81–90 of 615 posts
I've been thinking about this same phenomenon. I reside in Norway, where, interestingly, five different car washes opened in 2023 within a 2 km radius of my local neighborhood. Remarkably, four of these are clustered within a 300m stretch inside a commercial park. Our local area has a population of roughly 5,000 to 7,000 people. Each car wash is operated by a different entity, offering unique apps and subscription pl…
Why so many car washes? Why are there so many cars? Because our country is ultimately designed and developed by urban sprawl madmen with a highway fetish and zero vision for a better way for humans to live and operate. I love how we hyper fixate on stupid questions about car washes while pretending like car dependency isn't the problem.
Do you think it's that orchestrated? I think it's more: evolution / chaos / emergent behavior.
2) If the problem is that subscription users aren’t paying local sales taxes, why not charge property taxes? (or, Land Value Tax!)
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In London at least, Uber is an alternative to public transport (and taxis obv), not to car ownership
Both public transport and taxi/cab/uber are alternatives to car ownership.
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Could that land have toxic soil, and therefore not be zoned for anything else?
When in doubted the answer is always "because something is utterly fucked in that zone" and done by humans.
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I think generally it should not be allowed. A big component of soap is phosphates, which promote algae growth so you really don't want it in your rivers. Some cities have combined or separated sewer systems. Even if combined, it may be designed to overflow during heavy rain, so it's not a guarantee that car wash water with dirt, soap and oil will not go into into a stream somewhere although in that case you're also s…
> I think generally it should not be allowed. A big component of soap is phosphates, which promote algae growth so you really don't want it in your rivers That's fair, but it doesn't explain why the bylaw won't even let you rinse the mud off your car with nothing but water
Places like Vancouver use street cleaning machines in the spring to sweep up any salt on the streets.
I’m skeptical of the ‘big clean’ lobby being able to buy this law, I could be wrong.
1) Who is spending $20 a month on car washes? 2) If the problem is that subscription users aren’t paying local sales taxes, why not charge property taxes? (or, Land Value Tax!)
The article doesn't mention it, but I read another article about car washes that argued they're used as a way to speculate on commercial real estate in cities because the car washes provide just enough revenue to pay for the purchase of the land and property taxes. Then when the land becomes valuable they can sell it to another developer.
I wouldn’t think they would be especially cheap to build though? Sophisticated machinery, lots of plumbing?
They also have a giant sign in front of the building stating it’s for lease.
Four (or even five) doesn't sound that much? What's the actual problem here?
How is a local politican supposed to determine what is the correct density of any particular type of service within her juristidiction? Assuming all other laws and ordinances are being complied with, and that there is no actual "nuisance", why should a politician need to step in to regulate, rather than letting the market decide?
Last night I stayed at a hotel very close to London Heathrow Airport. There, on the Bath Road, there are (literally) dozens of hotels, one right next to another. This is a feature not a bug! Apparently, there is lots of demand for hotels at that location, which isn't exactly a surprise. If the market were too small, the weakest would fail, right? Right?
Why so many car washes? Why are there so many cars? Because our country is ultimately designed and developed by urban sprawl madmen with a highway fetish and zero vision for a better way for humans to live and operate. I love how we hyper fixate on stupid questions about car washes while pretending like car dependency isn't the problem.
Do you think it's that orchestrated? I think it's more: evolution / chaos / emergent behavior.
Not to cause us to need more car washes. But it was by design.