Urban Politics

Urban Crisis 2

Overview

• Suburban Growth and Malling of America

• Rise of “Big Box” Retailers

• Impact of Suburbs on Urban Politics

Suburban Growth

• Greatest beneficiaries of federal highway programs and real estate were developers of shopping malls

Suburban Growth

• Between mid 1950s and late 1970s: 22,000 suburban shopping centers built

• By late 1990s: 43,000

Suburban Growth

• That includes thousands of strip malls– one main anchor with

smaller stores, facing parking

Suburban Growth

• Regional malls– 30 acres

– usually enclosed

– at least one anchor store with 100,000 feet leasable space

Suburban Growth

• Superregional malls– total 1,400,000 square

feet of leasable space

– e.g., Mall of American (Bloomington, Minnesota)

4 anchor stores, 520 stores, 51 restaurants, 8 nightclubs, 14 movie screens, and a theme park

Suburban Growth

• Mall of America:– 4.2 million square feet

– 2.5 million square feet of leasable space

– 600,000 to 900,000 visitors weekly

– 42.5 million visitors per year*

*tops Disney World, Graceland, and Grand Canyon as most popular tourist destination in U.S.

Rise of “Big Box” Retailers

• Development of “edge nodes”– Growth areas of commercial development

usually outside of downtown urban areas near interstate highway exchanges

– Usually lack the public space, transit, pedestrian amenities, and overall density of a traditional downtown.

Rise of “Big Box” Retailers

• With development of edge nodes emphasis is on automobile rather than pedestrian

• Rapid depreciation of land, rapid turnover of tenants

• Build cheap buildings with big signs

Rise of “Big Box” Retailers

• Rise of Walmart• Challenge to Malls

and keys to “success”– have everything

– have it cheaper

Rise of “Big Box’ Retailers

• Expansion of “Category Killer” stores:– specialized “Big Box” stores

• Toys ‘R Us (toys),

• Staples (office supplies)

• Home Depot (home supplies)

– aim to dominate a specific market niche

Rise of “Big Box” Retailers

• Warehouse style buildings with little connection or interaction with neighborhood or town in which located

• Look the same everywhere

• Rapid depreciation and abandonment

• Short life, long term problem