By Ann-Marie AlcĚÁntara
Less than a year has gone by since San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera shut down MonkeyParking, the app that let anyone auction off a public, city-owned parking space. Now, the company and its revamped app are back and ready to take over your driveway.
Instead of auctioning off public property this time, the company is focused on private driveways (or other private lots). Just list your space on the app and drivers will pay to park in your driveway. Currently, it costs drivers $10 to use the service, with $8 going to the driveway owner and the rest to MonkeyParking, according to San Francisco magazine. There doesn’t seem to be much of a user base so far. When I looked for a space around Hayes Valley, the app showed only four spaces available, just one of which was relatively close to my office on Page Street.
The company’s new strategy is an entirely different business model than it had when it launched in April 2014. Back then, it let users bid for a public parking spot, with a starting price of $5. Anyone could become a bidder or a “Monkey,” someone who was vacating their parking spot and would list it on the app. To no one’s surprise, the city took issue with private monetization of public parking. Eventually, the city sent a cease-and-desist order, and though the company tried to stave off closure, it eventually shut down.
Now, the company seems to be following the law. No laws prohibit someone from renting out their own driveway. The company is also willing to work with the city — a change from a year ago when the founder, Paolo Dobrowolny, told Mashable, “We believe this app can work if there is a community that uses it fairly both ways.” Now, Dobrowolny tells San Francisco magazine, “We want to do it with the city this time, not without.”
Guess not everything is disrupt-able after all.
[h/t San Francisco Magazine; top photo courtesy of Charles Nadeau/Flickr]
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