A new mobile app called Monkeyparking allows people in San Francisco with good parking spots to auction them off when they’re ready to leave, permitting circling rich people to engage in excitingly dangerous class warfare by bidding on spaces with their phones while they drive. The app’s creators defend it as providing an “incentive” to leave your space for others to use.
Paolo Dobrowolny, chief executive and co-founder of MonkeyParking, told The Chronicle he thinks those reactions are unfair. He said his company is just a facilitator between those looking for parking spots and those who need some incentive to leave a space.
“We’re just providing information when someone is leaving,” he said. “That is valuable information for everybody.”
He disagrees that the app would leave behind those unable to pay up to $20 each time they need to step out of their car.
“It’s a fair business for anybody,” Dobrowolny said. “It’s not just for rich people. If you think you can get that money back when you leave that parking spot, you can earn back the money when you leave the spot.”
Sell your S.F. street parking spot for $20? [Vivian Ho/Sfgate]
(via Hacker News)