(Replying to PARENT post)
The remaining malls in the U.S. are living on borrowed time.
In general, there's no/fewer public drinking fountains, fewer public restrooms, shrinking number of places that doesn't involve soup-Nazi consumerism and ever less spaces for homeless and the elderly to not be bothered. It's a not-so-subtle form of hate directed at anyone unable or unwilling to be extorted on a regular basis. Folks are going to get their power and heat/air-conditioning somehow, but there's big trouble in store for any shop owner that retaliates against customers... because they will inevitably find ways to ruin the business. Starbucks is immensely profitable and doesn't have to resort to passive-aggressive hate and discrimination games.
👤llebttamton🕑10y🔼0🗨️0
(Replying to PARENT post)
Shopping districts are common in Asia; at least I've seen them in Japan and the Middle East
👤hasenj🕑10y🔼0🗨️0
(Replying to PARENT post)
"People like public space. Just as they like to work in a coffee shop on a laptop surrounded by others, they want to hang out with friends, to people-watch, flirt, take part in the rituals of public life.
In the suburbs, the 20th-century answer to the need for “public” space was the mall. The first were in the US in the 1950s, conceived as public places with kindergartens, medical centres and community facilities alongside the shops. Within a few years, only the shopping was left.
Malls have come a long way since. “Malls without walls”, whole shopping districts, resemble parts of the city, with real streets and brick and stone façades, and transpire to be privately owned. Liverpool One is an example. Cash-strapped municipalities cannot compete and people throng to these places. Users, once citizens, are rebranded as consumers."
From http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/7/stop-treating-c...
"The consumer-citizen pops up all over the place, like a cardboard stand-in for democratic citizens who have no other political concerns beyond self-interested consumption .. the public is hung out to dry with effectively no defense or recourse since our political rights have evaporated into market choices."