8 ms·

Apple is building 11,000 parking spaces not because it wants to but because Cupertino, the suburban city where the new headquarters is located, demands it. Cupe

• jonknee 9y ago
  Requirements are made to be made exceptions for and Apple had $5b of leverage. They probably just wanted the parking.
  • jimlawruk 9y ago
    Yeah. A simple donation to the local municipality would have gotten this requirement waived. I once heard of a company getting past height restrictions by simply buying the town a few new firetrucks.
    • theparanoid 9y ago
      Intel did that for their Folsom campus.
    • thegranderson 9y ago
      In what way is this "donation" not a bribe? Just because it goes to the government at large vs. an individual?
      • deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
      • wayn3 9y ago
        I guess the difference is that a bribe would go to an individual. As in - an individual would then be doing something that is in conflict with what the organization he's working for would otherwise do. If you just "bribe" the organization, there's no conflict of interest. "We want to build this" "we dont want you to" "heres some money" "ok". Its a bit like negotiating with the CEO vs. bribing a lone DBA about getting access to proprietary data.
      • jimlawruk 9y ago
        A bribe is secret and typically illegal. This type of exception to the rule would be completely public and could be debated, discussed, voted on, etc.
    • brudgers 9y ago
      The equipment loadout of the local fire service is often a factor in building height limits. For example there are building heights below which a fire service does not need ladder trucks but at a certain point, public safety demands ladder trucks be available. Even if a fire service has ladder trucks, the existing ladder trucks may be berthed outside the area served by the local fire station and therefore the fire service cannot provide an appropriate response time and needs another ladder truck. Because ladder trucks are big, this may mean that the local fire station needs to be expanded to house the ladder truck. Providing a ladder truck and possibly funds may, in some cases, remove the reasons for the height restrictions...with the premise that height restrictions are occasionally the result of careful consideration rather than or in addition to nimbyism.
  • s73ver 9y ago
    Wait, you're saying that Apple wanted to be able to provide it's employees with a place to park while they're at work? That's crazy.
• Someone1234 9y ago
  That's a copout. Cupertino demands it because businesses have abused public streets before (e.g. relying on public parking for business purposes); if Apple had gone to Cupertino with an actual plan, they may have allowed fewer spaces, but since Apple didn't and just accepted the requirement it is because Apple has no plans to reduce it.
  • muninn_ 9y ago
    Well it's not that clear. If, for example, Cupertino provide things like bike lanes, or public transportation, then it's not solely Apple's fault here. Maybe if the population density were to be increased (IE, removing restrictive zoning laws), they would reduce the need for people to use personal transportation. That's the problem with these kind of engagements. Companies and cities generally don't care to work together on something like this. When they do, however, it usually results in something pretty good.
    • briandear 9y ago
      And if the average Apple employee could actually afford to live in Cupertino.
  • andrewem 9y ago
    Agreed, the idea that Apple couldn't possibly have any influence over municipal policies is laughable. They just didn't try.
    • JustSomeNobody 9y ago
      We usually hate when companies do this. Let's change the wording just a bit and see: ... the idea that Comcast couldn't possibly have any influence over municipal policies is laughable.
      • Markoff 9y ago
        is Comcast one of the most famous companies in world having few hundred billion of cash available? since i am hardly familiar with them (ISP, carrier?) outside US i doubt that it's like thinking Microsoft can't make things done in Redmond or Google in Palo alto
• macNchz 9y ago
  From the linked article re Cupertino: > For a fast-food restaurant, the city demands one space for every three seats; for a bowling alley, seven spaces per lane plus one for every worker. I've read a bunch of articles about the negative externalities of minimum parking requirements, but haven't really seen one explore the why behind these rules. What does it matter to the city if a bowling alley doesn't have enough parking spaces? Wouldn't that just be bad for the bowling alley's business? If it's about ensuring the supply of street parking why not just install meters to make the city money when the bowling alley fails to build sufficient parking? I'm usually the first to mock this kind of trite 'invisible hand' supply-and-demand explanation, but this really seems like something that would be very well left to the business to figure out.
  • jacobolus 9y ago
    A few cities started making up parking requirements, and then others copied them. The way they decided how many parking spaces were needed was by looking at peak demand and then forcing all businesses to have enough parking to never run out. Since the ones making these decisions are local officials, copying another city’s regulation is easier than doing a serious study of real parking needs. Nobody ever thought very systemically about this until the whole thing had been in place throughout suburban America for years.
  • giarc 9y ago
    A bowling alley with no parking quickly stops being a bowling alley. The city has an interest in ensuring businesses remain in business so they can continue to collect taxes from them.
  • linkregister 9y ago
    I lived in a city that had a revival of its industrial area. There was no parking garage for the new bars and restaurants, so all visitors simply parked in the residents' neighborhoods. Quality of life drastically declined for those residents, and I ended up having to leave due to family members being unable to find parking in under 30 minutes in the evening. Public transit in the city was underfunded so it was only realistic for certain commutes within the city. I have no idea why suburban Cupertino would be worried about this risk; it sounds like an underhanded way to limit occupancy and capacity (you build a 1000-person office instead of 2000, because you had to have extra space for parking).
• kylec 9y ago
  Has Apple ever said that they don't want to create all the parking spaces they're creating? Isn't it in their interest as an employer to provide ample parking for their employees?