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.

  • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    5 months ago

    counterargument; malls, arcades, and bookstores should come back in style because they were amazing and we don’t know what we missed until it’s gone.

      • Chozo@fedia.io
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        5 months ago

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

          • AA5B@lemmy.world
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            5 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
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          5 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
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            5 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
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              5 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
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                5 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
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                  5 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
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                    5 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.

              • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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                5 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
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                  5 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
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                    5 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.

                • AA5B@lemmy.world
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                  5 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
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              5 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
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              5 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.

    • pedz@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      If they come back, I hope they will be more accessible on foot, with a bike, or with efficient public transit. Because if they are still surrounded by deserts of parking lots, only filled with EVs instead of ICEs, they can continue to die.

      • howrar@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        If parts of it become residential like OP suggested, then it’ll be accessible by foot.

      • PlexSheep@infosec.pub
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        5 months ago

        It’s already a problem if they are not in the city center, as it sucks out business from the center and creates more traffic.

      • thegreenguy@sopuli.xyz
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        5 months ago

        In my country (and I think most of Europe) malls (especially those in more central areas) have underground parking, or limited above-ground parking. There is a really nice one which is connected to a big park in the back. So maybe you can replace the parking lots with apartment buildings, recreational spaces and transit infrastructure and maybe include some underground parking.