Imagine apartments built into what used to be department stores, (Oh, you’re JC Penny 203? I’m at Sears 106). Get those old arcades up and running. Set up meal stations at the food court. Once people actually live there, stores will start to move back in.

If I’m unable to finish my life in my own home, that doesn’t sound like a terrible option.

  • Chozo@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    4 months ago

    How will shifting away from cars result in more people going to the mall? How are you supposed to get there?

    • Laborer3652@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      4 months ago

      Public transportation. In Germany at least, many of the train stations are located underneath common points of interest, such as malls, airports, downtown, etc. As a result, they are nearly always flushed with people.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        4 months ago

        And yes, it can be done in the US as well, and not just in cities. I think our similar touchpoint in the US is “Main Street”. Guess what: they still exist in a few places.

        Time to brag about my town. We have a town center with a Common, transit hub, library, post office, government buildings. Most importantly we have a nice walkable street with shops and restaurants. As was tradition, the lots are in back, but there are also higher density housing so many people are just there and all the buses, taxis, Ubers, bicycles, scooters, and even canoe rentals center on that area so there’s transit.

        During COViD when we couldn’t go to places with a lot of people, this became much bigger. My family wasn’t the only one that developed a new tradition of walking at the Common and along the street, eating outside, or grabbing takeout from one of the many Ethnic restaurants to eat at a bench on the Common

    • viking@infosec.pub
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 months ago

      By subway. By bus. By bike. Walking. The world by and large doesn’t revolve around cars. How do you think Europeans get there?

      • SupraMario@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        22
        ·
        4 months ago

        Public transport…and their countries are small as fuck. The amount of people who think the USA is the same size as European countries is hilarious. Most states are the size of a few eu countries.

        • viking@infosec.pub
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          21
          ·
          edit-2
          4 months ago

          Yeah, so? Are you going to a mall in the next state or what? Public transport connects suburbs and cities. You’re not supposed to take the subway from Chicago to your favorite mall in Seattle, just like no European takes a bus from Amsterdam to go shopping in Brussels.

          • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            9
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            4 months ago

            Yes, that’s what Europeans don’t understand about America. When we go to, say, Wal Mart, there’s only one. We have to go to Bentonville, AR. Not so bad for us here in the Midwest, but the residents of Alaska have it particularly tough. And since you go to Wal Mart to pick up milk, we can’t go by public transport. It has to be by car, or better yet, drive the Canyonero. (No train schedule can predict when the milk runs out!)

            The country is so big, and we have so much empty land, there’s just simply no room to build more stores near where people live. What kind of madness would that be?!

            • uis@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              6
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              4 months ago

              (No train schedule can predict when the milk runs out!)

              How about YOU predicting when milk runs out? I’m not asking you to do five-year plan, but it’s easy to know when milk will run our.

              The country is so big, and we have so much empty land

              Russia is bigger and has more empty land. Despite Putin’s idiocy with invading other country.

              • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                6
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                4 months ago

                Ha, I thought that the blatant contradiction about having too much space and therefore not enough space would make the joke obvious, but I guess not.

                Also, a Canyonero isn’t a real vehicle. It was a joke from The Simpsons.

                • mbfalzar@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  5
                  ·
                  4 months ago

                  The joke was obvious, and you even doubled down by suggesting people intentionally go to Bentonville. I appreciated it

                • uis@lemm.ee
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  4 months ago

                  Also, a Canyonero isn’t a real vehicle

                  I just ignored that part because of it

          • SupraMario@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            4 months ago

            Nope but the nearest mall to me is 2 hours drive. No one is building rails out into the smaller counties. The USA is massive. I’ve lived in Europe, its a lot smaller, and people still have cars. Not saying this couldn’t work for cities but people forget how spread out we are here in the usa.

            • uis@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              10
              ·
              edit-2
              4 months ago

              Nope but the nearest mall to me is 2 hours drive.

              Have you considered that this is because most of space in USA is allocated only for cars? Or that if this space wasn’t allocated to cars, then you wouldn’t need to traverse such disyance in first place?

              but people forget how spread out we are here in the usa.

              The solution: trains

              • SupraMario@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                4 months ago

                Look I’m not arguing that we shouldn’t be putting in trains as much as possible but it’s not a solution to cars. Hell in Europe people still drive a good bit.

                • justgohomealready@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  4 months ago

                  The solution is not living in the middle of anywhere, two hours away from civilization. If you lived next to the mall, you could go there by foot.

                  • SupraMario@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    4 months ago

                    You know why houses in populated areas cost so much?

                    That’s why, everyone wanting to be right next to everything.

                    I live where I do because I don’t like crowds, and noise.

            • AA5B@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              4 months ago

              Maybe I’m biased living in a “European” part of the US, but it can translate very well to our country. the problem is not that the place is large, but so many places are suburban or trying to keep that rural feel, yet you want massive warehouse stores for everyday shopping. Everything wants to be its own destination, so there is no real concentration of snything

              But every town can have a center where common areas are common. Every town can have a center with whatever shops and restaurants. Every town of every size can have some things in a higher density area that’s walkable. In our mythology, we call it “Main Street, USA” and look back at it as a long gone ideal, but it’s still a useful concept, still around in some places, and can be re-created. In my towns case it did well focussing on restaurants, because you can’t ft a Costco or modern grocery there. But there’s also a library, small movie theater, town Common. All the buses run there, and you can find taxis, bicycles or scooters, a nice river walk,etc. it also has a concentration of apartments and condos, so there are always people around

        • AwesomeLowlander@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          13
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          4 months ago

          The rest of the entire world is a teeny bit larger than the US, but they still manage to do public transport just fine, for the most part.

        • uis@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          4 months ago

          The amount of people who think the USA is the same size as European countries is hilarious.

          Well, Russia is a European country. Also Russia is largest country in the world.