When the pedestrian mall swept across American cities

Posted on by

Part of the story of the American shopping mall included in Meet Me at the Fountain is the rise and fall of the pedestrian mall in cities:

Photo by Alexas Fotos on Pexels.com

From 1959 through the early 1980s, more than two hundred American cities closed blocks of their downtowns to car traffic. B 2000, fewer than twenty-four of those original malls remained. (89-90)

As people and shopping moved to the suburbs, larger cities responded by trying to create something like an outdoor mall on busy urban shopping streets. But the experiment did not work:

By 2000, fewer than twenty-four of these original malls remained. The design intervention that was supposed to bring people back from the suburban mall had, instead, exacerbated the very problem it was trying to solve, turning downtown into car-centric, retail-first monocultures rather than pedestrian-first, mixed-use places. (90)

Many cities thought this was the answer but it turned out not to be; few of the pedestrian malls survived even a few decades.

Two thoughts hearing this account:

  1. Cities did not know what to do regarding the millions of Americans who moved out of big cities and to the suburbs after World War Two. Were they moving out of cities in part because of shopping opportunities? This was not the biggest issue but cities hoped they could at least attract more visitors with pedestrian malls.
  2. The copycat nature of retail development across places is interesting to consider. As malls proliferated, often borrowing architecture and techniques regardless of location, many communities also jumped on the pedestrian mall bandwagon. And then when they did not bring about the desired changes, they disappeared en masse as well. It makes sense that cities and developers would look to each other to see what works but it also seems like it can lead to fads and trying to shoehorn generic solutions to what can be complex local settings.

Bradbury, CA, an example of an exclusive wealthy suburban community

Posted on by

A newspaper reports that it is hard to access the California suburb of Bradbury:

Photo by Min An on Pexels.com

There’s no shopping to speak of and there are barely any sidewalks to stroll on. Bradbury is almost entirely comprised of gated sub communities and homeowners associations, SFGate reported.

If you don’t already have a friend that lives there, it’s not wise to go up to someone’s house looking to make some. That’s because the town has an ordinance banning people from walking up to front doors and knocking without permission.

And since its founding in 1957, a time when the suburbs were expanding in Southern California, Bradbury and the residents who live there have said they don’t even want cars passing by to stop for even the briefest moment, urging them to keep driving.

The town is so locked down that most of the public roads that abut its borders are dead ends or run straight into tall, guarded gates with signs that read ‘Royal Oaks’ and ‘Bradbury Estates.’

The landscaping also does quite a bit to send the message that outsiders aren’t welcome, with most homes being shrouded by towering hedgerows and bushy trees.

Why? This is an small exclusive suburb. These are scattered across the American landscape where wealthy homeowners have their own community. According to the US Census, the community has 921 residents, the median household income is over $158,000, the population skews older, more than 90% of homes are owned, and over 80% of homes are worth over $1 million. The community’s website starts with text saying “Preserving Rural Tranquility” and features numerous images of the landscape and horses.

One thing wealth can do is enable people to live exactly where they want. This often involves living near other wealthy people. And this can mean putting distance or barriers between those with money and others. It sounds like this community has a variety of methods to discourage visitors who might threaten that rural tranquility, including gated subdivision, large landscaping features, no soliciting, and no sidewalks.

The National Public Housing Museum now has a building and tours of recreated residences

Posted on by

Chicago has a long history of public housing and now a museum devoted to public housing in the United States has a building and unique exhibits:

Photo by Alfin Auzikri on Pexels.com

The Hatches’ time machine comes courtesy of the National Public Housing Museum, the only museum of its kind in the country. The museum opened its first brick-and-mortar space last week after years of being “a museum in the streets,” in the words of board chair Sunny Fischer.  Between now and the museum’s incorporation in 2007, Fischer — a former executive of the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and a child of a Bronx public housing project herself — says the museum hosted education programs, walking tours and pop-up exhibitions “wherever they would let us,” including an early installation at the Merchandise Mart.

The museum’s new space offers a permanent home for its roving presentations — now free of charge to visitors — which trace the history of public housing from its origins in the New Deal to the present day. But unlike the typical museum, the National Public Housing Museum offers a deeper, more personal engagement through $25 tours of its recreated apartment spaces. The Hatch family apartment is one of two recreated units in the new museum, with the other, representing the Jewish Turovitz family, who were among the Addams Homes’ earliest tenants in the 1930s. A third unit has been transformed into a presentation on redlining, with visuals by local shadow-puppet theater Manual Cinema and a script by Princeton University scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor.

