Submitted via IRC for SoyCow0152
It looked like yet another weird symptom of San Francisco tech culture: a cluster of people sitting on the side of a road, working at desks placed within the boundaries of a parking space.
But WePark—a project led by San Francisco-based web developer Victor Pontis—was actually a manifestation of an idea that has become more popular in the last few years: Cities use space inefficiently and prioritize cars over people. The people at the desks were attempting to reclaim a sliver of space for human use. "Car parking squanders space that can be used for the public good—bike lanes, larger sidewalks, retail, cafes, more housing," Pontis said. "Let's use city streets for people, not cars." (There are also WePark franchises in France as well as Santa Monica.)
Pontis said he got the idea from a Twitter exchange in which Github's Devon Zuegel pointed out that eight bicycles could fit in one park spot instead of a car. Urbanist Annie Fryman, responded, suggesting that the metered parking spot be used as a coworking space instead.
Source: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pajgyz/rogue-coder-turned-a-parking-spot-into-a-coworking-space
Related Stories
Google announces $1B, 10-year plan to add thousands of homes to Bay Area
The housing crisis in the Bay Area, particularly in San Francisco, is a complex and controversial topic with no one-size-fits-all solution — but a check for a billion dollars is about as close as you're going to get, and Google has just announced it's writing one. In a blog post, CEO Sundar Pichai explained that in order to "build a more helpful Google," the company would be making this major investment in what it believes is the most important social issue in the area: housing.
San Francisco is famously among the most expensive places in the world to live now, and many residents of the city, or perhaps I should say former residents, have expressed a deep and bitter hatred for the tech industry they believe converted the area to a playground for the rich while leaving the poor and disadvantaged to fend for themselves.
Google itself has been the subject of many a protest, and no doubt it is aware that its reputation as a friendly and progressive company is in danger from this and numerous other issues, from AI ethics to advertising policies. To remedy this, and perhaps even partly as an act of conscience, Google has embarked on a billion-dollar charm offensive that will add thousands of new homes to the Bay Area over the next ten years.
$750 million of that comes in the form of repurposing its own commercial real estate for residential purposes. This will allow for 15,000 new homes "at all income levels," and while Pichai said that they hope this will help address the "chronic shortage of affordable housing options," the blog post did not specify how many of these new homes would actually be affordable, and where they might be.
Another $250 million will be invested to "provide incentives to enable developers to build at least 5,000 affordable housing units across the market".
They should build an arcology or giant pod hotel.
Also at NPR.
Previously: "It's a Perfect Storm": Homeless Spike in Rural California Linked to Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley Charter Buses Vandalized by Pellet/BB Guns or Rocks
Related: Soaring Rents in Portland, Oregon Cause Homelessness Crisis
City of San Francisco Says It's Illegal to Live in a Box
San Francisco Restaurants Can't Afford Waiters, so they Put Diners to Work
In San Francisco, Making a Living from Your Billionaire Neighbor's Trash
A Rogue Coder Turned a Parking Spot Into a Coworking Space
(Score: 5, Touché) by bradley13 on Monday May 06 2019, @11:27AM (15 children)
What a brilliant idea! I always wanted to work while breathing exhaust, listening to traffic noise, and worrying about being hit by a passing car. Not.
Cities use space inefficiently and prioritize cars over people.
Um...people have to get into the city somehow. Most American cities are so spread out that the main means of transport is the car. That's a feature (or flaw) of city design, and won't be solved by narcissistic gits occupying parking spaces with desks.
If they really dislike cars so much, they could always move to someplace that prohibits cars. [wikipedia.org] Note that US cities are generally only represented by very small pedestrian areas - there's that city-design problem. Go to other countries where cities are much denser, and many entire towns are car-free.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Booga1 on Monday May 06 2019, @11:38AM (9 children)
No kidding. The photo of people sitting at a desk in a parking space makes them look outright idiotic. Who the hell wants to haul a desk and furniture to some random parking space so they can sit there for eight hours?
In some cities it might get them rude looks, nasty comments, or worse. Like this lady that was using a parking space to BBQ [6abc.com] then up-and-died when tried to get her to move so they could park.
