The Rise of “Movie-Set Urbanism”
Correct it's no vibrant, bustling organic downtown.But it's still a helluva lot better than nothing at all.The suburbs I grew up in? There were a bunch of shitty strip malls, and a single indoor mall with a single food court with zero natural lighting, taken over by teenagers after school because it was literally the only place to congregate besides the parking lot outside the supermarket.There was no local "center" at all for community.This kind of development would have been a huge life upgrade. Yes it's still built around parking -- but if life is already built around cars in suburbia, there's literally no alternative. Without parking, nobody can get there in the first place.This article seems to be dismissing the better because it only wants the perfect.Edit: to people replying this is still terrible or no better than a mall... look at the photos. This has paths to stroll along, a waterfront, trees, outdoor dining/cafes, building facades that aren't horrible to look at the way painted flat concrete is. You can hang out here and it looks nice. I think some people here must just not be aware of how horrible and ugly strip malls and 1970's-era indoor malls can be. This is objectively a gigantic upgrade for some people.