Supafly.com

Note: I never imagined that I would end up doing a 4-part series on shopping centers. This started as a simple journal about my frustration with the inhumanity of malls, and it developed into a thesis of sorts.

I spent most of my childhood in the 1980s, and nobody thought the idea of a suburb was a bad thing. Actually, everyone was a big fan. Almost every movie or TV show in that decade was obsessed with the the suburb and it’s grand landmark: The Mall. If you believed what you saw on TV (which I did), the mall was the center of every young person’s glorious social life. That’s where you hung out with friends, bought clothes, and met pretty girls. I knew the mall is where I was meant to be.

The only time I encountered this magical place was once a year when my family traveled two hours south to Gwinnett Place Mall, about 30 minutes north of Atlanta. My young teenage mind got dizzy off the sites and sounds of the place. I frolicked in every single acre of paradise.

By the time I was in college, I was too cool for the mall (just like every other kid raised in the 1980s who came of age in the 1990s.) But on the rare occasion that I absolutely had to go to the mall, I was got frustrated by the traffic, the game of finding a parking space, and the mindless consumerism. I preferred the quaint corners of the leafy streets of the city. Areas like Little Five Points, Virginia Highland, and Midtown. I couldn’t understand why anyone would shop anywhere else.

When I traveled, I was drawn to cities that had vibrant street life: New York, Chicago, Boston, and to a degree, New Orleans. I loved walking past the sidewalk cafes and exploring the stores. I discovered that one thing all these cities had in common was they were built before the invention of the automobile. With few exceptions, every other city in America boomed after people decided they’d rather drive somewhere than walk. This is why we have highways, exit ramps, large parking lots–all the familiar topography of a suburb.

I’m old enough to know that suburbs can be very good places to live, often with good schools, low crime rates, and more space for a grassy backyard. I’ve also witnessed the wide variety of “neighborhood shopping centers” that can make or break a neighborhood. I’ve experienced first hand that a shopping center can enhance the livability of the neighborhood, or exploit the residents for financial gain.

I should note that I’ve had no formal education on architecture, city planning, or commercial Real Estate development. Everything that I’ve written here is from the perspective of someone who loves city life, and wants people to be happy as they live out there days.

I’m so convicted about this that I did some work on Google maps people could get a bird’s eye view. Although the images might at first seem boring, they tell the unique story of the entire experience of shopping.

Here are 10 examples of how you make a large shopping center outside of downtown.

---

1. Gwinnett Place Mall, Duluth, GA
Cool Factor: 0 out of 5
Online: http://www.simon.com/mall/default.aspx?ID=205Here you see a gazillion square feet of climate-controlled hell wrapped in acres of hot pavement. You can see a few rows of trees to break up the barron parking lot, but it’s hardly enough. Between your car and the mall’s doors is a brutal game of Man v. Machine where you try not to run over. Seriously, where are the sidewalks for the humans and the baby carriages?

The thought of driving the loop around the mall makes me want to vomit.

Although you can’t see it from the photo, the entryways into the mall are simple doors that allow you to pass from the parking lot into the store. There’s no “front porch” to make the transition more friendly. If it’s like any other mall built in the same era, there are no front display windows to draw you inside. From the outside, the mall is ugly and completely at odds with the natural surroundings. Essentially, it’s cubic structure of concrete built on top of acres of pavement. What could be more lifeless?

---

2. The Block at Orange, Orange Country, California
Cool Factor: 2 out of 5
Online: http://www.simon.com/mall/default.aspx?ID=1236I first visited The Block in 2000 or 2001 when I spoke at an event at nearby high school. Then earlier this year I visited it a second time for Adam and Carolyna’s wedding rehearsal dinner at Dave and Busters.

The Block at Orange has a taste of the visual intensity of Times Square in NY.

You can see that it’s still a mall, except it’s divided up so you can walk outside.

