More and more malls are having problems with violence and are having to do this....
If you want less economic activity, just implement practices that reduce security. Stop punishing for violent crime, let people out of jail early for heinous crimes.
There's nothing more terrifying than a giant elaborate dance number breaking out unexpectedly.
I lol'd at this!
Yeah. Especially since malls were never known to be places where groups of kids went to do nothing else except shop.
But times are different now.
Let's close this feedback loop. What financial reasons are causing MacArthur Mall to shut down? Could it be.... maybe.... gang violence dissuading customers from visiting the stores? ?
You've probably hit the nail on the head there.
First ... you make the assumption that people that go and shoot random people in public (or seemingly random...
You got it right n the first sentence, but then you veered off into the weeds.
After suicide, the biggest perpetrators of violent crime are those practicing gang violence. According to the FBI, up to 60% of all crimes committed with a gun (after you remove suicides) are committed by gangs.
America, the power is in your hands to stop this. If you choose not to, well then stores will continue to close and I'll continue to be right: As a nation, we get the violence we want.
This is getting off topic, but I'm of a fairly firm opinion that one has to have a level of sanity below what is typical to be willing to shoot another human being for any reason beyond self defense or defense of others' lives.
Rationally minded people don't freely commit murder and there's never a justification for it. It's part of living in a civilized society.
Oh yes they do make rational decisions. Gang members? 12 year old terrorists? This is not mental illness; it is a conscious choice, especially knowing that we refuse to punish for the crime of murder.
Here's what WOULD be insane: A person, knowing that the penalty for murder is death and seeing that the penalty is consistently meted out for the crime of murder....still commits the crime. That might be a level of lowered sanity.
But in this era? No, we DON'T punish harshly for serious crimes; not at all. And when we do, we let them out of jail at the blink of an eye (Covid, early release, etc). So engaging in violence can be and often is a conscious choice made by duly considering all of the pros and cons.
The death of shopping malls is highly overstated. There was so much expansion in the 90s that we were bound to see some retraction. There was also a shift to outdoor shopping centers, which are basically outdoor malls. I would love to see some data on the actual rate of retail space construction in the US by square foot per year for the past few decades but I can't find any.
Malls are dying all over. Many were actually demolished/removed in the 80s, long before your "90s expansion". Then they started dying again in the late 90s and the 10s, and continue to this day.
Google "dying malls", there are a number of interesting (but very sad) sites documenting the death of malls, complete with pictures.
