Posted by JWmHarmon on July 02, 2002 at 07:27:50:In Reply to: Demise of Pedestrian Malls posted by Paul Malo on July 02, 2002 at 06:09:37:
One of the objectives of 1960's and 1970's pedestrian malls in the downtown sections was to compete with the then-new enclosed malls that were attracting people. The downtown areas were losing pedestrian traffic to the enclosed malls. Parking was a problem in many downtown areas that had been developed when more people walked because many didn't own cars or used public transportation, often in the form of city buses.
Beginning in the 1950's and continuing into the 1970's in the USA the opening up of vast areas to personal transportation in the form of the automobile led to easier access to outlying areas. People in the USA over the age of fifty may remember when there were no interstate highways in their region. The enclosed malls were often built on the edge of the city or between major urban areas often within easy access of the then new interstate highway system.
The enclosed malls were built with vast parking areas as noted in the Joni Mitchell song "Big Yellow Taxi" - "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot." Parking one's new car in the downtown area was a hassle, often requiring a walk of several blocks to get to where one wanted to go. Anyone who has walked Chicago's Magnificent Mile in the "Windy City's" sub-zero (Faharenheit)winter temperatures in a howling wind will have a good understanding of why people wanted to park closer to the enclosed mall. Parking at the new enclosed mall made it more attractive than the cold, harsh weather of the open downtown. Air-conditioning was not a common feature of 1950's buildings and residences. It was then considered an expensive luxury except in some larger department stores and offices. Air-conditioning was an integral part of most enclosed malls making them more attractive in the summer. Anyone who has endured the heat and high humidity of the Florida summer will appreciate the relative comfort of the then-new enclosed malls. One could finally live one's entire life in the human comfort range of 68 to 76 degrees Fahrenheit (20 to 24 degrees Celsius)except for the one minute it took to get from one's air-conditioned house to one's air-conditioned car to one's regional air-conditioned mall and office building.
Many of the malls of the 1960's and 1970's are now losing customers to newer, larger malls. Often these new malls are built with nearby parking garage towers. Old malls are being converted to new uses or are being razed to make way for other buildings.
In an interesting turn of events, some malls are being built as upscale, open-air shopping centers imitating the old downtown areas of pre-1960 small town America. An example would be Easton located in Columbus, Ohio, USA.
These new open air malls are similar to the earlier era's downtown pedestrian malls which are now being dismantled. The new area attracts the new generation. When the new generation tires of these new malls, then they may return to the nostalgic revitalization of the old areas. Of course, these old areas will become the new areas to the then "new" generation. We will then have lengthy discussions of what should be preserved of the old "new" areas.
I have noted in many of the newer malls and "Town Centers" that I have visited that they seem to be on a more human scale, much like walking down the street of small town America. The new "town centers" usually include some forms of entertainment so that the mall becomes a destination for multiple purposes besides shopping. This element was often missing in the pedestrian malls that closed city streets and are now being abandoned.
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