UBI is such a horrible idea it can be disproved a priori with deductive reasoning alone, but yes, little experiments like this should help illustrate the deficiencies.
the demand for a frree thing tends towards infinity and beyond
I bet it was tough to keep staffed too, no one who's making minimum wage wants to deal with ungrateful students and crazy homeless people. Hell I bet there were employees that would just pocket "suggested donations" because there really isn't a lot of accountability going around. If you do something like this there has to be controls, for example an offsetting fund (possibly one funded by patrons who can elect to pay more if they choose coupled with a set amount of acceptable "goodwill"). A ticketing system, daily limits, any of this could be sustainable (even if unpleasant).
You're right that a system without controls would definitely fail, but are there even examples of business models like this working when there are controls in place?
but are there even examples of business models like this working when there are controls in place?
Honestly I haven't done any research on this, I will say that did work with an organization previously that while a charity would have quotas on how many bus passes we could distribute to homeless/in need people, same with petty cash. Of course we weren't running a for profit business or serving food. Still could be an interesting economic experiment..
Hopefully, that little experiment will also be a signpost against universal basic income. People won't work if they don't have to.