If you're a fan of musicals, then the 
Switzerland Gets Bad Rap; Basel Box Business Booms; Shopping Options Across The Borders Set To Expand; Basel Pools Brimming with Bathers
News on 21 July 2015
The on-line magazine "The Local" reports this week that despite having come in at #1 in the UN World Happiness Report this year, Switzerland managed to slip in its national reputation ranking. The annual reputation survey, conducted by an organization calling itself the Reputation Institute, bases its rankings on economic development, quality of life and access to institutions, using the results from more than 48,000 interviews. This year, Switzerland slipped in the rankings from 1st to 4th behind Canada, Norway and Sweden. Although no specific reason was available for the demotion, the rankings reflect people's perception of countries relative strengths in effective government, an appealing environment and an advanced economy. It appears however that perhaps the Swiss #1 ranking last year may have been a fluke in itself, as the country was more consistently ranked #3, 4 or 5 in prior years of the survey. The countries with the worst reputation for the 2015 survey were Iraq, Iran and Pakistan.
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A new start-up in Basel seeks to banish the packing-box blues. Inspired by the concept of the "Sharing Economy" in use by such enterprises as Uber and AirBnB, LeihBox allows people to find reusable, plastic moving-crates online using the company's website or app and then either return them to the company's HQ or pass them on to the next user looking for boxes. Because the boxes are collapsible up to 40 can fit in a passenger vehicle according to the company's promotional materials. At a cost of 20 Rappen per day per box, they are priced to compete with traditional cardboard boxes, with the added benefit of being environmentally friendly as they are reusable, and made from recycled plastic materials. Bookings can be made in advance and the company will happily deliver the boxes to one's home but perhaps even more importantly, pick them up after they're used, freeing people from the usual headache of finding a way to dispose of used moving boxes and crates. The company has ambitions to expand to 25 locations in Switzerland by the end of the year, which seems feasible considering that Basel alone sees over 14,000 people move every year.
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Weil am Rhein, the German hamlet directly across the border from Basel, is familiar to many listeners as a major shopping destination. Home to the Rheincenter shopping center, countless outlet stores, and delivery address services, the citizens and leadership of the community voted on Sunday to allow planning and construction to proceed on a new 16,500 square meter mall which will be dubbed The Dreiländer Gallery. The mall is planned for the city center and will feature over 60 shops, catering and restaurant establishments and a parking garage for 550 vehicles at an estimated cost of 70-85 million Euros. The vote for the plan was met with some opposition, as locals concerned with the current state of traffic and tram congestion worried about increases resulting from adding yet another shopping destination. Christoph Huber, mayor of Weil am Rhein, was disappointed in the low turn-out for the vote, but he was confident that the village council would endorse the pro vote and that the shopping center would go into operation at the end of 2018.
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Driven like lemmings by the heat, residents of the Basel region will be setting a record for seasonal attendance at the many public pools available throughout the city. To date, over 210,000 paid admissions have been counted at the St. Jakob's, Bachgraben and Eglisee pools, well above prior years' averages, according to Rolf Moser, director of the Basel Urban Bathing administration. The last time the Basel pools hosted over 500,000 visitors in one season was 2003, which was also a record year for high temperatures in the region - finishing the year with 835,000 total paid admissions. The absolute attendance record for the system was set in 1964 when 1.2 million people paid to go the the pools. Mr. Moser added that to accommodate the crowds, the facilities employ over 50 lifeguards, and the private security firm Securitas is contracted to patrol bathrooms and bathing grounds to help keep thefts and violence to a minimum.