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SF cracks down on ‘Monkey Parking’ mobile app

blog.sfgate.com

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Re: SF cracks down on ‘Monkey Parking’ mobile app

#21

Post by anigbrowl »

microcolonel wrote: post #12

They're not selling the spots, they're selling prior knowledge of their departure. They have no right or means to block or make exclusive the spots, so what's the problem?

The law prohibits selling or contracting around public parking spaces, ie contracts formed for the purpose of exploiting a public resource are automatically void.

The app itself invites users to 'request a parking spot' and asks 'how much would you pay?' The knowledge of imminent departure is just an instrumentality for gaining occupancy of the parking spot, to claim otherwise is disingenuous. There's a mentality among some hackers that 'the means justify the ends,' ie if you can find some definitional wiggle room on what you're doing it automatically validates the outcome. That works OK on computers, but the law is not a big computer system and does not operate on the same sort of binary logic as computers do.

Re: SF cracks down on ‘Monkey Parking’ mobile app

#22

Post by smackfu »

microcolonel wrote: post #12

They're not selling the spots, they're selling prior knowledge of their departure. They have no right or means to block or make exclusive the spots, so what's the problem?

Here's the specific law they say that people are violating:

"It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to enter into a lease, rental agreement or contract of any kind, written or oral, with or without compensation, for the use of any street or sidewalk."

Re: SF cracks down on ‘Monkey Parking’ mobile app

#23

Post by gizmo686 »

bitlord_219 wrote: post #8

Good. The idea of a couple guys in Italy making money on trades of public parking spaces in SF baffles me. I assume they're not paying any taxes back to the city that maintains the spaces. How does one possibly defend this?

They are proving value by solving a market inneficiency (a good, parking spaces, being available at sub-market rates, free). As such, they have a right to some of the profits.

By increasing the cost of parking spaces, they improve the efficiency of allocation by making sure they go to people who value them at $20 before people who value them at 0.003$

Or, more likely, they live outside of US juristiction, so they have plenty of time to make a profit, and when the law does catch up to them, they are likely not looking at anything worse then needing to shut down the service.

Re: SF cracks down on ‘Monkey Parking’ mobile app

#24

Post by blatherard »

microcolonel wrote: post #12

They're not selling the spots, they're selling prior knowledge of their departure. They have no right or means to block or make exclusive the spots, so what's the problem?

The means of blocking is the car that they have sitting in the spot, which presumably they won't move until the payee shows up. Its also not paying for prior knowledge but payment for vacating, as the Monkey Parking website clearly states: "Get notified about drivers willing to pay you for leaving your parking spot"

Re: SF cracks down on ‘Monkey Parking’ mobile app

#26

Post by aikah »

microcolonel wrote: post #12

They're not selling the spots, they're selling prior knowledge of their departure. They have no right or means to block or make exclusive the spots, so what's the problem?

> so what's the problem?

According to the article it's plain illegal.That's the problem.

Re: SF cracks down on ‘Monkey Parking’ mobile app

#27

Post by thrownaway2424 »

incision wrote: post #15

>'ParkModo was recently offering $13 an hour to drivers who would occupy parking spaces in the Mission District during peak weekend times and then sell the spot through its app, a Craigslist job posting showed.' Wow, I remember when parking spot squatting was the province of bold homeless men near nightclubs. This sort of rent-seeking on the commons is particularly distasteful, but simply 'cracking down' on it seems…

SF already has the nation's most advanced parking space pricing system, called SFPark. However, that is a low bar. The prices change very slowly and some neighborhoods still have not found their equilibrium price (for example, a busy stretch of Valencia has had its price increased in every adjustment round and is now up to $6/hr. Nobody knows the equilibrium price for that area.)

There's also the problem that SFPark isn't very widespread because "local merchants" who are a kind of caveman often oppose it.

Re: SF cracks down on ‘Monkey Parking’ mobile app

#28

Post by dsl »

whence wrote: post #7

Here's a better idea: charge market rate for parking on the street, citywide. There's no reason that space should be given away for free. Use the revenue to build some much needed trains.

The problem is bigger than a market inefficiency.

San Francisco has been pushing a hard line anti-car agenda, while making no noticeable improvements to transit. MUNI is a disaster being held hostage by unions. Bending to environmentalists to not address legitimate need for parking. Inefficient responses to groups like Critical Mass that breed resentment against bikes. Refusal to address the vagrant problems resulting in crap covered sidewalks. etc.

Re: SF cracks down on ‘Monkey Parking’ mobile app

#29

Post by jacobolus »

mathetic wrote: post #18
whence wrote: post #7

Here's a better idea: charge market rate for parking on the street, citywide. There's no reason that space should be given away for free. Use the revenue to build some much needed trains.

Roads are public goods and more importantly they are built with tax money. They are also specifically built for cars to use and without a place to stop they are a bit meaningless in a city. They might just change this and start charging but that's a pretty stupid idea. Free market is not an answer to everything.

I recommend you read http://www.uctc.net/papers/351.pdf

Personally, I think we’d all be better off if American cities were friendlier to pedestrians, cyclists, and buses, and stopped catering so heavily to automobiles. Devoting huge amounts of space to free/cheap street parking is incredibly expensive and inefficient, compared to just about any other use.

Re: SF cracks down on ‘Monkey Parking’ mobile app

#30

Post by forgottenpass »

bitlord_219 wrote: post #8

Good. The idea of a couple guys in Italy making money on trades of public parking spaces in SF baffles me. I assume they're not paying any taxes back to the city that maintains the spaces. How does one possibly defend this?

How does one possibly defend this?

Well, it typically comes across like this (if you notice depends on if you like the company):

Their disruptive innovation is just scaring the shit out of those dinosaurs down at City Hall. Local government are stupid for protecting citizenry financially and/or setting minimum standards for a service. It doesn't matter if the service model is the kind of things that the law is meant to protect or genuinely a case not considered when drafting the law. All valley business models are golden, market success makes them beyond reproach!

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