot and will hold till I get $6000. The profit is unearned increment made possible by the presence of this community and enterprise of its people. I take the profit without earning it." These lots produce negative externalities to society a…

If it was 100% guaranteed that the lot will be worth $6000 in a couple of years, it wouldn't be sold at $3600, but something much closer to $6000. The gentleman buying the lot is obviously taking on risk - the lot may very well never be worth $6000, or may even never again be worth $3600.

Re: How Much Money Do Parking Lots Make?

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Self-driving cars will render these obsolete They already are [1]: > If you park your car on the lower level of the Millennium Lakeside Garage under Maggie Daley Park, you might feel like you've just pulled into a subterranean car dealership. > Rows of new and used Volkswagens and Hondas—nearly 400 in total—fill a lot of the space. You might spot a worker painting a Jetta with a spray gun. The level above has a mor…

You'd think he'd try to ponder those questions before investing $370 million of other people's money.

I would think other people would ponder those questions before giving someone else their money.

Re: How Much Money Do Parking Lots Make?

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And not just that, but typical property taxes provide a disincentive to even improve your own property, since you'll pay more tax. They encourage blight. A good old wealth tax on everything would fix that.

Most OECD countries have dropped wealth taxes. They don’t work. In 1990, 12 OECD countries had wealth taxes, now, only 4. A wealth tax has a lot of unintended consequences and while it sounds good as a populist sound bite, reality isn’t so simplistic.

Do you have a history of this - was it just that the ownership was moved offshore? Did they "not work" or was it just lobbied against?

Re: How Much Money Do Parking Lots Make?

#100
post #96

I like this billboard from the good old days https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Ev... . It says: "Everybody works but the vacant lot. I paid $3,600 for this lot and will hold till I get $6000. The profit is unearned increment made possible by the presence of this community and enterprise of its people. I take the profit without earning it." These lots produce negative externalities to society a…

If it was 100% guaranteed that the lot will be worth $6000 in a couple of years, it wouldn't be sold at $3600, but something much closer to $6000. The gentleman buying the lot is obviously taking on risk - the lot may very well never be worth $6000, or may even never again be worth $3600.

This is not necessarily true though. If you could use that 3600 to become 7000 in the same time it would definitely make sense to sell for 3600, and reinvest that money into a even more profitable investment.
Post reply on HN