Mallville - the town of the future.

OK, it's COLD outside (17 degrees F with 30 mph winds). Don't get me wrong, I like living in New England. But it can get cold. So I got to thinking - Why not have a residential component to the traditional shopping mall? Simply replace some of the stores with condos and apartments. Take a closer look at the picture - I just  drew this up quickly to help visualize what it might look like. As you can see, you really only need to go outside once in a while or when you really want to. There are opportunities for shopping, social interaction, recreation, church, even a park to sit in the sun - all within a climate-controlled space. It's sort of like putting a roof over a couple of blocks of a city. I don't know why no-one has thought of it before! BTW, the idea of a church in a mall is not original. The North Shore Mall, in Peabody, MA has a Catholic church in the basement level. At the time it was built, it was an open mall (the center was not enclosed), and I guess the designers envisioned it as the new town square, complete with church. Maybe it's time to bring the church back to the mall - and maybe more aspects to life than just shopping.

The "New" Morning News

If you are anything like me, you probably turn on the morning television news while you are waking up with your morning cup of coffee. I usually only watch for less than 1/2 hour, but I am struck by how much of the time is spent on commercials and teasers (tantalizing pieces of news stories designed to get you to keep watching after the commercial). There is also a lot of repeated information such as weather and traffic.
I got to thinking, what I see everyday is old school television. What if it looked more like the internet. Here's what I propose: Drop the news anchor into a box in the corner; have continuous weather, sports ticker, traffic ticker, etc. There can always be a commercial running. The image above is what it might look like. More news, weather or traffic at a glance, continuous advertising .. what's not to like. You can watch for five minutes, and still the advertisers would get you to see their ads. Very efficient. Very helpful. Morning news MY way.

Post Office Ideas

So, I see in the news that the Post Office is losing money big-time. Regular readers know I have no lack of ideas. So here goes ... As I was driving to work today, it struck me that the Post Office (USPS) should run more like a business. Let me explain. There are currently two main ways to get your mail: 1) home delivery, and 2) post office box. I would think that home delivery costs more, since you need a vehicle to drive all around town. It's also more convenient. In most business plans, if something is more expensive to do, or easier for the consumer you charge more. The USPS does just the opposite. They deliver to your home for free, but charge you to go and pick it up. Here's my idea: flip the pricing scheme. Charge a "Home Delivery Surcharge" and provide a post office box free to anyone who wants it. This way, since it costs them more, they charge more. Yes, I realize this might mean expanding the post office building, but you can get rid of some mail trucks. They could also provide a senior citizen waiver of the surcharge if requested.
Oh, and btw, it's fine with me if they want to drop Saturday delivery.

Trash Robots

It's funny how ideas come to you. I was walking down the hall at work one day, and I suddenly had an image of trash robots. Instead of "dumb" waste baskets, they would be little simple robots - whose only function was to travel (at a pre-set time) to a place in the building where they could be emptied (either by a person or another mechanism) - then they would travel back to where they came from. It would look like the sorcerers apprentice: suddenly, all the waste baskets would start filing out of the offices and rolling down the hall to the dumpster. That's what I imaged one day.

Suburban People Movers

When you live in the suburbs, being green when it comes to transportation is more of a challenge than in the city, where mass transit systems have existed for years. So I was thinking, what might a system look like in the suburbs? There may not be enough volume to keep a regular schedule of trains. Buses are unsightly and need drivers. So what if you had something that was a cross between a horizontal elevator and a monorail? I like monorails because 1) some say they are cheaper than trains; 2) they look cool and modern; 3) elevating them isn't too hard or unsightly. Here's what it could look like. You have a circuit that goes from the densest population areas, such as apartment complexes or small-lot neighborhoods, to the business and municipal areas of town (library, town offices, senior center). But there is no regular schedule. Instead, when you need to go somewhere, you press a "call" button to summon the car. It may or may not have others on it, going in the same direction. It may take a few minutes, but you have to wait for the next subway train - it's just what you do with mass transit. If it's a light day, the car may even be waiting for you when you want to go home. You could have a pass - an electronic card with your account on it - for payment. The car could hold maybe 8-10 people. The whole thing would run without a driver. (Hence the elevated part - although you'd probably still need some sort of collision avoidance system, in case someone got up onto the rail.)
This way, you could travel around without a car in the suburbs - a least some of the time.