On Tuesday night I attended the Haystack “launch” party in which founder and CEO Eric Meyer formally introduced his parking app solution to Boston. The quotations around the word launch are courtesy of Mayor Marty Walsh whose administration is none too pleased that Haystack opted for Boston after finding success in Baltimore.

Given the attention Meyer and Haystack have been subjected to in the local media as of late, I was given just 10 minutes to speak with him about parking in Boston and what, perhaps, people and City Hall aren’t getting about the app.

“Nothing wrong with a little controversy but, you know, there’s really nothing controversial about a simple parking solution that finally helps solve a major problem where there’s been no solution,” Meyer told me. “And that’s what Haystack does.”

In theory, Haystack is a windfall for those Bostonians who own a car but not a private parking space. The app allows users – or Haystackers and neighbors, as Meyer amiably referred to them – to find a parking spot in which the person occupying it is about to leave, so people no longer have to frustratingly circle the block scouring for one. For an affordable price, claims Haystack, a Haystacker can zero in on a street parking space in real-time.

“We have so many people, thousands, who have already downloaded Haystack,” continued Meyer. “That speaks for itself. We have many neighbors who heard about Haystack in Baltimore and said ‘if there’s one city you need to come to next it’s Boston, please come free us from parking Hell.’ That’s what we intend to do, that’s what we are going to do.”

Well that’s a noble intention for sure, Eric. Until Mayor Walsh makes good on his promise to “take appropriate measures to prohibit any such app,” that is.

Haystack doesn’t artificially inflate cost of parking. If someone offers a spot, finds a spot, then it’s essentially a neutral transaction.

It’s an interesting stance by Mayor Walsh, whose commitment to next-generation technologies and the innovation community has been abundantly apparent in his short-lived tenure at the helm of The Hub. In fact, it’s the exact exact opposite position of Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who Meyer told me actually attended Haystack’s Baltimore launch party.

Even former Boston City Councilor Mike Ross, who vied against Mayor Walsh to succeed then-incumbent Mayor Tom Menino last fall, has come out in support of Haystack, saying he doesn’t get what the problem is. Imagine if he had beaten out Mayor Walsh?

Mayor Walsh’s threat to take action is based on the belief that “services like Haystack… artificially inflate the cost of parking and allow individuals to profit from public space.” People in the Twittersphere have also voiced concerns about the possibility of scalpers.

Imagine, for example, having only the dreadful option of driving into Boston to catch a Red Sox game – the tickets of which just fell into your lap by some gracious twist of fate; it goes without saying that parking in the Fenway area is going to be a bitch, but people who use Haystack could gather in droves, occupy numerous street parking spots and sell them for profit.

No such occurrence has happened in Baltimore, Meyer told me, and he doesn’t foresee it ever happening.

“The good thing about Haystack is that we can deter that and that’s against our terms of service, it’s against what we stand for, it’s against our mission,” added Meyer. “If a user is flagged for doing certain behavior, if it’s a consistent behavior or someone attempting to scalp a spot or something of that nature – which we haven’t seen in Baltimore, but if someone here tried to do that – we have the ability to simply remove them from our community.”

Naturally, I poked around Haystack’s privacy policy and terms of service to see if Meyer and company truly possess this ability to police fraudulent abuse of the app.

According to Haystack’s privacy policy, by downloading the app the company can track usage details “including traffic data, location data, logs and other communication data” as well as location information that may help to identify any exploitation.

Likewise, the terms of service state that by downloading the app, the user agrees, among other things:

• not to obstruct traffic or impede anyone from parking in a valid space;
• not to reserve or attempt to reserve a parking space, or prevent any vehicle from parking on a public street through your presence in the roadway, the use of hand-signals, or by placing any box, can, crate, handcart, dolly, or any other device, including, without limitation, unauthorized pavement curb or street markings or signs in the roadway;
• not to threaten, deter, or intimidate any other person in order to prevent them from access or using a parking space;

Should Haystack realize, therefore, that people are using the app for more than just actually finding a coveted parking space, they’ll get booted from usage.

As for City Hall’s claim that Haystack artificially inflates, well, Meyer had a rebuttal for that too.

“Haystack doesn’t artificially inflate cost of parking. If someone offers a spot, finds a spot, then it’s essentially a neutral transaction. It’s cheaper than a meter, much cheaper than a garage, so that’s not true.”

In actuality, that’s too good to be true – I’ll explain.

Let’s go back to the Red Sox game scenario. With an increased demand for parking, Haystack’s financial terms say the cost of a parking space is determined by the market rate – think Uber’s surge pricing. For the Make-Me-Move feature, for which a user who isn’t planning on leaving their parking space can turn around and offer it up for an extended period of time, “the User making the offer is responsible for setting the price and the Company has no control over it.”

So while you’re engaging with the Haystack app just before the first pitch is thrown out, the cost of a space could far exceed the seemingly affordable $3 fee.

Despite having two “constructive” meetings at City Hall, Mayor Walsh is not on board. And given the fact that Haystack could actually bump the price for a street space up past those of meters and garages, it’s quite likely that Mayor Walsh will put his money where his mouth is and take the steps necessary to run Haystack out of town or, at the very least, get Meyer to adapt his financial terms.

Featured image via Haystack Facebook; second image via Haystack