So what are the opponents going to do next? Terrorize the people (visitors/tourists) who rent them?

This seems like good progress, it puts people on bikes and not in cars. I see nothing that is visual blight. I do sense local businesses who rent bikes feeling the heat.

Schlep Rox - how can it be a threat to local rentals AND be too expensive?

I get the idea that the kiosk doesn't need to be in the boardwalk - move it one block off (although they then take up parking).

I'm totally against protecting any incumbent bike rental outfits from this different business model. Deco lets you ride from station to station, without a need to return to your starting point. Besides, competition is a normal part of running a business - adapt or die.

Mexico City’s Ecobici system for public bike rentals is fantastic. You can rent a bike and ride along to museums, restaurants, sightseeing, and turn in the bike without having to ride all the way back to where you rented it. This business model works and it encourages people to ride bikes a leave the cars at home.

The agreement, May 7, 2013, between City and Deco Bike LLC is in the following link: http://docs.sandiego.gov/councilcomm_agendas_attach/2013/LUH_130619_6.pdf

On page 13, the financial agreement is detailed. It's very hard to find out much about Deco Bike's finances, but I suspect they are not doing well. Deco Bike has struggled financially in the Miami area over the past few years. They charge more than any of the other bike-sharing companies, per the Boston Globe: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/04/17/hubway-boston-bike-share-program-returns-amid-growing-popularity/aPRJewaHIYkgWex79IAvSI/story.html

Deco Bike's contract with Long Beach, New York, was terminated and the city gave the contract to Social Bicycles (SoBi): http://liherald.com/stories/Social-Bicycles-launch-in-Long-Beach,66920?page=1&content_source=

Ponzi: What is of interest here is the completely untransparent nature of the San Diego government and Deco Bike's interactions with the neighborhood residents/business people.

For starters, there was no RFP. Deco Bike got a deal with San Diego's Department of Corporate Partnership (Natasha Collura, Director of Strategic Partnerships). There was no community input, and the City revealed in the Council Exec Summary that marketing of the agreement would occur only after the partnership was made.

San Diego's Natasha Collura is quoted in "Inside the Evolving World of Marketing," which states that

While public/private partnerships can be mutually beneficial, municipalities face several significant hurdles in getting programs up and running. Those include the following:

Gaining buy-in from government officials and the public
A Reluctance by marketers to use the RFP bidding process
The lack of dedicated staff to manage relationships

San Diego side-stepped one of these problems, by not bothering to get any buy-in from the public prior to inking an agreement. The problem in Long Beach, NY, appears related to the son-in-law of Long Beach's Assistant Corporation Counsel Noreen Costello. He is Liam Murphy, founder and CEO of Real Change Productions, a marketing firm that has Deco Bike as a client. There was an investigation, but the City Manager said neither Murphy nor Costello would benefit (really?), so it was OK. Well, it didn't turn out OK, evidently. A Long Beach blog, http://www.seabythecity.com, has various stories about Deco Bike's failure, claiming that the company lost a lot of money there before the City terminated the deal.

I'd love to know who in Deco Bike knew whom, in San Diego government. The founders of Deco Bike have a few instances of shaky financial histories in Miami.