Boston Trying Out Solar-Powered "Smart Benches" In Parks

An anonymous reader writes Through a partnership with a MIT Media Lab spinoff, Changing Environments, Boston has announced that it will install solar-powered benches in several of its parks that allow you to charge your cell phone. The bench has a USB outlet, and also collects and shares a wide range of data, including location-based information, as well as air quality and noise-levels. "Your cell phone doesn't just make phone calls, why should our benches just be seats?" said Mayor Martin J. Walsh. "We are fortunate to have talented entrepreneurs and makers in Boston thinking creatively about sustainability and the next generation of amenities for our residents."

Comments

Interesting...

[djupedal]

Boston apparently has no potholes that need to be repaired and they have surplus transit money to spend on curbside campsites....other cities can learn.

Re:Cities looking for bench obstacles

[smooth wombat]

Except rather than expend the time and energy to get a job, these folks spend the time and energy to find ways to thwart these devices.

Someone who lived out there told me in Seattle they have/had benches with seat dividers of different heights so the homeless can't just slap a board on top and go to sleep. These folks who don't want to exert too much effort at a job found the time, energy and resources to fashion blocks which will make the benches level.

Apparently leeching off others is preferable to using the same energy to find work.