Heck, they even decided to charge money for this stunt:
Depending on the rules, taking the spot for the whole day is usually forbidden, even if you do pay for it. Charging to rent it back out probably isn't in the guidelines either.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @12:37PM (1 child)
You wouldn't say that if they drove their desk to work. Maybe Elon Musk and come up with a "Workus" model. It would be like a Prius, but a desk (with more horse power and better range).
(Score: 2) by Booga1 on Monday May 06 2019, @04:21PM
What, like this guy's desk? [youtube.com] :)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Monday May 06 2019, @01:43PM (5 children)
If someone has a desk job that can be done anywhere a parking space can be rented, then why can't that job be done from home?
Another idea, a large employer could create remote hub offices. Smaller remote offices with the facilities of an office, but with a smaller number of people, closer to where groups of employees live.
Reminds me of an ancient Dilbert cartoon: (not exact quotation, but the gist of it . . .)
PHB: you expect me to give you a paycheck to work from home on a project with vaguely defined goals and objectives, and progress that is difficult to quantify and measure?
Dogbert: I was hoping for direct deposit.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 06 2019, @08:20PM (3 children)
Calling the spirit of MDC....
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday May 06 2019, @09:56PM (2 children)
I guess I'm too old or too young or something to get that one.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 06 2019, @10:09PM (1 child)
Michael David Crawford, homeless programmer and Soylenti. RIP.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday May 07 2019, @02:22AM
I remember that now, but would not have associated it with the initials.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @11:00PM
Because that would require managers to do more work than look around the office and see how many chairs have butts in them.
(Score: 3, Funny) by fliptop on Tuesday May 07 2019, @03:25AM
Apparently, some people don't have a problem [improveverywhere.com] w/ it.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by schad on Monday May 06 2019, @12:07PM (4 children)
Yeah, this is a little weird. WePark's beef isn't that "cities... prioritize cars over people." It's that cities don't prioritize the people that WePark likes (people who don't have, would prefer not to have, or would at least be willing not to have, cars).
This is especially moronic in the US, where in the majority of the country cars are absolutely mandatory. There are really very few places where you can get by without a car at all. And, somewhat paradoxically, the less you need your car, the more time it spends "wasting space" in a parking spot. I'll certainly agree that a parking garage is a better place for a seldom-driven car than alongside the street, but then I imagine we'd see these people squatting in a parking garage and complaining that it should be turned into an apartment building.
Some people are just looking for excuse to be outraged. The specific reason doesn't matter so much.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @01:01PM (1 child)
Even worse is.. why didn't this guy rent the parking place, and put a tent with 4 beds in it?
Isn't that helping more? Helping the homeless?
Yet.. the city will evict those homeless too. But I guess evicting people with laptops is some horrid social evil, right?
Right?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday May 06 2019, @09:25PM
> Yet.. the city will evict those homeless too.
I know, right?
Last time I arranged for a friend to host a whole bunch of undocumented homeless guys in the back of a truck in Texas, all hell broke loose because of some A/C problems...
*ducks*
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @03:14PM (1 child)
There. FTFY.
And big thank yous to the auto industry and Robert Moses for prioritizing auto industry profits over the good of the nation.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Monday May 06 2019, @09:26PM
How is that flamebait?
How is it even controversial?
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 06 2019, @11:55AM
Just like cities locate on the coasts where storms and flooding are a hazard - but they do it in many cases for access to transport / commerce. Big ships mean jobs.
Cars mean people with a certain amount of money, if you invite cars into the city, you make it easier for people with cars to interact with the city (i.e. spend their money).
Bikes, by contrast, are more associated with people with less money, not 1:1, of course, nothing is, but... healthy has a strange negative correlation to rich and spendy.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @12:30PM (1 child)
I'd love to give it a try.
Where do I park my car when I get there?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 06 2019, @08:25PM
Double rent...
