Northland in Southfield, Michigan, completed in 1954, was Victor Gruen’s first attempt to build a suburban Main Street. The on-site nurseries and carousels that mall managers were urged to provide during that decade of expansion remained in use, but owners also started thinking about entertainment for those older children. Mothers who spent more than $3 at any store in the mall could validate their receipt for one free hour of babysitting.ĭuring the 1960s, when 240 regional malls opened within the decade, those babies turned into toddlers, then children, and finally into teens. Victor Gruen and Elsie Krummeck’s striking modernist design for Milliron’s Department Store in Hawthorne, California, a fast-growing aerospace suburb, included a nursery next to the rooftop parking deck, while Park Central Shopping City in Phoenix was rated “best in class” for its four-room Old Woman in the Shoe playhouse for children. The idealized mallgoer of the 1950s was a young, married white woman, likely with children in tow. The problem, for teenagers and shopping mall managers alike, is not TikTok: it is the lack of physical spaces where teens can be together, blow off steam and learn the rules of engagement – a problem that is perhaps worse than ever. But top-tier malls like Garden State Plaza have seen their occupancy rate rebound to pre-pandemic levels, and sales at malls increased more than 11% between 20. The number of malls in the US is certainly shrinking: 17 malls closed in 2022, and the analyst group Green Street Advisors projects 15 to 20 more will close per year in the near future. In an age of internet shopping, bankrupt department stores, and Covid-19, the mall’s appeal as a teenage hangout has long seemed under threat, too. ![]() Most coverage of shopping malls over the past decade has been about their decline. This is an ironic time for the mall to be making headlines for being too rowdy and crowded. A summertime brawl in South Boston, for example, was sparked by large teen crowds at a movie theater offering $4 tickets. Frequently, when a specific reason is cited for a brawl, it has nothing to do with TikTok. In truth, there are no figures to confirm whether there has been a pandemic-era increase in mall violence, and whether teenagers are specifically to blame in all cases. Mall managers say these curfews are introduced with good reason: an uptick in rowdiness among young people, often blamed on social media, with online invitations leading to large crowds, and fights posted on TikTok. Garden State Plaza said it would create a pickup area outside the mall for unaccompanied young people who are no longer allowed inside, creating a visible walk of shame for teenagers. One California shopping mall even announced that unaccompanied minors would be required to wear lanyards with their names and parents’ numbers (so cringe) after 5PM. Westfield Garden State Plaza is one of dozens American malls that have introduced or expanded curfews or parental escort policies since 2021, in response to reports of crowding, fighting and unruliness. If it were dinnertime, Gael, Odell and Katie, participating in such disruptive acts as smelling bath products and shopping for anime figures, would be escorted out Belle and Adriana would have to stick to Belle’s mom, rather than having the freedom to browse and eat pretzels without her. ![]() Those events, specifically, were a reported brawl in the food court in 2022, and a documented fight in March 2023. ![]() Visitors under 18 years old must always be accompanied by a chaperone 21 or older.” That policy went into effect on 18 April, following what the mall describes as “an increase in disruptive behavior that violates the center’s code of conduct by a small minority of younger visitors”. “Parental Guidance Policy”, the square, tasteful signs read in capital letters. And yet as teenagers navigate the space, and spend their dollars, they are faced with multiple signs that the mall does not really want them here. In many ways, this scene could be straight from an 1980s coming-of-age movie – a continuation of the decades-long tradition of American teenagers using shopping malls for their first taste of independence. The Commons in Columbus, Indiana, included a community playground, a flexible exhibition space, and a kinetic sculpture.
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