Famous Quotes | Anyone having that dual...

Anyone having that dual familiarity with prewar small towns and modern shopping malls will ... be repelled by the comparison. A preoccupation with physical facades coupled with a lack of sociological insight is common among the mall’s many fans.... Totally unlike Main Street, the shopping mall is populated by strangers. As people circulate about in the constant, monotonous flow of mall pedestrian traffic, their eyes do not cast about for familiar faces, for the chance of seeing one is small. That is not part of what one expects there. The reason is simple. The mall is centrally located to serve the multitudes from a number of outlying developments within its region. There is little acquaintance between these developments and not much more within them. Most of them lack focal points or core settings and, as a result, people are not widely known to one another, even in their own neighborhoods, and their neighborhood is only a minority portion of the mall’s clientele. - Ray Oldenburg
Attribution: Ray Oldenburg, U.S. sociologist, educator. “Main Street,” The Great Good Place, Paragon House (1989).

Categories: Educator, Shopping Malls, Small Towns, Sociologist

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