The National Public Housing Museum was profoundly inspired by New York City’s Tenement Museum, a cluster of well-preserved and partially recreated tenement apartments on the city’s Lower East Side. That museum, which National Public Housing Museum Executive Director Lisa Yun Lee considers a “sister” institution, also incorporates oral histories from tenement residents and their descendants.

But the interactivity of the Chicago experience is largely without precedent. Tour-goers are invited to sample Jackson’s peanut brittle recipe, held in a cookie tin in the Hatch family kitchen. And visitors who tour the Turovitz unit next week will notice an empty space above the sink: the family’s gefilte fish bowl, on display there most of the year, will have been pulled off the shelf for their present-day Passover celebrations. Elsewhere, visitors can spin vinyl records and learn more about the public housing pasts of famous musicians in a “rec room” curated by DJ Spinderella, of Salt-N-Pepa fame, or listen to archival interviews in a studio named for late Chicago historian Dr. Timuel Black Jr.

Two thoughts in response:

  1. Chicago makes a lot of sense for a long-term museum regarding public housing. Because of the city’s size, its central location in the United States, and the particular history of public housing in Chicago with threads of location, race, local government, and public perception, this could be an important institution for the city and country for years to come.
  2. As someone who likes museums, I remember as a kid a different era where more material in museums involved reading text, outdated displays, and limited interaction. Those days seem to be gone and museum attendees have more ways to connect with exhibits, artifacts, and history. It would interesting to see how visitors respond to the interactive elements described above and what this might lead to regarding collective memory of public housing.

American toolkits for marriage and relationships amid social change

Posted on by

How are changes in American education by gender affecting how American adults approach relationships?

Photo by Valentin Antonucci on Pexels.com

According to her calculations, in 2020, American husbands and wives shared the same broad level of education in 44.5 percent of heterosexual marriages, down from more than 47 percent in the early 2000s. Of the educationally mixed marriages, the majority—62 percent—were hypogamous, up from 39 percent in 1980. Crunching the numbers slightly differently, Benjamin Goldman, an economics professor at Cornell University, found that among Americans born in 1930, 2.3 percent ended up in a marriage where the woman had a four-year degree and the man did not. Among the cohort of those born in 1980, that figure was 9.6 percent. (This trend is hardly unique to the United States; hypogamy is becoming more common all over the globe.)

It’s a fragile time for gender relations in the United States. Young women and men appear to be diverging politically. Fewer people are dating, marrying, or having kids. Some commentators argue that there aren’t enough suitable bachelors to meet the standards of accomplished modern women. Meanwhile, a growing “manosphere” claims that women’s advancement is to blame for all manner of struggles experienced by lonely, unmoored men. Yet for all the worry that a chasm is opening between men and women, the rise in the number of hypogamous couples suggests that some men and women are doing what men and women have always done: coupling up regardless of differences and figuring out a way to get along. “It’s clear,” Goldman told me, “that understanding the dynamics of these couples is key to understanding the future of marriage.”

This reminds me of two sociology books I’ve used in classes that use the concept of cultural toolkits to help explain how people in the United States address love and relationships. One describes how Americans draw upon ideas of romantic love and covenantal love at different points of marriage. The second considers how evangelicals seek pragmatic solutions to everyday family life amid their commitments to Christian perspectives and a changing society around them.

The description of the article above sounds similar: social, political, and economic conditions are changing. Ideas about relationships are changing. More women are getting college degrees. Yet a good number of Americans still desire to be part of relationships and marriages. “Making it work” might require applying different tools in their toolkits about relationships and life or developing new toolkits.

In other words, marriage continues in the United States with some changes and how Americans approach it and the toolkits they have regarding it changes.

Finding the American Dream through the music liked by teenagers

Posted on by

Where can the American Dream be found? How about at a Jonas Brother convention at a large suburban mall:

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Pexels.com

When JonasCon, an all-day special event celebrating the 20 years since the debut of the hit boy band the Jonas Brothers, was first announced in mid-February, anyone who still cared about the JoBros (myself included) thought it would be a disaster. After all, the announcement came less than two months before the event; information about what was actually going to happen during the convention was nowhere to be found, even mere weeks away; and it didn’t help matters that there were last-minute reports that the Jonas Brothers were struggling to find sponsors for what would likely be a “complete and chaotic mess.” Hints of an impending trainwreck angered fans; not only were they financially invested in traveling to the event, but they were also feeling protective over (and worried about) the reputation of the once-popular band of brothers, who have been left behind in an era short on boy bands and heavy on “popgirlies.”

