1. Urban Politics Urban Crisis 2

2. Overview Suburban Growth and Malling of America Rise of “Big Box” Retailers Impact of Suburbs on Urban Politics

3. Suburban Growth Greatest beneficiaries of federal highway programs and real estate were developers of shopping malls

4. Suburban Growth Between mid 1950s and late 1970s: 22,000 suburban shopping centers built By late 1990s: 43,000

5. Suburban Growth That includes thousands of strip malls –one main anchor with smaller stores, facing parking

6. Suburban Growth Regional malls –30 acres –usually enclosed –at least one anchor store with 100,000 feet leasable space

7. Suburban Growth Superregional malls –total 1,400,000 square feet of leasable space –e.g., Mall of American (Bloomington, Minnesota) 4 anchor stores, 520 stores, 51 restaurants, 8 nightclubs, 14 movie screens, and a theme park

8. Suburban Growth Mall of America: –4.2 million square feet –2.5 million square feet of leasable space –600,000 to 900,000 visitors weekly –42.5 million visitors per year* *tops Disney World, Graceland, and Grand Canyon as most popular tourist destination in U.S.

9. Rise of “Big Box” Retailers Development of “edge nodes” –Growth areas of commercial development usually outside of downtown urban areas near interstate highway exchanges –Usually lack the public space, transit, pedestrian amenities, and overall density of a traditional downtown.

10. Rise of “Big Box” Retailers With development of edge nodes emphasis is on automobile rather than pedestrian Rapid depreciation of land, rapid turnover of tenants Build cheap buildings with big signs

11. Rise of “Big Box” Retailers Rise of Walmart Challenge to Malls and keys to “success” –have everything –have it cheaper

12. Rise of “Big Box’ Retailers Expansion of “Category Killer” stores: –specialized “Big Box” stores Toys ‘R Us (toys), Staples (office supplies) Home Depot (home supplies) –aim to dominate a specific market niche

13. Rise of “Big Box” Retailers Warehouse style buildings with little connection or interaction with neighborhood or town in which located Look the same everywhere Rapid depreciation and abandonment Short life, long term problem