Peter Gordon's "City Lite" Blog

Peter Gordon's blog has an interesting article that described Birkdale and others like it: Legacy in Plano near Dallas; Atlantic Station near Atlanta; Santana Row near San Francisco. This blog sight relates a WSJ article that talks about New Urban developments that are modeled after traditional downtowns. The gyst of the article is that Birkdale style developments are becoming more popular. Some places like Bishop Road are so large and complete that some residents never need to leave since that place also includes a business park.

As a kid I used to wonder what it would be like to live in a large mall. At the time a new mall had opened near our house and it looked so cool. Now I despise traditional malls as loud, noisy, traffic nightmares. I guess that someday people will live on Mars on indoor malls. In retrospect what attracted me about malls was the action and the sense of life. I think Birkdale and developments like it offer the sense of life with the ability to enjoy the outdoors and to do more than just shop. This is an interesting quote about Birkdale style development vs the traditional mall:

"Only one mall has opened in 2006, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, a New York City-based trade group. By contrast, more than 60 so-called lifestyle centers -- outdoor shopping areas with plazas, fountains and pedestrian streets -- are planned to open this year and next."

I wonder if that one mall was Northlake of Highway 77, Exit 18?