I guess I must not be hip enough to have known about this beforehand, but there’s a very interesting citywide event happening here in New York today called Park(ing) Day. All throughout New York City, people are reclaiming parking spaces for their street-side enjoyment. It’s a very novel idea that helps convey a very important economic point: the opportunity cost of public parking spaces.
Of course, the users are gladly feeding the meters, so who could complain? Who says we can’t let the market decide the highest-and-best use for the spaces?!
Here’s a video from last year’s event:
Bill Nelson says
September 19, 2008 at 10:18 pmNot a bad idea.
Maybe I’ll follow a couple of these parking space “capitalists” home and make the best use of the sidewalk in front of their homes by setting up a street business.
What do you think would sell in Park Slope? Bulk tobacco?
Damn laws won’t let me sell cheap fireworks, ammo, or crack.
Maybe I should pimp my ladies in front of their homes; talk about a good use of sidewalk space!
Eh, maybe I’ll just hand out Bibles instead.
Do you think Wal-Mart could grab the sidewalk space in front of Connecticut Muffin…
Bill Nelson says
September 19, 2008 at 10:18 pmNot a bad idea.
Maybe I’ll follow a couple of these parking space “capitalists” home and make the best use of the sidewalk in front of their homes by setting up a street business.
What do you think would sell in Park Slope? Bulk tobacco?
Damn laws won’t let me sell cheap fireworks, ammo, or crack.
Maybe I should pimp my ladies in front of their homes; talk about a good use of sidewalk space!
Eh, maybe I’ll just hand out Bibles instead.
Do you think Wal-Mart could grab the sidewalk space in front of Connecticut Muffin…
Bill Nelson says
September 19, 2008 at 10:18 pmNot a bad idea.
Maybe I’ll follow a couple of these parking space “capitalists” home and make the best use of the sidewalk in front of their homes by setting up a street business.
What do you think would sell in Park Slope? Bulk tobacco?
Damn laws won’t let me sell cheap fireworks, ammo, or crack.
Maybe I should pimp my ladies in front of their homes; talk about a good use of sidewalk space!
Eh, maybe I’ll just hand out Bibles instead.
Do you think Wal-Mart could grab the sidewalk space in front of Connecticut Muffin…
MarketUrbanism says
September 19, 2008 at 10:40 pmHa!
Depends. Do you want to make money or annoy Park Slopers?
If you want to make money in your Park Slope parking space, sell strollers, cloth diapers, Iphones, vintage clothes, and fair-trade coffee.
If you want to annoy them, sell Bibles, disposable diapers, vintage Bush-Cheney bumper stickers, and non-fair-trade coffee.
MarketUrbanism says
September 19, 2008 at 10:40 pmHa!
Depends. Do you want to make money or annoy Park Slopers?
If you want to make money in your Park Slope parking space, sell strollers, cloth diapers, Iphones, vintage clothes, and fair-trade coffee.
If you want to annoy them, sell Bibles, disposable diapers, vintage Bush-Cheney bumper stickers, and non-fair-trade coffee.
Market Urbanism says
September 19, 2008 at 10:40 pmHa!
Depends. Do you want to make money or annoy Park Slopers?
If you want to make money in your Park Slope parking space, sell strollers, cloth diapers, Iphones, vintage clothes, and fair-trade coffee.
If you want to annoy them, sell Bibles, disposable diapers, vintage Bush-Cheney bumper stickers, and non-fair-trade coffee.
Bill Nelson says
September 20, 2008 at 4:58 pmIncidentally, the problem you cite is rent control for parking spaces. What’s the market rate for a space in Park Slope? About $30 per day? It would be interesting to see how many Parking Day People, on a regular basis, would be willing to shell out $30 for their patch of green.
Also, just as with rent control, once you rent a curbside space with your car, you never want to leave it again. There have been times when I was so happy to find a space in Park Slope that I was tempted to leave my car there forever because the space was too valuable to give up. (Unfortunately, alternate-side-of-the-street rules destroyed those plans…)
Perhaps, in a free market, the merchants would purchase the spaces in front of their stores and rent them to customers, perhaps for free with a purchase — just as private parking lots now operate.
And Parking Day People could also purchase spaces. But my guess is that the spaces would be quickly turned over for a profit to the merchants. Those folks certainly don’t discount the prices of their brownstones and I’ll bet that they would also sell their parking spaces for top dollar.
And when I buy up a few blocks worth of browstones, perhaps I’ll demolish them all, and pave over the land with a huge Wal-Mart.
Or would it be more prudent to pave over Prospect Park with the East Coast’s Largest Truck Auction…?
