Escaping Covid19 part1 - the high street
Blending Covid protection with residential, shops, office and commercial areas, such as bars, restaurants, cafes and local commerce, attracts people and makes the environment safer and friendlier. The high street is a major driver of the UK economy. How do we unlock it? That is what this essay is all about.
It is time to think radically and maybe-recast/advance the HM Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sports Heritage High Street Fund initiative.
The need to get the high street economy going is urgent and there are some things that can be implemented quickly under the present emergency legislation framework.
It is a critical need and needs big brains and dynamic capabilities to deliver fast (weeks, not months).
It is not the mega gallery and colour of the pedestrianisation, paving that most high streets need. They are nice-to-haves. It is a simple way to bring footfall for daily necessities, niche products and services, entertainment and professions.
It’s time to have some ideas. Here are a few from me.
A solution might be to mark out pavements at 2-metre intervals for ques to high street premises.
This is an idea that can be developed into a revenue-creating project by using the two-metre strips as Augmented Reality (AR) sources using mobile phones. These can be a combination of commercial and public service advertisements, entertainments and information about the town/street etc. Paid for advertisements will be a long term revenue source (perhaps a revenue stream to replace rates).
These facilities can also be used to offer on-street AR entertainments.
High Streets can also be a location for testing franchises in shops/pharmacists by charging a nominal fee to the public for Covid19 testing. Such centres can also be locations for automated/ semi-automated testing for more than Corona19, such as to spot early signs of, for example, stroke, kidney disease, heart disease, type 2 diabetes or dementia. Such tests, overseen by the NHS, can bring comfort to the paying public and can inform them and the NHS/GP’s of pending requirements.
Such activities need to be monitored (and the data collected to be made available in such a form that it can be fed into a central health database - unlike the mismatch and wide range of other health databases).
Public places can be re-designed to aid keeping people apart, protected behind screens or air barriers etc. Such innovators can open up a lot of establishments.
This also needs a dynamic push to be implemented in weeks not months.
Street cinema can be considered and we have seen virtual musicians each playing from home and part of a band. These concerts can be broadcast to big crowds, each in a square marked on the ground (see above) in high streets alongside other digital entertainments supported by food vendors and the like.
PPE for the public is completely possible. Inviting the nation’s leading fashion houses to create PPE fashion for the public is not impossible. A competition by the fashion industry is urgently needed for small high street fashion shops (manufactured in the UK? And only available outside the big shopping malls?). And, after PPE what about working from home? Is there a Lockdown hobby market day as an outlet for all those stichers, sewers and garden shed carpenters. Home sticking is massive. Why not harness it?
The idea of a child wearing PPE is a stretch of the imagination. But if it was disguised as a Darth Vader costume every 8-year-old boy would join the queue. Bat Woman will never be the same.
High Street ‘click and collect’ shops are needed and can be run as co-operatives or by volunteers. With landlords contributing towards premises and web capability for shops including smaller retailers that normally would not be able to run to such facilities. The High Street has to be used to bring higher footfall.
In the meantime, Starship robots are needed in a variety of rolls and would be entertainment in their own right. Every High street should have one - or a phalanx?
Looking up at all those offices, it would seem they need a bit of a brush-up and an incentive to be repurposed.
The big question is ‘who are the professionals’. Google has done a good job in taking the traditional legal and financial professional from the high street.
The AR designers are the new professionals. VR creators are with them too. The last few weeks has been a bonanza for early teens showing brothers and mums how to use Zoom. Online conferencing is big. Most organisations need such capability. Looking for these entrepreneurs and giving the opportunities to work in dynamic high streets is a major task. At present many of the new professionals have been forced onto out of town industrial estates. It is time to bring them back to the high street.
Now it's time for all of us to add ideas.
Unlocking the High Street.
There are many projects under consideration for reviving the high street.It is time to think radically and maybe-recast/advance the HM Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sports Heritage High Street Fund initiative.
