I just came back from taking a walk through town, and it struck me when I took my walk that this town – with a few reasonable changes – could be so beautiful. Right now, it’s full of narrow, winding streets without any particular order to it. The main street through town is also narrow and winding, and there’s a speed limit of 30 km/h imposed on it (~20 mph).

What follows is my proposed changes to Skärhamn. There’ll have to be some changes, some widening of the streets. Most of this won’t fit into the existing town structure, so we probably have to BLAST A FEW OLD SCRUFFY HOMES WITH DYNAMITE! BOOM!! BOOM!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!

The blast map below indicates where major demolitions may have to occur.

The main road will be replaced with a boulevard-style street with trees planted in the middle and nice pedestrian walkways along the side. This will make everything much greener, and with the appropriate changes to the local businesses along the side – placing little french cafeterias, boutiques and so on there – the town could be given a much more cozy and enjoyable feeling.

Of course, the existing white, wooden houses would be preserved – at least a nucleus of them – to provide a quaint, picturesque part of the old historic city to stroll through.

The boulevard would be built along the green line in the map below. The blue corridor would be changed into a four-lane, 70 km/h (45 mph) business street with ample space reserved for shopping malls, movie theatres, gas stations and fast-food restaurants, providing a casual shopping experience for the entire family. A proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter might have to be located – depending on available space – on the other side of the cross-Tjörn freeway, marked in red on the map.

Altogether, I feel that this represents a rather modest improvement to the town and could very well be the thing that drives Skärhamn into the 21st century.