Ooops, this didn’t get posted this morning! Sorry about that. But here now….
So, here are a few ideas for a Monday. Any others you want to share? I think we should start a thing, and tell people about our (or others’) good ideas and see how we can get them working IRL! (And by the way, this will be our fun theme for the live call in a couple of weeks! Paid subscribers, look out for an email about this later).
A good idea or five to kick us off:
Supermarkets.
It seems like we’re stuck with the big box supermarket, and so I was sitting at my table over breakfast one morning (eating stuff I bought from a supermarket), wondering how to make the whole thing better.
First idea: Supermarkets should be forced to cover a certain percentage of the parking area with tree shade.
Not only would this be nicer for shoppers of course, and I can’t help but think the supermarket would benefit (all other things being approximately equal, I would totally choose a supermarket with a nice shady parking lot over one without), but also a hot parking lot contributes to a hot city. The ‘urban heat island’ effect can add as much as 1-7 F higher during the day, compared to surrounding areas, and 2-5 F at night. Urban trees are an excellent (and easy) way to reduce that difference.
This would take cities and counties imposing development rules for stores with parking lots larger than a certain size, and perhaps specific zoning changes. I don’t think it would be too tricky to develop and pass those rules. In fact, cities and college campuses are already doing this. See for example this pdf from Greensboro NC.
Although, I will say that the trees I’ve often seen in parking lots tend to be tall and skinny (not great for shade), and don’t have nearly enough bare ground around the trunk to allow water percolation and good root growth. So I was doodling my own ideal parking lot, and I think a tree every 20 back-to-back spaces with at least a width of a space and a half for the tree to sit in, would be a decent start:
I mean, how easy a change would this be for most towns and cities?!
Second idea: With one or two sections of trees in the parking lot, make a natively-planted ‘pocket park’. This can literally be the size of a few parking spaces, but would include trees, shrubs, a few benches, maybe a bird bath. It would increase pollen for bees and a little resting spot for birds AND people - shoppers and employees. If I had to eat on the run, I would much rather run into a supermarket and get a pre-made sandwich and sit in a pocket park rather than get a drive-through burger and sit in my hot car in a fast food place. Plus, you could hang out in this pocket park while….
Third idea: you charge your car.
This is not a new idea of course - lots of supermarkets and big box stores are adding EV charging spots. Some of them have been free, to lure you into the store, but soon it won’t be unusual to have charging stations in most parking areas, so it won’t be as much of a competitive advantage and most stores will charge for their use. So if the store is already making a little money from the charging, add a little kiosk outside so people can buy lunch without having to fight the lines in the store and let people eat in a pocket park.
(Side note - What about a charging option for RVs too? Just a 30 minute top up for the battery if you’re moving between sites without electricity…)
Idea 3a: Place lots of solar panels in walkways into the store, so that the solar replenishes the EV chargers at least during a sunny day (and provides more shade!) It’s hard to put enough panels to fully fuel the chargers when they’re in use, but it will offset at least a portion of the electricity used. Also, of course, supermarkets need more panels on the roof….I feel like this goes without saying.
Fourth idea: Dog walking services.
I am almost always about 30-60 minutes in the store. What if I could take my dog with me to the store and pay extra for someone to walk my dog around a nice shady, park-like parking lot while I get my groceries? I don’t have to leave my dog in the car or at home, the dog gets a walk (not on hot asphalt, because it’s shaded) while I’m doing something else, and this is a job that lots of different people can do. And if you ‘host’ this service at a busy store, there should be a steady stream of takers. I’m especially thinking of those really big box-store ‘malls’, where it would take you a good 20 minutes to walk around the entire perimeter of the parking area between Target, and Petsmart, and Best Buy, and Kohls etc etc. You could pay by the 5-minute increment or something after the first 20 mins.
I think if the parking lot were nice enough, I would literally be willing to DO this job for an afternoon or two a week! PLUS, if there were an actual walking trail around the parking lot, you could take a walk yourself!
By the way, when we’re on a travel day in our little teardrop camper, and need a stop for lunch, ALL of the above ideas would be great! We can eat, park, get groceries, get the dog walked, and possibly even charge up.
Fifth idea: car washing
Also not a new idea - it happens in Europe quite a bit. A few people with a fairly sophisticated car-washing cart set themselves up at the end of a row, and before you go into the store, you pay them for a hand-wash and dry while you shop.
So, if we have to shop in these large places, why not include features that make our lives and our cities more sustainable, healthier, more pleasant, and even more convenient than we imagined big box stores in the first place!
Becky is right... I remember hearing about this when working with storm water management as part of a project some years ago. Would be interesting to explore how to make this work while implementing some of these ideas.
I think the multi-layered benefit of most of these is just brilliant. I would go out if my way to shop (and eat, and recharge) at such a place.
The problem here is that almost all pavement is not permeable. So water (and air) do not flow through it and the plants in the parking lot often look somewhat less than thrilled to be there. Landscapers choose small plants in hopes they will survive. Permeable pavement is expensive and I'm not sure how successful it is. Perhaps someone else here knows? Even the compression of having trees drive on the roots all day would not exactly be healthy.