In a well functioning community neighbors are not defined by the mere fact that they watch TV in living rooms situated on the same street. Neighbors are people who share a life in a community’s streets, restaurants, parks, schools, and stores. (Greenberg, 1995) A necessary ingredient to the building of such communities is the advancement of interaction. That interaction needs to be comprehensive in nature, including the interaction which results from the exchange of goods, and services. Without a robust economic base communities can not exist.
The characteristics of a well functioning market place are fairly straight forward, and have been discussed by many authors. Mike Greenberg who wrote, The Poetics of Cities, includes the following among his list of important characteristics:
First, market places, or well functioning main streets must include variety and competition. The well developed market place should offer most of the goods that people need and desire, and it should offer a variety of options or choices.
Secondly, to be economically viable places they must include density, and proximity. Stores must be close together, and easily accessible. Density, and proximity simply increase convenience, and the propensity to shop, and that’s good for business. Unfortunately, our suburban landscape seems to be built on the premise that shopping is bad. The economic base of most of our communities has been fragmented and dispersed. Our stores have been isolated from each other, from the street, and thus from potential customers, by four and five lane highways, and large parking lots.
The necessity of getting in and out of cars, pulling on and off of multi-lane highways is not convenient. Multi-lane highways, and large parking lots represent barriers which shoppers must overcome. Unfortunately, the greater resistance the physical environment puts in the shoppers path, the greater the need or desire must be to overcome that resistance. A typical shopper who sees a store which looks interesting from across a five lane highway, will probably not endure the inconvenience of crossing the parking lot of the strip center he is in, the five lane highway, and then the parking lot of the shop that looks interesting, unless his need is great. Thus, that separation, that lack of proximity, represents barriers, road blocks if you will, to a well functioning market place. The closer the proximity, the greater the convenience, and the more likely the shopper will be to make the trip. On our main streets stores should be next to each other, without large gaps between “centers”, parking should be in the rear, and streets should be designed so that they can be safely and comfortably crossed.
Next a well functioning market place or main street must provide security and comfort. Security , as Jane Jacobs wrote in the Death & Life of Great American Cities , is simply provided by eyes on the street. A street in which people are drawn to during both day and night is a safe street. A street where people look upon, from park benches, or sidewalk cafes, small parks, or apartments above stores is a safe street. A deserted street, or near empty parking lot is neither safe nor inviting. Comfort is provided by wide sidewalks separated from the roadway, and high speed traffic by a row of street trees, bike lanes, or on street parking. A comfortable street is one in which traffic is tamed, and whose landscaping is attractive and well organized.
Such are the basic ingredients of a well functioning market place. Simple, and largely common sense, but rarely found within our communities. Unfortunately, for the health of our neighborhoods, and communities, our well functioning main streets have in suburban American been replaced by malls.
Malls, however, have several inherent problems. First, they are located outside of our communities and we must drive fair distances to get to them. They can not by their very nature, provide us with that sense of community or shared life, that well functioning main streets provide. Further, while malls include all the ingredients of well functioning market places on the inside, their peripheries are rarely integrated with surrounding neighborhoods. Indeed they are usually surrounded by seas of asphalt which separate them from other development, both residential and commercial. Finally, as was stated at the beginning of this short essay, communities are about more than just shopping. They are about interaction, in all its forms: social, political, religious, and educational. Such interaction is usually frowned upon in private realms such as malls.
On a well planned main street stores, banks, lawyers, restaurants, movie theaters, schools, churches, campaign headquarters, libraries, parks, playgrounds, and homes all are mixed into a mutually supportive public space. Successful main streets like successful communities are inclusive, and diverse. Taking the economic component away from our main streets and segregating it in malls, has contributed to the destruction of community. We need to once again design main streets which enhance interaction of all kinds including the interaction which results from the exchange of goods and services.
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Citations:
Greenberg, Mike, The Poetics of Cities, 1997, Ohio State University Press
