Shopping is a mind bender. | 73 comments (73 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Shopping is a mind bender. (4.00 / 2)

You have the obnoxious habit of asking irritating but deeply fascinating questions. ;-)

Short answer: Beats the hell outta me.

Land use patterns in the US dictates shopping is rigorously secluded from residental areas. City transportation policies dictate the automobile is God and all must bow before it. Construction of shopping malls has degraded such that the buildings are only expected to last for 20 years. As the McMansions of suburbia expand ever further from the 'urb' the economic value of the underlying Real Estate declines.

But the cost (valuation) of properties in the city itself have declined even further.

So, does it make more sense to spend the money re-invigorating the city?

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Sun Mar 25th, 2007 at 03:43:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Shopping is a mind bender. (4.00 / 4)

Moi? I am convinced I have earned that right. ;)

Malls:
get those _ flourescent lights off me,
put some windows in those walls so I can see what time of day it is,
stop herding me with your __ lines on the floor,
give me some real choice of qualities and materials and not the same 3? manufacturers with 300 different brand names,
call things by their real names,
turn down the musak,
do not ever make something beep at me,
....
and I won´t say what they can do with land use patterns and valuations ´cause I have manners.

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.

by metavision on Sun Mar 25th, 2007 at 04:04:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Shopping is a mind bender. (4.00 / 3)

First step, in the US at least, stop spending the money required to drive the sprawl. For example, rolling over the dollar value of developments should be on a hectare by hectare basis above a certain value of development (say, $5m). Then instead of looking to roll over gains into every larger plots of low value land, developers that want to get the tax break have to find ways to persistently increase the underlying value per hectare of the property they are developing ... and doing that requires finding was to concentrate and cluster development.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Sun Mar 25th, 2007 at 05:02:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Shopping is a mind bender. (none / 1)

I am not sure if I understand the same thing you do by "concentrate and cluster". To me it means communities that combine housing and basic shopping at a pedestrian level, i.e., non-suburbia. Once you separate the sleeping areas and the shopping areas, you´re stuck in a car.

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.

by metavision on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 05:10:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Shopping is a mind bender. | 73 comments (73 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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