Redesigning Malls

I really enjoyed the Dec. 14 article about the “demalling” of America. I could not help but think about all the articles written over the past several decades lamenting the loss of Main Street to these behemoth regional malls. The death of Main Street was all but assured by the omnipresent car, taking us all to that huge box five to 10 miles out of town, where we could walk in air-conditioned splendor while we grazed on merchandise always on sale.

Has anyone noticed that what they’re now remodeling and building anew looks a good deal like the much-lamented Main Street? Here we have “loft” apartments above retail shops. Sounds like the walk-ups of the ‘50s. Maybe the owner of the shop will live there, too. And again we have office space among the shops and large stores. Sounds like a downtown to me. Movie theaters spaced among the stores. I remember that from my childhood. “Open-air shopping”--what a novelty. Perhaps these “new malls” will become the “new” Main Streets, where we can attend band concerts, go for a stroll, meet friends and sit on a bench, just soaking up the ambience of this new community.

MITCHELL F. KEIL

Huntington Beach