The need to get the high street economy going is urgent and there are some things that can be implemented quickly under the present emergency legislation framework.
It is a critical need and needs big brains and dynamic capabilities to deliver fast (weeks, not months).
It is not the mega gallery and colour of the pedestrianisation, paving that most high streets need. They are nice-to-haves. It is a simple way to bring footfall for daily necessities, niche products and services, entertainment and professions.
It’s time to have some ideas. Here are a few from me.
Marking out the High Street
The personal distancing project has been very successful and is working well in most supermarkets. Expanding this idea to small high streets would seem to be a challenge. But it is not and could be a local authority money-spinner.A solution might be to mark out pavements at 2-metre intervals for ques to high street premises.
This is an idea that can be developed into a revenue-creating project by using the two-metre strips as Augmented Reality (AR) sources using mobile phones. These can be a combination of commercial and public service advertisements, entertainments and information about the town/street etc. Paid for advertisements will be a long term revenue source (perhaps a revenue stream to replace rates).
These facilities can also be used to offer on-street AR entertainments.
High Street C+ checks
It is possible to check the temperature of people passing down the high street and/or entering shops. If these people show a rise in temperature, they can be offered on-the-spot tests and invited to return home and self isolate until the results arrive.High Streets can also be a location for testing franchises in shops/pharmacists by charging a nominal fee to the public for Covid19 testing. Such centres can also be locations for automated/ semi-automated testing for more than Corona19, such as to spot early signs of, for example, stroke, kidney disease, heart disease, type 2 diabetes or dementia. Such tests, overseen by the NHS, can bring comfort to the paying public and can inform them and the NHS/GP’s of pending requirements.
Such activities need to be monitored (and the data collected to be made available in such a form that it can be fed into a central health database - unlike the mismatch and wide range of other health databases).
Entertainment
The need to bring the nation’s architects, interior designers and furniture manufacturers and sector representatives together to help design and reconfigure Pubs, cafe’s, libraries and (Virtual Reality) museums.Public places can be re-designed to aid keeping people apart, protected behind screens or air barriers etc. Such innovators can open up a lot of establishments.
This also needs a dynamic push to be implemented in weeks not months.
Street cinema can be considered and we have seen virtual musicians each playing from home and part of a band. These concerts can be broadcast to big crowds, each in a square marked on the ground (see above) in high streets alongside other digital entertainments supported by food vendors and the like.
Bring Back Fashion
PPE for the public is completely possible. Inviting the nation’s leading fashion houses to create PPE fashion for the public is not impossible. A competition by the fashion industry is urgently needed for small high street fashion shops (manufactured in the UK? And only available outside the big shopping malls?). And, after PPE what about working from home? Is there a Lockdown hobby market day as an outlet for all those stichers, sewers and garden shed carpenters. Home sticking is massive. Why not harness it?
The idea of a child wearing PPE is a stretch of the imagination. But if it was disguised as a Darth Vader costume every 8-year-old boy would join the queue. Bat Woman will never be the same.
High Street Click and Collect
High Street ‘click and collect’ shops are needed and can be run as co-operatives or by volunteers. With landlords contributing towards premises and web capability for shops including smaller retailers that normally would not be able to run to such facilities. The High Street has to be used to bring higher footfall.
In the meantime, Starship robots are needed in a variety of rolls and would be entertainment in their own right. Every High street should have one - or a phalanx?
Bring back the professionals
Looking up at all those offices, it would seem they need a bit of a brush-up and an incentive to be repurposed.
The big question is ‘who are the professionals’. Google has done a good job in taking the traditional legal and financial professional from the high street.
The AR designers are the new professionals. VR creators are with them too. The last few weeks has been a bonanza for early teens showing brothers and mums how to use Zoom. Online conferencing is big. Most organisations need such capability. Looking for these entrepreneurs and giving the opportunities to work in dynamic high streets is a major task. At present many of the new professionals have been forced onto out of town industrial estates. It is time to bring them back to the high street.
Now it's time for all of us to add ideas.
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