31 August 2019

Can you build main streets in the suburbs?

If you care about cities, this video upload presents a fairly good look at the history and evolution of what we here in America call "Main Street" and the quintessential proverbial 'historic' and 'authentic' downtowns that changed forever when streets and traffic were no longer driven by people who lived and walked downtown.
Car-driven culture moved populations to bedroom-communities in the new suburbs, creating shopping malls, some that were climate-controlled. That evolved to try to re-create what turned out to 'authentic-ish' but were reacted to as fake or un-authentic.
What's happening now is the creation of Life-Style Centers to provide "the experience" . . .
Most of them are privately-owned, whereas older downtown areas that can evolve organically are public spaces.

 

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