"Isolated individuals, triggered by algorithms, silently ordering bland
foods delivered to them from
parking lots that have been refashioned
into surveillance hubs—for the ultimate benefit of Saudi
and Emirati
sovereign wealth funds. And the Travis Kalanicks of the world."
From Popula, November 18:Hell’s Kitchens
The absurdities of our global economic system had arrived, via mysteriously luxurious Trojan food cart, in my neighborhood.
As a single mid-30s man severely lacking in domestic skills I rely on my local food carts to provide me with a semblance of home cooking. Within a five-minute walk from my front door there’s a parking lot oasis—one square block stocked with 21 different semi-permanent little takeout restaurants: fast Mexican, Indian, Thai, Ghanaian, Korean and Middle Eastern, generally known as the “PSU food carts,” owing to their proximity to Portland State University. The majority of these places are family owned and run, literal mom-and-pop businesses. The carts (really, more like small shacks than carts) are the heir to the thermopolia, a ubiquitous fixture of Roman life. A small stand offering ready-prepared foods, providing convenience to city dwellers.
Recently a new and radically different kind of cart appeared in my local lot. It was built out luxuriously, with high-quality infrastructure: dedicated power lines and sewage, a private port-a-potty. An inside wall bore a neat row of little android tablets. Most intriguingly, the cart lacked any signage whatsoever, or any indication of what kind of food would be served.
There was only one person inside. I asked her what was on the menu. She explained to me that they would take no orders in person; this cart’s menu was only available through delivery apps. That is, the food cooked here could only be ordered via app. Hmm.
courtesy of the author
By the week’s end, signage had appeared, a big blue arrow stating, “Food Pick Up For Delivery Only” with a sandwich board listing the names and logos of six different restaurants: “American Eclectic Burger” in a refined font, promising sophisticated fare in comparison with its slacker cousin, “Burger Bytes”, rendered in an 8-bit logo. “Red Corn Taqueria” promised Mexican-esque food, their logo a bizarre and faceless approximation of Emiliano Zapata. And finally, a strange blue spiral, with an interior of closely compacted dots swirling outward to a sketchy outer arm, the visual approximation of a “widening gyre.”
The next day a new sign appeared, promising pick-up for Rachel Ray’s menu; Ray recently made a deal with UberEats. This odd little cart was mysteriously and disquietingly associated with all of these businesses. Who was behind all this? What was this business model?
When I asked inside I was told it was a parking lot company, the biggest in America. And they gave me a name, “REEF Technology,” to go with the widening-gyre logo. After a few minutes’ research I felt ill, a free-floating unease, almost nausea. The absurdities of our global economic system had arrived, via mysteriously luxurious Trojan food cart, in my neighborhood.
Screenshot: reeftechnology.com
REEF Technology already owns “a growing network of 4,500 parking lots in the top 25 markets across North America.” Hidden in the pablum of their About Us pitch, the company promises innovative and profound changes to the neighborhood parking lot. They intend to transform parking facilities into “ecosystems that connect to the goods and services that keep us moving forward in a sustainable and thoughtful way.”
Aside from the obvious objection—the only way to “transform” the parking lot into a genuine ecosystem would be to remove the asphalt and let nature take its course—it appears that a core element of their business model is spying or, more in the modern phrase, “surveillance capitalism.”
REEF boasts of its ability to gather data using tools like automated License Plate Recognition in hope of providing “invaluable consumer data for landlords to optimize property value.”.....MUCH MORE
Theirs is a vision of parking lots full of scooter docks, autonomous vehicle charging stations, gleaming rows of trailer-sized “cloud kitchens” like the new one near me, where faceless contract workers cook food ordered via app, with swarms of delivery drivers (and someday, drones), in a space defined by constantly recording cameras performing endless facial and license plate recognition, crammed with packet sniffers pinging smartphones. A hub of surveillance, propped up by limitless amounts of venture capital, in the service of “neighborhood transformation.” No kidding.
REEF Technology is also part of SoftBank.....
