The Old Mall

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.