We looked at leasing an office in Downtown Miami - the rent for the office space was remarkably cheap, but... each employee would need to pay $100 per month for parking, and we didn't have much of a carpooling kind of team. With the cost of employee parking factored in, the office space was actually a bit more expensive than the competition. What finally quashed the downtown office idea was that downtown Miami literally shuts down for 5-7 business days per year, some predictable, some not. Crazy events like the Grand Prix, various cultural celebrations, and the occasional unscheduled protest and/or riot. If you don't mind the occasional interruption in your business, it's kinda fun, but in reality it's about a 2% productivity tax.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Monday May 06 2019, @12:50PM (3 children)
I thought management could not make these open-area workspaces any worse. Yet here we are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @01:31PM (1 child)
I'm an AC. I laughed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 07 2019, @03:04AM
There's no AC out on the street. You take whatever temperature the weather gives you.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday May 06 2019, @09:30PM
Hey, it could be a whole lot worse : It's in SF.
Remember the two seasons in the upper Midwest : Snow and Jackhammers.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @01:34PM (5 children)
After dropping you off at work, your self-driving car goes to Uber mode , earning money, returning to pick you up at the end of the day. It never needs a parking spot.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday May 06 2019, @01:46PM
To extend the idea, maybe the car you arrive to work in IS an Uber car which is not yours but part of a commercial fleet. More like Waymo.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @02:32PM (2 children)
OTOH you need a vacuum to clean up whatever the ubers did in your car.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Monday May 06 2019, @02:48PM (1 child)
Roomba to the rescue. Get your robotic car a robotic vacuum.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Monday May 06 2019, @07:12PM
The inside of a car is more challenging terrain than a flat floor in a house, but it's pretty similar across makes and models. I guess it's just a cost-benefit analysis away from reality.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 06 2019, @03:45PM
Nice thought, too bad that Uber/Self Driving medallions are going to cost $250K per year from your local municipality, so that if you are the one being dropped off to work by a self-driving car it's extremely unlikely that you own the car that is dropping you off.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Bot on Monday May 06 2019, @02:42PM (1 child)
But here in Italy, car traffic became a problem as soon as shopping centers started getting popular. Different cities with administrations of different political color with different problems all adopted the same 'solutions' in a matter of a couple years. The solution drove people out of the cities and, guess, into the shopping centers, of course. It involved stages, first money for parking 'to build more parking spots, and don't worry we give you shuttle bus for free' to 'hey we need to remove this parking spot to place absolutely nothing instead of it, not even green spots who actually pollute because they force a car each day to keep running for another spot, oh and the shuttle bus is suspended and you always have to pay for parking everywhere so it's a tax not a premium service anymore'.
So, city planners trying to get rid of cars soon before forcing people to adopt zero emission vehicles just makes me look for who might be making money off it. Your situation might be different, though.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 06 2019, @03:50PM
Around here (Florida) it seems that the construction company owners have been driving city planning for the past 80 years or so - build new houses far from the city center so that they have to build new roads and new shopping, developers invest in the construction then exit within 0-10 years after completion when values are at a peak, then the developers pick a new spot and build all new things, driving down the value of their developments they just sold, and meanwhile there are so many jobs in construction to keep it all going.
Of course, if you don't own your own car you are instantly socially marked as being in the bottom 5%... so there is very little incentive to develop efficient cities where cars are not necessary, nor construction for their parking or travel between destinations...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @02:49PM
It doesn't rain much in California normally. The SF-area and the LA-region have very long periods of rainless weather. It's one of the reasons so many people want to live there.
In other areas, it does actually rain. What will these master minds do when that happens? Tough day at work, it rained on me while I was working in a parking space. And the cars splashed me as they drove by. My computer's all messed up now. ???
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @03:17PM
I do not think that word [merriam-webster.com] means what you think it means.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday May 06 2019, @07:40PM (1 child)
Victor Pontis is in the wrong place, and very late to the game. SF has BART, the Muni, cable cars, buses, CalTrain, a bike share program, electric scooters, EV charging stations, and Critical Mass to promote biking. Private vehicles there are outre. Everybody in that town has been kicking them. So appropriating a parking space as a co-working location is not hip, cool, or inventive. It's old hat.
Also, he and his retail locations, cafes, and housing will quickly run out of stuff if he and his hipster buddies choke off the means of re-supplying them with stuff. He would know this from playing SimCity if he was a real techie: removing roads kills cities.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 06 2019, @08:28PM
Just crank up the tax rate, provide rail transport to all sectors, then bulldoze out the roads - works great, unless natural disasters are enabled.
🌻🌻 [google.com]