Mulling Over a Mall

It was a beautiful place. I ended up there a couple of times a year, going wide-eyed in the toy department at Marshall Fields and loving the ocean of books at Kroch's & Brentano's. Billy Williams even autographed a copy of his biography for me there.

It was an outdoor shopping mall. And it was human-scaled, with architecture that seduced you with sublime proportions and grace instead of bludgeoning you with overkill.

The shopping mall had but a single two-story store. with the remainder contenting themselves with single-story spaces. Islands of grass and planters and a fish pond lent a park-like atmosphere to the center, to the point where I regret never settling into one of the brown wooden benches and cracking open a book or two.

Old Orchard was that kind of place. 

Subdued outdoor lighting created an intimate feel after dark, especially during autumn when windswept leaves would crackle and scrape across the pavement. The barren bushes were a natural host for Christmas lights, which provoked still more wonder. 

Unlike nearly everything that followed, it was understated. It didn't scream—it whispered.

As it turns out, that was a sin. As was expecting it to somehow duck the twenty-first century and its obsession with size and ostentatiousness.

The stores grew bigger and taller. Pretentious, oversized facades compete for attention. A two-level parking deck was constructed and the fish pond paved over. Overseen by an international real estate holding company, it was sanitized. Standardized. And homogenized.

There is virtually no risk of ever feeling you are somewhere...different.

Despite this, the mall has fared well. It isn't clotted with empty storefronts and whitewashed windows. (Given the current interest in all things mid-century, I can't help but wonder how popular the mall would be had it never been “updated”.)

But it isn't enough. Because its owners haven't been made exponentially wealthier every year, they demand redress from anyone able to provide it. As it happens, that would be the Skokie Village Board, who voted 7 – 1 to add a one-percent (how symbolic!) sales tax onto every purchase made at the mall.

But the most interesting component of this is that this “tax” won't be going to Skokie, IL. It won't be going to Cook County. It won't be going to the state of Illinois. It will be going to the owner of Unibail-Rodomco-Westfield.

Yay.

This to (nudge, nudge) “enable” that struggling real estate colossus to “improve” the mall. Even more than it already has, I mean.

Yeah.

What's really interesting is how this places the mall at a disadvantage relative to the extensive retail developments that surround it. I can see their banners now: “Shop here and save one-percent compared to Old Orchard!”

It's a bit difficult to see how increasing the mall's sales tax from 10.25% to 11.25% is going to enhance Old Orchard's viability.

But as a libtard and a snowflake, what do I know? Nothing, probably.

The dynamic isn't unusual: mollify the billionaire. Fuck everybody else.

Are we an oligarchy yet?