With medium- and big-box stores shutting their doors all over the country
(see: http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/1549783.html?mi_rss=Business), I had some ideas for what to do with all that empty floor-space:
- homeless shelters
- employ the unemployed to tear them down and return that land to arable farm-land and community gardens
- convert them into schools
- free day care centers
- community co-op style fitness centers with Wii, Dance Dance Revolution, and good old jump-ropes! Employ a few local teens to provide DJ services.
That's just a start - anyone else have any bright ideas?
Alex
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
As I was graduating from college, I had similar insight (of course, this was decades ago!!) I hate seeing vacant buildings of any sort and I think combining all of your ideas into a homeless shelter with educational classes, job training (in the form of a resale shop staffed by tenants plus classes by volunteers on resume writing and interviewing, etc), computer center, gym, preschool/day care center (staffed by degreed teachers but assisted by tenants), food and clothing coop (again, staffed my tenants), psychological testing and counseling...and so much more. After "graduating" from the center (by getting a solid job and saving money), they could move into another building, formerly empty (I picture a charming old warehouse) that they have helped to rehab into apartments. Less government handout, more self-sufficiency. Isn't that what we all crave?! Imagine!!!
I love your ideas! Especially wii and dance dance revolution. Maybe the roofs could be vegetated and grow food while employing the unemployed- the building would eventually find another use, saving all the waste from a land fill, and perhaps preventing the construction of a new building elsewhere. Lofty ideas, but they'd make the world a better place, so why not. :)
Post a Comment