It’s fun to walk in between the stores while enjoying the nice weather. There is plenty of tree shade too so I imagine it never gets too hot. The bad thing is that it still has a mall’s parking lot. The parking lot is an uninterrupted band of concrete that circles the shops. Once you get out of your car, there’s no excitement until you escape the parking lot. But still, everyone I know feels cooler at The Block than a typical mall.

But we’re not quite there.

 

---

3. Clay Terrace in Carmel, IN
Cool Points: 4 out of 5
Online: http://www.simon.com/mall/default.aspx?ID=860Clay Terrace wasn’t finished when I drove through one early morning a few years ago, but it seemed like it was destined to become the charming downtown marketplace for the upscale town of Carmel.

<

I found this picture online. I’m loving the classic architectural details of the subdued storefronts.

The central boulevard keeps drivers going slow with the two loop-around circles. (I don’t know what they are called.) And how much more fun is that? It’s what makes Columbus Circle in Manhattan such a whimsical place. It’s a Merry Go Round for adults.

There is plenty of street-side parking off of Clay Terrace Blvd, much like what you see off of downtown streets. People love to park in these spots. It’s a little silly to write a sentence like that, but there’s something about street-side parking that is more exciting than parking in the car pasture of a typical shopping mall.

A new downtown for Carmel, Indiana.

There are plenty of of spaces in the parking lots on the outskirts, but they are divided up to not seem so overwhelming. The stripes of white that extend out from Clay Terrace Boulevard are probably sidewalks, the ultimate courtesy to pedestrians. This shopping center must be a huge asset to the community. There is not a single Realtor in Carmel that doesn’t first drive down Clay Terrace Boulevard before showing an out-of-town buyer their next new house.

While Candyce was at Mass on Sunday I watched an episode of MTV Cribs dedicated to 50 Cent’s house outside of Hartford, Connecticut. (I’m pretty sure he bought this from Mike Tyson’s ex-wife.) I should start by explaining that this estate is massive: 17.6 acres, 48,515 square feet, 19 bedrooms, 19 full and 16 half bathrooms. MASSIVE!

 

Does 50’s house make him not gangster?

 

If I were in high school living with Mom and Dad, I might be jealous of somebody with a house that big. It’s the ultimate stage of glamor and success. But anybody who owns a house watched that episode with a different perspective:

1. Maintenance. I know 50 isn’t pushing a vacuum around a house that’s half the size of a Target store. That means he has to hire people to maintain the inside and outside of his house. Think of the chores: mow the lawn, spray for bugs, maintain the pools, remove dead tree branches after a storm, repair cracks in the driveway, change light bulbs, etc. The list goes on and on.

   Since 50 doesn’t want to manage armies of workers, my guess is he got smart and hired full-time estate manager dude. At the end of the day, 50 has to sit down with this guy in the kitchen to find out what’s going down around the house. I’ve never seen this meeting in a rap video. Gangsters aren’t supposed to know about the flowers being planted in the pots next to the front door. That kind of stuff is just supposed to happen.

   

   17.6 acres of manual labor.

2. Relationship drama. My house is just under 3,000 square feet, so it would take 12 houses just like mine to match the size of 50 Cent’s house. Even with it’s diminutive size, Candyce and I get in at least one fight each week day because we’re trying to communicate when we’re in separate rooms. After 30 seconds of playing shout tag, we end up in the same room exasperated and angry:
   

   What were you saying? I answered you didn’t you hear me?!

   It’s gotten a little better each month since we’ve been married, but I can’t lie and say that we have this whole thing worked out. We get mad a lot.

   Now, if 50’s girlfriend is at the house, how are they supposed to talk to each other? If she makes a “quick trip” to the kitchen 300 paces away, how is 50 supposed to find her when she gets lost? It’s a funny scene to imagine 50 and his hotty girlfriend trying to find one another, almost like a hip hop version of Marco Polo or hide-and-go-seek. What if half way through this game 50 stumbled upon a groupie from 3 nights ago who got lost on her way to get a get a blanket from the closet? Wouldn’t that be embarrassing.

