Thursday 18 February 2010

It's Not Rocket Science: 101 Ways to to a Better Life

a single class on trains
a streets tsar
aircon on the tube
ban car deodorizers, pointe shoes, smacking, Xmas CDs, underpasses
bare-headed judges and barristers
flats on the street with shops on the ground floor and a well-lighted entrance opening directly onto the pavement
bridges across roads
bridges between tall buildings
build ladies loos with enough room for a bin
build two ladies’ for every gents’
bus windows that open
chewing-gum disposal bags
copy good house designs
cordless business phone with headset
cordless hairdryer
digital radio stations to broadcast pictures
dynamite most tower blocks and don’t build any more
giant fans at tube stations (what took them so long?)
give a prize to the best front garden per street
grow food on odd bits of land
houses and blocks of flats in streets instead of higgledy piggledy
houses, flats and shops on odd bits of land in council estates, facing the street (being done, not fast enough)
houses around a courtyard
houses on stilts for flood plains (with a flat roof in case you have to be rescued by helicopter)
houses or flats on hidden spaces in estates (garages, laundry rooms, drying grounds, coal bins) happening in Wandsworth and elsewhere but not fast enough
individual duvets
individual remotes (one for each family member)
individual televisions
Italian-style houses with a fortified ground floor used for car, workshop, bikes, buggies. Dustbins go in a cupboard sunk into the façade, and the living room is on the first floor.
legalise polygamy and give all parties equal rights
light pipes and wind catchers (available from Monodraught)
obvious, well-lighted entrance for railway stations
pop socks that reach the knee (what took them so long?)
private gardens for people on the ground floor of flat blocks (being done, needs to be done more)
retirement campus
studio flats that are one big room with separate bath/loo (no space wasted on corridors)
teach all school children to touch type, all students and all first-jobbers (if they haven’t learned already)
teach shorthand and touch typing to trainee journalists
touch-typing tutors on all computers
train seats aligned with windows
turn airline seats round so everyone is facing backwards
use children as viral health educators

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