If you take away the high street shopping and put them into malls, you are taking away the life and soul of all street life which is the most essential factor in making a city look beautiful, look lively, look happening and be happening.
Malls are basically an extension of the gated community concept. You are encasing people into an enclave. Closed, away from what is happening in the city. It’s almost like imprisonment of something which should be very social and part of the fabric of the city.
Malls destroy the high street. The most important concept of a good city is the high street. How successful a high street is in a city will indicate how healthy a city is, how lively a city is. These city sidewalks, the city footpaths, the city pedestrian walkways provide the soul and life to a city, not enclosed areas where pedestrians hangout.
Pedestrians should be out in the open, interacting with people and high street shopping encourages that. There’s very little excitement you can get from only seeing landscaping and gardens. Imagine a pedestrian walking down a street and he just sees beautiful compound walls with miles and mils of bougainvillea’s or flowers ; Beyond a point it is not interesting!
You need the high street shopping to provide life to the street, to provide places to of course visit but also for civic amenities, cultural areas, restaurants and coffee shops to hangout on. This is the reason why in the most successful cities in the world they allow even the restaurants to put a few chairs and tables on to the sidewalk. Its encouraged because it adds life to the street.
