LA Council Eyes Ban On Parking Spot 'Auction' Apps
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Smart phone applications that allow users to "auction off" their parking spaces might not even get a chance to get started in the city of Los Angeles.
Councilman Mike Bonin has made a motion to ban such applications, with his colleagues on the Los Angeles City Council backing his initiative.
The council has directed the city attorney to draft an ordinance that would prohibit phone-based services, such as MonkeyParking, which allows users to take bids on the street-side parking spot they are about to vacate.
MonkeyParking was launched in San Francisco, but the company disabled the auction portion of the application this summer after receiving a cease and desist letter from the city government. The company announced plans to offer the service in portions of Los Angeles County, including Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, over the summer.
Santa Monica has already prohibited such applications while similar bans are being weighed in Beverly Hills and West Hollywood.
Bonin called the practice of offering parking spots to the highest bidder "extortion masquerading as the sharing economy," according to City News Service. He said applications of this type also hurt the city's efforts to improve parking availability and enforcement through the use of smart meters and demand pricing.
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