But what actually happened on that Sunday in March, at the behemoth that is the American Dream mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey, wasn’t the reincarnation of Fyre Fest that everyone was expecting. It was something else entirely…

Being inside of the bubble of the teenage dream—while literally ensconced in the American Dream—makes you forget that the real world is still happening.

Four things seem to be converging here that add up to the American Dream:

  1. A shopping mall/attraction site that calls itself American Dream. The large thriving shopping mall is a great embodiment of the postwar suburban American Dream. (In terms of spaces, it might only trail the single-family home and yard as the epitome of the American Dream for a certain era.
  2. The teenager experience is a unique one in American society. The mix of independence and growing up and testing out adult things can come together into a heady time where experiences and patterns can prove influential for the rest of life.
  3. Music gets wrapped up in #2 as an important narrative element. Certain artists or genres can speak to teenagers in ways they might not to adults The music and the memories that go along with the music are powerful.
  4. The American Dream is not just an idea; it can be experienced. The setting here is a fan convention that brings together in a suburban setting people who enjoy particular music. They get to enjoy the music, the energy, and meeting people at one time. There are other experiences that can be the American Dream – perhaps a backyard cookout, perhaps driving fast down a road – but the fans at this event seem to get to experience something that helps them ignore what else may be happening.

How much some major US convention cities spend on attracting visitors

Posted on by

How much Chicago spends to try to attract conventions and visitors is less than some other American cities:

Photo by Nate on Pexels.com

Choose Chicago has been laying the groundwork to create a so-called Tourism Improvement District that would more than double the marketing agency’s annual budget by increasing the tax on rooms in Chicago hotels with 100 or more rooms by 1.5 percentage points — to 18.9%.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has an annual operating budget of $457 million, according to a comparison prepared by Choose Chicago. That’s followed by Visit Orlando ($116 million); Discover Los Angeles ($62 million); the San Diego Tourism Authority ($57 million); and New York’s NYC & Company ($45 million).

Choose Chicago is dead last among major convention cities, with a projected budget of $33 million for 2024…

Choose Chicago, which has yet to release data for 2024, said Chicago had 52 million domestic and international visitors in 2023. The number has increased steadily in recent years, but Chicago has struggled to match the 61 million visitors of 2019, the last full year before the pandemic. Worries about high taxes and crime hurt perceptions about Chicago as a place to visit or do business.

All cities have to brand themselves to compete in the competitive market. But, apparently, they do that with different amounts of money. Does spending more money necessarily net more visitors? Not necessarily. But the budgets do look quite different. So some additional information might be helpful:

  1. How much money is spent per visitor?
  2. How much of that money is spent directly targeting certain visitors or groups – think like conventions that then come with a certain number of attendees – versus mass media appeals?
  3. And then how much money do those visitors put back into the local economy?
  4. How do these different cities fund these marketing arms? Is it primarily about taxes visitors pay or are there other significant money streams?

Let’s see what Choose Chicago does with its increased revenue.

Seeing patterns (everywhere?)

Posted on by

As a sociologist, I often am looking for patterns. In what is happening around me. In data. In books. I do not remember that I was told directly that this is the task of a sociologist but I do recall picking it up in school and work.

Above is an example of a more obvious pattern. Someone put a lot of thought and work into creating this pattern on the ceiling of a church foyer. They did not have to do this and many ceilings today are plain and devoid of patterns. Look up and you see this pattern.

Other patterns are less obvious. You may have a spreadsheet of data – and it takes work to collect and compile that data in the spreadsheet in the first place – but the patterns do not present themselves. You need a plan to look for patterns and then ways of organizing and explaining those patterns.

Or humans like to make meaning of the world around them and what happens to them. But we do not just file away random and disconnected data; we often try to fit what we experience into a meaning system that we have. We seek out patterns to explain the world and we can feel anxiety if our experiences do not quickly fit the patterns we expect.

Is life all about patterns? That might be going too far. But creating and seeing can be very human activities.

Filling empty big box stores with pickleball

Posted on by

I have tried to track the problems created by vacant big box stores in the suburbs, including having empty former grocery stores and putting COVID vaccine centers in those spaces. Some communities now find pickleball can make use of big box spaces and possibly generate revenue:

Photo by Frank Schrader on Pexels.com

When big-box stores like Toys R Us or Buy Buy Baby close, they leave behind tens of thousands of empty square feet — spaces that can be difficult to fill.

