site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1332 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 4, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Inspired by last month’s guest post and my own trip to Fort Worth this weekend: what does a land value tax do to parking?

In the long run, of course, it’s going to push for more productive developments than a flat slab of asphalt. I’m interested in the short run. Whoever owns the lot loses their subsidy, raises parking prices accordingly, and/or sells to someone with the capital for an improvement. A business which currently relies on the cheap lot down the street is not likely to enjoy that process. I suspect a lot of small American operations rely on such setups. Does this give them a reason to oppose LVT?

A "more productive" version of parking is multi-tiered parking garages. We would likely see prices for parking increase, and therefore the profitability of parking garages increase while the profitability of businesses relying on cheap parking decrease, on the margins. Which will annoy customers somewhat as parking will cost more, but the benefits of LVT will outweigh this. Oh no, you had to pay $500/yr more on parking garages but your income tax went down by $5000/yr. It's worth it if you're actually doing the math, even if it's psychologically unpleasant.

In addition to multi-tier parking garages- more rideshares or robotaxis, possibly more private busses, possibly increased demand for quality/consistency/enforced policing of antisocial behavior on public transport.
While it would not scale for every urban parking lot, some could be bought out by a group of nearby businesses for validated customer/employee parking. If the businesses only operate from 9-5, then from 7-midnight they could attempt to turn the lot into a drive-in theater, concert venue, food truck pavilion, or frankly a valet lot for a neighborhood 5-15 minutes walk away.

Where are you going in Ft Worth?

It was a family visit this previous weekend.

When we went to lunch, the restaurant had a sign warning not to use the neighboring lot, which apparently belonged to a couple other businesses. There was a garage under apartments across the street, but the entrance controls made me think it was only for the apartments. We ended up parking in a random free spot on the far side of that building. Easy enough, though I'd have been annoyed if the rain had picked up.

What made me curious was the juxtaposition of completely free and completely restricted parking options.

This sounds more like Fort Worth than any number of important landmarks.

Do go to the Kimbell though. They do provide free parking in the obvious spot(and a phenomenal collection of the Dutch masters).

Raising parking prices is not an option, you can't get as much from surface parking as the owner of the skyscraper next door gets from its tenants.

In the short term, these small operations will have to dedicate some parking spaces to its customers or rebuild the buildings into something that has parking downstairs and commercial space upstairs.

Even in smaller towns? There should be a marginal plot where the land is currently undervalued, but not by enough to justify a rebuild. Maybe those situations are rare?

I think there’s a coordination problem here where some businesses really benefit from subsidized parking. It’s still a distortion, but that’s the kind of distortion which breeds opposition to a reform.

I was thinking about downtown parking. If you have a parking lot right across the street from a building, their LVT should be practically identical.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats