Comment 12409

By adrian (registered) | Posted October 04, 2007 at 11:21:17

What I don't understand is why anyone would support building these structures at all. I don't know anybody who enjoys going to the Meadowlands or Wal-Mart or really, any big box location.

I do, however, know lots of people who tolerate the conditions in these concrete expanses because the prices are good and the selection is wide.

Are city planners really so different from the rest of us? Are the "architects" who create these buildings so different, too? Or does everyone pretty much just accept that low prices and wide variety have to go along with mind-numbing parking lots, insane traffic, no way to walk from A to B, and a generally unpleasant shopping experience?

The marketplaces in the poor nations I have visited, like Cuba or (not as poor), Mexico, are infinitely more enjoyable to shop in than our big box developments. And yet, for some reason, in our rich nation, we seem incapable of building a plaza that anyone actually wants to be in.

I really don't think that the people who build these things, the people that own them, or the people who work in them, actually like anything about them besides the dollars and cents they generate. I really, truly don't understand why they keep building them this way.

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