Today's breed of mall, dubbed, "lifestyle centers," may want to serve as surrogate town centers, but strip away the facades, the faux layers of history and the rhetoric, and they are private malls. Just ask the guy in Texas who tried to circulate a petition at one of these "town centers".... errr, malls. The developers may love the fact that their malls somehow fulfill the function of a downtown, but only so far as consumption is concerned. Make no mistake, the open space amenities of these centers are only masquerading as public space. The sidewalk is private, the "town square" is private. Free speech does not necessarily have the right to occupy this realm. No longer is fantasy contained within the box of the television set, or in the theatre, or behind the ticket booth at the theme park.

The thing about these type of shopping centers is... they work. Yes, we have visited and thought that they were nice places to go. Heck, they sure beat the typical hermetically sealed indoor mall. But there is something under the beautifully detailed faux surface that grates. This trend of development takes advantage of, and warps our sense of public life and public space. The boundary between fantasy and reality continues to erode and it makes us wonder how far it can go.

But here is where it really started to bother us. The callous attitude of Rick Caruso, developer of the Grove in Los Angeles, is revealed in a recent article in the LA Times. He displays disgust towards the actual places that inspire him. The patina of history and time which we may think of as reality is "lack of maintenance" to Mr. Caruso. To quote Tina Daunt's article, Caruso "doesn't like the real old buildings." This is not a new attitude in the United States where history has often been erased by "urban renewal" because it is dirty, worn and faded, only to be replaced with something new that in 30 years will be dirty, worn and faded. This reaction against authenticity and culture is disquieting, especially since it is being embraced by city and state government officials. The outside may look and feel good, but the underlying thinking more shabby and worn out than the reality that is being replaced.

One thing is for certain, this trend certainly says something about our society. But enough of our soap box; take a look at the articles linked below and see what you think.

Article: LA Times - Out With the Old, In With the Fake
Article: LA Times - Alternate reality (alternate link)
Article: USA Today - Shopping in the great outdoors
Link: Caruso Affiliated
Reference: Downtown Mauled - Part I (Land+Living)
Reference: Downtown Mauled - Part II (Land+Living)

Some lifestle center links
(Interesting to note the lack of images of the actual developments on many of the sites)