XPost: alt.planning.urban   
   From: cfmpublic@ns.sympatico.ca   
      
   On Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:33:51 -0600, Kris Krieger    
   wrote:   
      
   >Clark F Morris  wrote in   
   >news:ikmkq39soagruqp0mogpq6ies86782iq2r@4ax.com:   
   >   
   >> On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:55:36 -0500, 3D Peruna    
   >> wrote:   
   >>   
   >>>george conklin wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Strip malls are what our local planners cite as one of the things to   
   >>>> be discouraged at all costs.  Why?  I am not sure.   
   >>>   
   >>>It's because it's hard to make a strip mall "architectural".  We've   
   >>>been involved with a few of them over the years and they all are   
   >>>dressed up according the current architectural fashion.  It's not too   
   >>>expensive to remake them, either, when fashion changes.   
   >>>   
   >>>Planners don't like them because planners have been indoctrinated in   
   >>>school that the car is evil and the source of all the world's evils.   
   >>>Get rid of cars and the world will be a happier, better place.  A   
   >>>strip mall is only accessible to cars.   
   >>>   
   >>>Strip malls are the very definition of capitalism.  They exist because   
   >>>they work in the current economic system.   
   >>>   
   >>>I've told this story before:  Whilst in architecture graduate school I   
   >>>had a professor who spent several lectures railing against the strip   
   >>>mall.  In all seriousness, I asked him what his alternative would   
   >>>be--but he had to make the numbers work:  the developer of the   
   >>>property had to make money.  He was not happy...I'm surprised I passed   
   >>>the class.   
   >>>  For all his railing and ranting he could not provide us with a   
   >>>  viable   
   >>>economic alternative to a strip mall.   
   >>   
   >> The problem with the design of the strip mall is that it is automobile   
   >> access only and that it makes walking less desirable.  If there were   
   >> sidewalk requirements, common driveways to minimize car pedestrian   
   >> conflict and possibly parking in the rear, the mall would be less a   
   >> bad thing.  All contiguous retail development should be connected by   
   >> sidewalk and crosswalk so that one has to park only once to access all   
   >> stores and services within that development.  Some malls meet the   
   >> requirement, others don't.   
   >   
   >Except that when its 98 degrees and 96% humidity, people aren't really   
   >going to want to walk, anyway.  The point being, that people are unlikly   
   >to walk unless the weather is clsoe to perfect.   
      
   Many people are willing to walk a block or two in most weather and at   
   large shopping malls with huge parking lots that may be the distance   
   from the available space to the entrance so in the normal strip mall   
   environment, that should not be a problem.   
   >   
   >Another problem is distance.  And time.  If the grocery is 2 mile saway,   
   >walking there, even if one is in good enough shape to do so (and carry   
   >back the groceries), there is the time factor of walking - 30-40 min each   
   >way, plus the time in the grocery itself.   
      
   I was assuming that people who live up to a mile away from the strip   
   mall or strip mall complex would walk to it some of the time.  However   
   my complaint is that it sometimes can be almost impossible to walk   
   between two adjacent strip malls so that you have to drive from one to   
   the other.  In the Davidson Avenue example I gave, it was awkward to   
   walk from the office complex where I worked to the Holiday Inn next   
   door.  It at least wasn't so bad that you were forced to drive there   
   if you wanted to go to lunch.   
   >   
   >I think that the problem is not only srip malls, but also lack of decent   
   >shuttle or bus service to them.  I've heard that, in some European   
   >countries, you can plan you bus trip to the half-minute, sometimes even   
   >the quarter-minute, because the public transportation is that good.  In   
   >many (most?) parts fo North America, teh bus might be 10 min late or 5   
   >min early, so you end up having to waste time sitting aroudn at the bus   
   >stop (which may or may not have a shelter) because the system is so   
   >screwed up.   
      
   I suspect bus line reliability in Europe depends on route length,   
   traffic and system discipline like it does in North America.  Some are   
   reliable, some aren't.   
   >   
   >> One of the idiocies of suburban   
   >> development is the lack of sidewalks and provision for walking between   
   >> office clusters, restaurants and stores that are within Walking   
   >> distance of each other.  I saw this on Davidson Avenue in Somerset,   
   >> New Jersey.  We have designed suburbia for transit to fail and fail   
   >> miserably.  We have moved jobs to suburbs that are expensive for poor   
   >> people to get to both in terms of time and of money and then made sure   
   >> they can't live in the suburbs where they work.   
   >>   
   >   
   >Suburban layouts are part of the problem, but crappy, unpredictable, and   
   >often just non-existent public transportation is far mroe of a factor   
   >than lack of sidewalks.  Even in places where there are  alot fo   
   >sidewalks and they're in good condition, ther is the time/distance actor   
   >and the transportation factor.   
   >   
   >It seems to me that peole often blame strip malls for being the "diseas"   
   >so to speak, but I can't help but thing that they're just one symptom of   
   >a larger problem.   
   >   
      
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