How Unsexy Strip Malls Actually Give Progressive Urbanites What They Want
The election of Olivia Chow as Toronto’s next Mayor seems like an opportune time to talk about STRIP-MALL RETAIL. Huh, you say? Well, surprising as it might be to some, Toronto is one of the most diverse cities in the world, with immigrants accounting for 47% of its population of 2.8 million, second only to Miami. And that’s just the city! In the adjacent older suburb of Scarborough, 56% of the 630,000 people are foreign-born. And much of the retail catering to that diversity is located in… older, often unanchored strip malls. Where, as those who live in L.A. and other Sunbelt metros well know, one often finds the best and most authentic ethnic eateries, along with numerous other shops and services for the newly-arrived – a collective third place of sorts for first generations. Yet because these strip malls also represent an inefficient use of land in regions struggling with affordability – and because, let’s face it, they’re not exactly pretty or glamorous – they can readily become targets for redevelopment. And when they’re redeveloped, something is lost. The shiny new mixed-use complexes that replace them, even ones with inclusionary housing, can do great damage to the existing retail ecosystem, with their street-level spaces raising the barriers-to-entry for such entrepreneurs and ultimately filling with less relevant tenancies. And while I do believe that this process is ultimately a healthy and necessary one for cities and regions, I also feel, on a more subjective (and perhaps selfish) level, that it makes such communities less interesting. Well-educated progressive urbanites love to fetishize mom-and-pops while bemoaning high rents. Well, here’s what a solution looks like. It’s what makes strip malls the retail incubators of the suburbs, gateways to upper mobility, facilitators of multicultural experimentation and yes… places to find some damn fine pupusas. Or dumplings. Or roti.