Fixes and failures

As transactions costs come down, we do more transacting.  Last week, experiencing great NY weather and walking around Manhattan with two of my favorite ladies, I was made aware of the SitOrSquat iPhone app.  Today's NY Times includes "Need a Free Parking Spot? For $5, He'll Find You One" (print version).  Here's how the other great need is addressed:

Standing outside 477 Amsterdam Avenue one morning last week, we posted a query to see what spots were available nearby. Nothing at that instant, but someone had informed StreetParkNYC that in 20 minutes he would be leaving a spot 0.15 miles away. Getting the exact address costs $5, which we clicked to pay. Then we headed off, to 177 West 88th Street.


Just as promised, at 10:30 a.m., a fellow named Josh Fein got in his 2009 Black Acura MDX and drove off. He got $3 in his StreetParkNYC account, and we got a spot until the next morning. We tried twice more, with similar results: nothing perfect or immediate, but something, eventually, in the neighborhood.

Not just markets in everything, but two more cases of tech and entrepreneurialism lending a hand where the Great Big City's policy makers had failed.