The vanishing shopping mall →
(via AZspot)
This article’s full of amazing quotes.
But there is no single “big fix” that will pump life back into downtowns full of boarded-up stores, says development expert Teresa Lynch. That means some communities will soon be without a mall or a thriving shopping district, leaving them with no central gathering place. “One of the biggest consequences of mall closings is the loss of a sense of community,” says David Birnbrey of The Shopping Center Group, “a place where people gather and socialize.” And exercise. Retirees Dick and Anne Saplata work out by walking around the largely empty halls of the Metcalf South Mall in Leawood, Kan. It’s likely to close soon, and there’s talk that a developer will raze the place. If the mall goes under, Dick Saplata asks, “where are we going to walk?”
There is so much wrong with this that I don’t even know where to start.
We’ve created far too many places like this. It’s going to be painful for the communities as they collapse (which has been happening for years — this isn’t new), but this gives us the opportunity to replace these monstrosities with much better alternatives.
Not to mention that it’s bad reporting for picking the Metcalf South Mall - which I grew up near - as an example.
Metcalf South isn’t failing because malls in general are going downhill, but because it’s just a few miles away from the astonishingly-successful Oak Park Mall that’s always expanding. Metcalf South, on the other hand, has been dead for the last decade. There are few cars parked there each day, and even fewer signs of life. Every time I drive by it on visits to the parents, I’m amazed that it still stands. It’s certainly not a place to gather or socialize, as the whole thing gives off the air of a mausoleum.
Being empty, Metcalf South must be a great place to exercise when the weather isn’t great. But that doesn’t justify its existence, nor the oceans of pavement surrounding it.
