My megaproject ideas are mostly pretty standard. I'd build a high speed rail network across North America, and build and expand metro and regional rail systems in and around every city. I'd turn all cities and suburbs into fifteen-minute cities. I'd decommodify housing, and build ten million units of public/social/non-market housing, mostly three bedroom units. I'd link those last three policies together by building TODs around the new Metro and rail stops. And I'd build bicycle networks in every town and city and connect them to the TODs. I'd build bridges and walkways across skyscrapers. I'd put a bidet in every American toilet (uses less water than toilet paper apart from being more comfortable). Fiber internet in every home. A heat pump in every home. An induction stove in every kitchen. Phase out fossil fuels and power everything with Pumped Storage Hydropower and Geothermal. I'd make the US go Metric.

But my truly crazy, obsessive idea would be to bring back the French Revolutionary calendar. Or I'd purge all French influences from English.

  • glans [it/its]
    ·
    11 months ago

    Community cafeterias. 1 caf per x (tbd) population.

    • informed by national-level dietary guidelines
    • very receptive to local neighborhood dietary preferences and encouraged to develop specialties
    • worker controlled
    • kitchen teams could swap/guest in other neighborhoods to mix things up
    • you can go to cafs in other neighborhoods but there would probably be some system to anticipate demand to avoid over/under prepping (like you have a home caf but you can make reservation at another one?)

    You can eat there or get take out.

    Benefits:

    • less food waste
    • don't have to waste time shopping, chopping, cooking and cleaning when you don't want to
    • will not have insane "chef" centered kitchen cultures, unless everyone working there votes in favour of this for some reason