More Suburban Shopping/Lifestyle Destinations Bite The Dust
Franklin's grand experiment in destination shopping-cum-sprawl (hat tip, blogger John Michlig) goes the way of Delafield's canceled Lang lifestyle mega-development, the troubled Pabst Farms, (still no '"upscale" mall underway, but some big box stores might find their way close by the subdivisions that are filled with "for-sale" signs), and that effort to pull motorists from afar to the region;s Cabela's.
We constantly hear about public sector officials who can't do adequate planning and forecasting, but isn't this a private sector problem, too?
You can't fake population density or over-hype little pockets' perceived exceptionalism to support costly upmarket retail, which is why Milwaukee's Third Ward and truly diverse Riverwest and Walker's Point have a much better shot at success, and why transit would give some of these suburban investments a chance.
Maybe.
Otherwise, the shaky economy, the region's structural unemployment and overall modest wealth is going to take these ill-conceived, car-dependent entities down, one at a time.
1 comment:
I find it entertaining how you constantly snarl at those crass, SUV loving suburbanites want shopping without transit.
Equally entertaining is your complete ignorance of the nearly empty shopping mall at 4th and Wisconsin in your highly-walkable, transit (bus) friendly urban environment.
Wake up Jim. Maybe, just maybe, people don't want to deal with the hassle of the city. Ever think of it in those terms? That people just don't care for the City, high taxes, crime, poverty, shitty schools, and the rest? Maybe have an honest discussion on how to fix these problems first before you move on to sneering at people who live in the suburbs.
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