Lessons learned from a failing local mall
There’s a lot of over-summarizing going on in the comments here. The context you need to understand the Strong Towns argument is that this isn’t an appeal to nostalgia. Rather the author is trying to point out that the transition to the suburban centralized retail model was heavily subsidized by local and state governments, and that it actually hurt the local economy in the end.<p>The problem is that same public infrastructure subsidy program remains the principal model of “economic development” across the US.<p>The main case Strong Towns is trying to make is that the model does not produce returns (ie local tax income less infrastructure maintenance and public service liabilities) that justify the investment, and thus we need to stop using it.