Share this! Sarasota and the sharing economy

Last month, Jessie Biter made headlines by proposing workforce housing downtown. One aspect of his plan for affordability is a car share program for tenants, which would lower the expenses of owning a car. Undoubtedly this suggestion left many small-town folk scratching their heads.

But the sharing economy and collaborative consumption are on the rise. The Economist featured the sharing economy on its March 11, 2012 cover. Of course the sharing economy is not a new invention (think libraries), but technology has enabled complete strangers to share cars, bikes, rooms, tools and practically anything else that could be loaned out. So how can Sarasota get in on this trend?

Cars – Fewer cars means less traffic, so car and ride sharing would definitely provide welcome relief to drivers. There are a couple of different models. As the car rental business has evolved, companies such as ZipCar provide cars in prime sharing locations. A member goes online, chooses a car and time slot, and uses a keycard to unlock the car and go. This model requires a user to return the car to the same spot, but car2go lets users pick up and park the car anywhere in a designated district. Users tap into a smartphone app to find and reserve the closest car. This company is one to watch because they prepay cities for curb space, even if there is a meter (the company paid D.C. close to three quarters of a million dollars for real estate, so don't get rid of the meters yet). RelayRides allows car owners to rent out their own vehicles, further reducing the infrastructure needed for car sharing. As of this article's date, the closest ride is in Bradenton.

Rides – Like rental cars, carpooling is tapping into technology to hook up drivers and riders. Craigslist, erideshare and Pickuppal are options in Sarasota. Zimride is a private ridesharing network for the colleges (the University of South Florida has a network). Bikes – Bike sharing has turned out to be a crazy popular win for cities. The craze started in Paris with Velib and is now used in cities such as Washington, D.C. and Miami. Miami Beach's gorgeous DecoBike is growing like crazy.

Rooms and Houses – Hotels are scared of this one. Sites such as airbnb and VRBO (Vacation Rentals by Owner) are using scheduling and payment technology to link vacationers to available houses and rooms. Both these sites have listings in Sarasota.

Stuff – Craiglist devotes some of its site to shared goods, but new sites such as Snapgoods and NeighborGoods are coming on the scene for using tools and equipment.

Ideas – Sarasota has an active presence on MeetUp, with groups meeting to kayak, eat and garden. There is even a MeetUp for tall people in Sarasota. The best idea sharing site on bigger projects and programs in the community is Mind Mixer. Several communities nearby are using it for transportation and vision plans. We could totally use Mind Mixer in Sarasota for gathering input on 2050 and the city's rewrite of the zoning code.

Aggregators – It was only a matter of time before new sites were needed to rein in the sprawling world of sharing websites. Mesh is a directory of global sites facilitating finance, food, mobility and tech. Uniiverse seeks to list the entire list of shareables. Shareable is part directory, part news site.

Of course the sharing economy relies on a couple of things, notably trust. To a certain extent, these sites devote a lot of resources to pre-screening. They tend to also work better where people are closer together, so downtown Sarasota will likely be a better candidate for car sharing than Myakka.

These new sites are also posing a lot of angst for cities and states that rely on tourism-related taxes on rental cars and hotels. Ontario, Canada banned Relay Rides at the behest of bus companies looking to eliminate competition with tough talk on licensing requirements. Cities all across the nation are trying to figure out how to collect bed taxes from new housing (and sofa) sharing sites. San Francisco decided to join rather than fight, realizing the city was home to many of the sites (and their commerce) in the sharing economy.

Tell us what sites you've seen---or started---that will help share food, goods, services and things for tall people.