Bill Nelson says
September 20, 2008 at 4:58 pmIncidentally, the problem you cite is rent control for parking spaces. What’s the market rate for a space in Park Slope? About $30 per day? It would be interesting to see how many Parking Day People, on a regular basis, would be willing to shell out $30 for their patch of green.
Also, just as with rent control, once you rent a curbside space with your car, you never want to leave it again. There have been times when I was so happy to find a space in Park Slope that I was tempted to leave my car there forever because the space was too valuable to give up. (Unfortunately, alternate-side-of-the-street rules destroyed those plans…)
Perhaps, in a free market, the merchants would purchase the spaces in front of their stores and rent them to customers, perhaps for free with a purchase — just as private parking lots now operate.
And Parking Day People could also purchase spaces. But my guess is that the spaces would be quickly turned over for a profit to the merchants. Those folks certainly don’t discount the prices of their brownstones and I’ll bet that they would also sell their parking spaces for top dollar.
And when I buy up a few blocks worth of browstones, perhaps I’ll demolish them all, and pave over the land with a huge Wal-Mart.
Or would it be more prudent to pave over Prospect Park with the East Coast’s Largest Truck Auction…?
Bill Nelson says
September 20, 2008 at 4:58 pmIncidentally, the problem you cite is rent control for parking spaces. What’s the market rate for a space in Park Slope? About $30 per day? It would be interesting to see how many Parking Day People, on a regular basis, would be willing to shell out $30 for their patch of green.
Also, just as with rent control, once you rent a curbside space with your car, you never want to leave it again. There have been times when I was so happy to find a space in Park Slope that I was tempted to leave my car there forever because the space was too valuable to give up. (Unfortunately, alternate-side-of-the-street rules destroyed those plans…)
Perhaps, in a free market, the merchants would purchase the spaces in front of their stores and rent them to customers, perhaps for free with a purchase — just as private parking lots now operate.
And Parking Day People could also purchase spaces. But my guess is that the spaces would be quickly turned over for a profit to the merchants. Those folks certainly don’t discount the prices of their brownstones and I’ll bet that they would also sell their parking spaces for top dollar.
And when I buy up a few blocks worth of browstones, perhaps I’ll demolish them all, and pave over the land with a huge Wal-Mart.
Or would it be more prudent to pave over Prospect Park with the East Coast’s Largest Truck Auction…?
Bill Nelson says
September 20, 2008 at 4:58 pmIncidentally, the problem you cite is rent control for parking spaces. What’s the market rate for a space in Park Slope? About $30 per day? It would be interesting to see how many Parking Day People, on a regular basis, would be willing to shell out $30 for their patch of green.
Also, just as with rent control, once you rent a curbside space with your car, you never want to leave it again. There have been times when I was so happy to find a space in Park Slope that I was tempted to leave my car there forever because the space was too valuable to give up. (Unfortunately, alternate-side-of-the-street rules destroyed those plans…)
Perhaps, in a free market, the merchants would purchase the spaces in front of their stores and rent them to customers, perhaps for free with a purchase — just as private parking lots now operate.
And Parking Day People could also purchase spaces. But my guess is that the spaces would be quickly turned over for a profit to the merchants. Those folks certainly don’t discount the prices of their brownstones and I’ll bet that they would also sell their parking spaces for top dollar.
And when I buy up a few blocks worth of browstones, perhaps I’ll demolish them all, and pave over the land with a huge Wal-Mart.
Or would it be more prudent to pave over Prospect Park with the East Coast’s Largest Truck Auction…?
Benjamin Hemric says
September 21, 2008 at 1:44 amHere’s a link to an interesting related article that’s on the web, “Cities rethink wisdom of 50s-era parking standards,” AP, 9/20/08 (?):
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-09-20-less-parking_N.htm?csp=34
– – – – –
P.S. — I haven’t had time to continue the rent control discussion. I wrote a long-ish post using a PC at the library and somehow I click in the wrong space — and the whole thing was lost!
Benjamin Hemric says
September 21, 2008 at 1:44 amHere’s a link to an interesting related article that’s on the web, “Cities rethink wisdom of 50s-era parking standards,” AP, 9/20/08 (?):
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-09-20-less-parking_N.htm?csp=34
– – – – –
P.S. — I haven’t had time to continue the rent control discussion. I wrote a long-ish post using a PC at the library and somehow I click in the wrong space — and the whole thing was lost!
Benjamin Hemric says
September 21, 2008 at 1:44 amHere’s a link to an interesting related article that’s on the web, “Cities rethink wisdom of 50s-era parking standards,” AP, 9/20/08 (?):
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-09-20-less-parking_N.htm?csp=34
– – – – –
P.S. — I haven’t had time to continue the rent control discussion. I wrote a long-ish post using a PC at the library and somehow I click in the wrong space — and the whole thing was lost!