Comment by 2xpress | Hacker News Reader

Comment by 2xpress | Hacker News Reader

From the article:

... Ald. Rosanna Rodriguez (33rd) said a Park District supervisor told her the lockers in the park at 3259 N. Elston Ave. were installed there by mistake. Chicago Park District spokeswoman Irene Tostado wouldn’t confirm, saying only, “The locker was installed in the correct park.” ... Rodriguez on Friday asked the Park District supervisor to move the lockers to a more appropriate location... ... A total of 68 Amazon lockers are being installed at Chicago parks across the city, according to a list provided by the Park District... ... Rodriguez said the lockers are a symptom of a larger budgetary issue the city is facing.

“When you have public institutions that are not well-funded, and can’t function with the budget they’re provided by the government, they need to look for other sources of revenue. This is how we get a company like Amazon to have a presence in our public parks. It’s disheartening,” the alderwoman said. ...

Conclusion:

It looks like Amazon is only half the problem here, the other half being corrupt local government bureaucrats taking bribes from Amazon.

A company renting space from a city parks department is not a bribe.

I’m sure all the vendors and food trucks I see in our local parks paid a fee of some sort to be allowed to hawk there. Those fees weren’t bribes either.

There's always bribery involved. You're just not aware of it.

Fee, bribe, protection money, not much difference.

Sorry, but aside from an occasional guy pushing an ice cream cart, I do not normally see vendors at local parks in United States. I recall once I was solicited to buy firewood at a county park, but when those guys saw the park ranger coming they drove away. I cannot think of a single instance when I saw a bolted-down structure selling food or anything else in a park, or anything with commercial signs. Those belong on a regular street in a business district.

The closest I've seen to what you're describing is designated areas for food vendors at county fairs, food trucks at swap meets, and vending machines near the restrooms at highway rest areas.

Regardless of the "rent", I do not see how shipping lockers are appropriate for a park. Even the post office does not put mailboxes inside a park. And if this is OK for Amazon does that mean UPS, FedEx, AliBaba, and whoever else can join in??

Yes, this is what corruption looks like.

Here in Boston, the Swan Boats and Frog Pond skating operation rent space from the city of Boston. There are around a dozen food and push carts on the common and several semi-permanent structures offering various services. (These don’t appear to have a traditional foundation, but they also don’t look to have moved regularly.)

I’m surprised no parks near you have a similar program; perhaps there isn’t enough foot traffic to make it worthwhile?

In terms of whether the park department should make deals like these with other operations, if the citizens they ostensibly work for want them, then they should. The Swan Boats and Frog Pond are wildly popular and enjoy widespread public support here.

Running these lockers in the style of a food truck (or ala Amazon's own Treasure Trucks) seems like a good win win, avoid the permanent eyesore, upsell or cross promote things, bring a few jobs to the city ...

You probably had us until you jumped all the way to corrupt and bribes.

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