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Even on Black Friday many mall parking lots are far from full. https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/11/27/highlights-from-black-friday-parking-2017 https:/

Even on Black Friday many mall parking lots are far from full. https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/11/27/highlights-from-black-friday-parking-2017 https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/11/27/highlights-fr...

ghaff 8y ago
I'm not sure how much that tells you. There are plenty of moribund malls around. I'll probably be able to find plenty of parking outside JC Penney or Toys R Us at the one near me any day of the year. There are other local malls I'm not going anywhere near after about mid November.
- ryanwaggoner 8y ago
  Yeah, malls are dying, and they're almost certainly not paying enough for the value of all that empty parking. Land value tax!
  - ghaff 8y ago
    The dying malls are mostly in less affluent and more rural areas where land isn't in especially high demand. That's certainly the case with the one fairly near me.
    - st26 8y ago
      Folks on this board might be familiar with Valco, a mall which has been dying for thirty years. Smack in the middle of Cupertino, which no-one would describe as less-affluent or more-rural.
  - UncleEntity 8y ago
    Paying who enough exactly? Dying malls get liquidated and repurposed if it's economically viable otherwise they just sit there as a giant husk of "what was" because it hurts no one for them to merely exist.
    - lotsofpulp 8y ago
      It hurts society, but when the damage is spread out over tens of thousands of citizens, it can take a lot of effort to distract them from their day of work and taking care of kids to come together and decide to raise enough money to purchase the empty land and turn it into a park or something the community can use like dense living and services people want. Just because something exists doesn't mean the market is working. Central Park doesn't exist because it was "economically viable", some things are difficult to put in monetary terms and especially when it requires voters to get together to come to a concensus. The empty mall lot owner can probably keep re-financing the land and using it as a piggy bank since property values are on a tear in the Valley...what do they care how little value it provides to nearby and prospective residents.
gruez 8y ago
source: a few cherrypicked tweets

ghaff 8y ago

I'm not sure how much that tells you. There are plenty of moribund malls around. I'll probably be able to find plenty of parking outside JC Penney or Toys R Us at the one near me any day of the year. There are other local malls I'm not going anywhere near after about mid November.

ryanwaggoner 8y ago
Yeah, malls are dying, and they're almost certainly not paying enough for the value of all that empty parking. Land value tax!
- ghaff 8y ago
  The dying malls are mostly in less affluent and more rural areas where land isn't in especially high demand. That's certainly the case with the one fairly near me.
  - st26 8y ago
    Folks on this board might be familiar with Valco, a mall which has been dying for thirty years. Smack in the middle of Cupertino, which no-one would describe as less-affluent or more-rural.
- UncleEntity 8y ago
  Paying who enough exactly? Dying malls get liquidated and repurposed if it's economically viable otherwise they just sit there as a giant husk of "what was" because it hurts no one for them to merely exist.
  - lotsofpulp 8y ago
    It hurts society, but when the damage is spread out over tens of thousands of citizens, it can take a lot of effort to distract them from their day of work and taking care of kids to come together and decide to raise enough money to purchase the empty land and turn it into a park or something the community can use like dense living and services people want. Just because something exists doesn't mean the market is working. Central Park doesn't exist because it was "economically viable", some things are difficult to put in monetary terms and especially when it requires voters to get together to come to a concensus. The empty mall lot owner can probably keep re-financing the land and using it as a piggy bank since property values are on a tear in the Valley...what do they care how little value it provides to nearby and prospective residents.

gruez 8y ago

source: a few cherrypicked tweets