Finding new tenants for these massive spaces is no small task. But one unlikely contender, pickleball — among the nation’s fastest-growing sports — is breathing new life into these cavernous retail spaces.

From Vernon Hills to Batavia, commercial indoor courts are opening at a steady clip, bringing renewed energy, foot traffic, and consumer spending to shopping centers facing an uncertain future…

Retail market experts believe repurposing vacant big-box stores as indoor pickleball facilities is a smart business move. These spaces offer high ceilings, ample parking, and central locations. For pickleball chains seeking an affordable 40,000- to 50,000-square-foot space, these vacant stores provide an ideal solution…

One key concern is tax revenue. Unless the facility also sells equipment, apparel, or food and beverages, the host municipality won’t see much financial benefit from sales tax, leaving a gap that traditional retail stores typically fill.

Vacancies are bad for multiple reasons. They sit empty, suggesting there is no demand for space in the community. They may attract undesirable activities. They are not generating revenue. The buildings and parking lots may not be kept up to the same level of open stores.

Filling vacancies, therefore, is important. Anything using the space broadcasts activity and suggests a more vibrant community.

But also important is the need for revenue. Spaces in suburbs designated for commercial use are intended to help provide tax dollars to be spent on local priorities. If these spaces are not generating revenue, might they be better used for housing or community spaces or recreation use?

From the article, it is less clear about whether pickleball facilities can provide the tax revenues suburbs might hope for. Is there a point where suburbs might be unhappy with pickleball there, even if they do address the vacancy issues?

In a metropolitan transit system, should the city or suburbs get more votes?

Posted on by

As actors in the Chicago region consider the possibility of consolidating multiple transit agencies, the issue of voting members came up:

Photo by Alex Qian on Pexels.com

The MMA would have three directors appointed by the governor, five by Chicago’s mayor, five by the Cook County Board president and five by the chairs of the DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will county boards.

Republican Rep. Dan Ugaste of Geneva said, “what’s very important to us in the collar counties and probably in some suburban Cook, as well, is how is this going to work? If we’re talking simple majorities, once we get to the voting structure — that’s going to effectively allow all these five other collar counties to be silenced if Cook and Chicago work together.”

Democratic state Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado of Chicago, who is sponsoring the MMA bill, countered that “for a long time it has been city versus suburbs. We have to change our mindset around that, as well, and see this as a regional issue.”

There could be many different ways to figure out the formula for the number of votes from each part of the region. Some options:

  1. Equal number of suburban and city votes, meaning an equal number from Chicago and equal number from the suburbs (with some way of figuring out which suburban areas are represented).
  2. More votes from Chicago compared to the suburbs. City residents may use transit more.
  3. More votes from the suburbs compared to Chicago. There are many more residents overall in the suburbs compared to the city.
  4. Wild card: more appointees at the state level than either local interests such that the governor or state leaders retain control over which way votes might go.

Beyond the complications of local Illinois politics, the broader issue is that American cities and the suburbs around them do not always see eye to eye on transit and other regional issues. If either side feels that they have to “win” this portion of the negotiations, does this limit what can be accomplished? Or if one side does not really want to participate but also may not want to be locked out of the political process, where does that lead?

Data centers as public utilities

Posted on by

As one company looks for approval to build a data center in an Illinois town, they made this argument:

Photo by Brett Sayles on Pexels.com

“When you use your phone to order an Uber or make a doctor’s appointment, it’s likely going through one of our data centers,” Baumann told a Minooka Village Board meeting in January.

“We consider ourselves a utility, like water or sewer or electricity. It has that kind of importance to everyday life,” he said.

But Equinix is not a regulated utility like ComEd or Peoples Gas. Equinix is a publicly traded company whose top shareholders are Wall Street titans such as BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard. 

It’s a supplier that’s kept on a tight leash by the big dogs of artificial intelligence, namely, its partners, including Microsoft and Google.

Contrasting opinions here from the corporation’s real estate director and the Chicago Tribune. On one hand, it is hard to imagine life today without the Internet, social media, and smartphones. All that data transmitted through the air requires infrastructure including cables, towers, and data centers.

On the other hand, all of this is not considered a utility in the same way by the federal and state government. Gas, electricity, and water have all sorts of regulations so that everyone can access them. They are considered essential to housing. The right to the Internet does not exist yet. And the nod above to the private market may or may make sense; other utility companies are publicly traded and seek profits.

Is this a convincing argument in the long run? Would local officials and residents be more inclined to approve a data center if they think of like a utility or more like a company?