The Old Mall

Jesse Walker | December 11, 2006

The L.A. Times has pulled together a fine package of articles on that most Orange Julius-friendly of social institutions, the shopping mall. The contributors include two ex-Reasoners: Virginia Postrel, who explores the evolution of the mall into an urban center, and Tim Cavanaugh, who explains how "the indoor mall rose -- and fell -- with the vision of the space station."

Elsewhere in Reason: From 2002, Peter Bagge's four-page comic on the mall and its enemies, a cartoon denounced by one critic as "a portrait of protean loathing." And from 2003, my own story on suburban utopias, with a starring role for the mall-making pioneer James Rouse. I don't have a denunciation of that one handy, so feel free to write your own in the comments.