-=> Quoting Gregory Procter to Don Dellmann <=-
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 GP> Christchurch New Zealand pop 360,000 is just developing the
 GP> same way with big malls in the suburbs forcing residents
 GP> into cars. We could think about the forthcomming problems
 GP> and avoid them, but collectively we won't.
       It would appear in most places in the USA, in any
event, that stores have been forced to move out of downtown
because people don't want to go downtown any more.  One thing
that is often overlooked is that most stores can no longer
afford delivery service and still price their merchandise at
prices people will pay, and in addition people no longe feel
secure in leaving their houses unlocked nor their deliveries
unsecured.  
       It is not that the malls force people into cars, but
that people have forced stores into locations closer to
them.
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 GP> OK, so change it! I don't mean go back to the 1930s, but
 GP> people are social animals, we accept that many things are
 GP> shared for all our benifits. eg. water, power, sewerage,
 GP> telephone, et al.
       In the USA power and telephone are rapidly becoming
not shared, with many different vendors in competition.  And
things are shared only where it is for "all our benifits
[sic]"; many, probably most, people feel the roads are for
our mutual benefits but that public transport is not a
benefit for them.
 GP> Surely we could accept town planning? Divide the cities
 GP> into 250,000-500,000p units with central mall/business
 GP> area and residential areas, or go the other way with
 GP> residential areas as the center and run light rail
 GP> routes to the surrounding business areas.
       In the first place, economies with centralized
planning, no matter how well intentioned, have not been
outstandingly successful.  One trouble, of course, is that
the planners go for "efficiency," which turns out not
to meet the needs of a great many people, and the
"efficiencies," which should theoretically result, usually
do not.
       People are not the machines that planners assume,
but as you note are social animals and have a great
variety of needs and desires.
       Another factor is that not all people want to go
to a business area, or don't what to go to the business
area that the planner has designated for them, or that
no stores will locate there because there be no
customers and they know they will go bankrupt, or that
the stores that do locate there will not meet the variety
of needs of people.
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