Swaptree

I have a new online best friend: swaptree. I have been using this gem for several months to trade DVDs, books, video games, and music that we no longer want for items that we do want. It's simple to get started, even simpler to start trading, and swaptree uses an algorithm to figure out that you can send an item to Person A, they send an item to Person B, and Person B sends an item you'd like, to you. You have the option to print a shipping label right from the site once a trade has been accepted by all parties, or you can take care of the shipping on your own. If you ship through the site, they track it and charge your credit card once for all shipments made in a month, making it a simple and seamless experience.

Like most social sites, you can rate other members you have traded with and there are groups you can join if you're looking for specific things or have similar interests. But when recently adding some DVDs and Wii games to our "have" list, I found a couple neat features. Swaptree will note high end items like DVDs and video games so that other members can only initiate the trade with an item of comparable value. You have the option to initiate the trade of your high end item for a low end item, so "mixed value" trades are not off limits, swaptree just tries to keep things fair. You can also add things from your Amazon wish list to your swaptree want list or be notified that you can get something for free by swapping while browsing through the following sites:

• Amazon.com
• BarnesandNoble.com
• Half.com
• Alibris.com
  
• booksamillion.com
• abebooks.com
• buy.com
• Powells.com

They also have the obligatory Facebook hook along with some other cool ways of updating your want list from existing lists or sites en mass. I find the interface cleaner than Craigslist, and I like that I can get rid of media I no longer want and receive things I've been waiting for by using good old fashioned trading to help decrease manufacturing more of the same and landfill waste.

So if you're looking to clear out some media that you don't need or want anymore, but would like something in return, give swaptree a try and enjoy the ease of swapping across the US (other countries to be added soon).

[image from swaptree.com]

Chance to Start Again

Cedar Rapids, IA, where I live, has currently been hit hard with unprecedented flooding. Fortunately, my house has not been affected. My company's office building, however, has had an estimated 5' of water on the ground floor in its downtown location. Our local and national news has been showing many pictures of the downtown Cedar Rapids area and it is an understatement to say that the downtown has a massive clean up ahead.

With this tragedy is the opportunity for a glorious rebirth. Our city officials have been making plans to improve the downtown area anyway, and now we have been offered the option to show how we can come back and improve upon what the downtown once was. Starting July 1st I will be a member of the Corridor MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization), and I hope to post some ideas I have that are more specific to that, but right now I wanted to highlight the importance of the Cedar Rapids Downtown Rebirth, CRDR, I just made that up, but it kind of has a nice ring to it.

1. The city should continue with plans for revitalizing the downtown, with the one addition of protecting the area so individuals and businesses will stay and more will come. Dubuque built a wall along the Mississippi and it definitely saved them this time (and it's gorgeous). We may never know how high is high enough, but I would vote that using this year as a reference point would be a safe bet.
   
2. Encourage businesses to stay downtown. I have several selfish reasons for this, but a lot of them are reasons that the others in the city have too. I love riding the bus or biking to work. I love that restaurants are starting to succeed and stay downtown so I can walk to lunch. I love that the YMCA is right down the street. If my company moves to a non-downtown location, I see that as losing a huge benefit of working there.
3. The location makes the city cohesive. If we lose our downtown, then the center of the city dies and we lose the connections between the sides of town.
4. The downtown is home to people and many businesses. If they leave then it could be hard to retain them in the community in general. This may be a reason for some to move out and start fresh somewhere else like several of the Katrina victims tried to do when they moved to CR.

These are only some of the reasons that I have thought of and discussed while watching the news. Many of these stem from my personal stake in the issue, so other views are welcome. I don't have the high power to make everything happen, but that hasn't stopped me from trying before. Our downtown does affect our city as a whole and I want to see our city improve its status to become the best that it really can be.