Here in Silicon Valley, many of the towns were built up in the post-war 1950s. Land was cheap and widely available, so the sprawling indoor and outdoor malls sprang up. There were huge parking lots out front and you walked to the single story store buildings. Even in the towns, you’d find big supermarkets with huge parking plazas.
All gone. Everything has gone vertical. The grocery stores have either parking garages, underground parking or parking on street level and the store on the second level. The spaciousness is gone. Where you not long ago had single story commercial buildings set back 50 feet or more from the street, you now have four and five story buildings hard up against the sidewalk. We went from open, livable, breathable spaces to the confinements of Manhattan.
It is awful.
AMEN!
“All gone. Everything has gone vertical. The grocery stores have either parking garages, underground parking or parking on street level and the store on the second level. The spaciousness is gone. Where you not long ago had single story commercial buildings set back 50 feet or more from the street, you now have four and five story buildings hard up against the sidewalk. We went from open, livable, breathable spaces to the confinements of Manhattan.”
None of that has happened in the Midwest. For the most part malls were killed by unwanted clientele whose shoplifting and fighting sealed their fate.