   Let’s presume 50 is monogamous. If he and Hotty want to keep the relationship sweet, the most reasonable solution is for both of them to carry walkie-talkies everywhere they go. When 50 struts to the game room to get a lighter for his cigar, he’s got a walkie-talkie in one hand. When she steps into the boudoir to slip into something more comfortable, she’ll come back to bed carrying a walk-talkie. That’s just not sexy. No gangster points here.

3. Losing Things. When I lived in a 1000 square foot apartment after college, I never lost things. I lose things ALL THE TIME now. And it’s not because I’m losing my mind; there is just a lot of space to devour my stuff. Poor 50 Cent. If he loses his keys in his 50k square foot home, he won’t make that 10 O’clock meeting in the city. He’d be smart to chain down his TV remotes. Because once they’re gone, they’re gone! He’s stuck watching the same channel because he’s too tired to make the 40 foot roundtrip to the TV and back. No gangster points there.
4. Bumps in the night. Anybody who owns a home knows what it’s like to hear a bump in the night. Even if you have a security system, you hear something like that and assume that somebody is breaking into your house. With a modest sized home, you can pick up your baseball bat, do a couple laps around the house, and be back in bed in under 2 minutes. It could take 50 Cent 45 minutes to scope out the joint. He might even have to stop half way through the rounds just to make coffee to stay alert.Now that I think of it, I bet 50 doesn’t even hear most of the bumps in the night. Again, if you consider how large the house is, it’s the equivalent of me waking up at night because I heard my neighbor knock over a vase 3 houses down the street. So in 50’s palatal home, people could come and go as they please. There might be members of Eminem’s D12 setting up camp in a remote corner of the west wing. Really, Kanye West could break in and film a music video while 50 is fast asleep. To give Kanye the gangster points he deserves, you’ll have to take ‘em away from 50.

I guess 50 Cent has realized his house is not that gangster, which is why it is for sale for a cool $18,500,000. I doubt 50 will get that much money for it, but he only paid a modest $4,100,000 for it back in 2003, so whatever he gets for it will give him a hefty profit.

Now that’s gangster.

Traveling for Bored Travelers. I’ve traveled so much over the past decade that the idea of “traveling” is not exciting on it’s own. You might be able to impress a 20-year-old intern with tall tales of glamorous business travel, but any frequent traveler will tell you that flying is isn’t much more glamorous than riding a city bus across town.

Even if you fly first class, you still have to go through the same drudgery as everyone else before and after a flight: checking bags downstairs, passing through security with no shoes and no belt, waiting for delayed flight, occupying your time before takeoff, etc. This bland reality of traveling has forced me into various experiments to amuse myself.

For instance, I got back this morning from a quick overnight trip to Ontario, California. The only thing I brought with me were my cars keys and my cell phone. No luggage, no toiletries, no computer. I left the house as if I were driving to the coffee shop for an espresso. It was a little weird wearing the same clothes two days in a row, and my mouth was raunchy after not brushing last night or this morning. But other than that, it was a no-hassle way to travel. If I fly anywhere just for a night, I’ll probably do it again.

Welcome San Bernadino Residents. It was exciting to see all the people who traveled from the far corners of the Inland Empire to come to the event. I remember in high school how exciting it was to meet teenagers from other towns, so I can imagine how exciting it was to be at the event last night. You had 250 new best friends. How much fun is that?

Second generation youth leaders. Last night a dozen or so of us went out for a late night dinner. It was bizarre and exciting to realize that most of the adults at the table actually came to events I spoke at when they were in high school. Now they’re involved at leaders in their churches and community.

Coziness. It’s been a chilly afternoon for Phoenix, so I bought some Christmas coffee to commemorate the event. The house was already feeling Christmasy because Candyce decorated the place when I was gone. Once the fire was blazing in the fireplace, the house was cozy enough to the shoot photos for a Christmas catalogue.

Tivo is awesome because it’s like renting DVDs but not paying for them. This afternoon we watched Elf (funny), Sweet Home Alabama (alright), and Bringing Down the House (dumb). And we watched a Suns game. After such a difficult week at work and trip out of town, today was perfect day to rest my body and relax my mind.