In 1959, Kalamazoo, MI, was the first city to respond to suburban shopping malls by turning downtown streets into pedestrian malls. Since then, more than 100 cities have followed Kalamazoo’s example.
In the vast majority of cases, the malls proved to be a disaster for local businesses. Department stores and other shops were boarded up or replaced by low-rent thrift stores or antique malls. The planners who created the malls typically refused to admit failure, and it took decades for the cities to reopen the streets to autos.
