Cities 07

Erica Jensen
Cities 07

Located in Bloomington, Minnesota, the Mall of America, opened its doors to the
public in 1992. With around 520 stores, an indoor amusement park, a 1.2 million gallon
walk-through aquarium that showcases various ocean life, and a 14 screen movie theater,
just to name some of the attractions, the mall has been the number one tourist attraction
in the United States for years now. Every year more than forty million people visit the
mall from surrounding areas and around the globe, with people from Canada, England,
Japan, Germany, and Scandinavia making up the majority of international tourism. Four
out of every ten people that visit are from areas outside the 150 mile radius of the mall,
and the number of visitors the mall receives annually surpasses that of Disney World, the
Grand Canyon, and Graceland-combined. The Mall of America could be referred to as a
city in its own right. At times, the number of people inside the mall surpasses the number
of people within the city of Bloomington and at 4.2 million square feet, the building even
has its own zipcode. Each year the MOA generates over $1.8 billion in economic
revenue for the state of Minnesota, certainly making this a financially important public
place for Minnesota, but the MOA is significant for a number of reasons in that it
represents many changes in the physical, social, and cultural landscape of America.

Malls are undoubtedly a major aspect of the American culture and landscape, but
are certainly not unique to this country. The concept of a mall, an area of a variety of
commerce which are located in close proximity to each other either within an enclosed
building or a connected structure of seperate stores, dates back to 10th century A.D. with
the Bazaar of Isfahan located in the Middle East. There are a total of 46,990 shopping
malls throughout all fifty states in the U.S. According to Jackson in his piece, "The Drive
in Culture of Contemporary America", the rise of the shopping mall coincides with the
rise of the automobile (with its accomodating interstate highway system), both of which can
be seen to be related to suburanization and urban sprawl in the United States. Americans
have become more adapt to traveling great distances between their homes and other
destinations in order to many things such as work, shop, eat, see a movie etc. Malls have worked
to accomodate suburban dwelling by diminishing their dependance on the commerce in nearby
center cities. In this way the construction of malls in suburbs all across the nation has the effect
of promoting decentralization and urban sprawl as suburban areas most often experience
population growth after malls are constructed in the area. Malls have the appeal of a large
variety of stores in one area, and are considered family friendly because they are climate
controlled and monitored by private security and usually have something for everyone.

In his piece, "Beyond Suburbia: The Rise of the Technoburb", Robert Fishman explains
that, “The movement of factories away from the urban core...created an unforeseen ‘critical
mass’ of entrepreneurship and expertise on the perimeters, which allowed the technoburb to
challenge successfully the two century long economic dominance of the central city” (82) Here
Fishman notes the threat that suburbs pose to central cities which have long served as economic,
political, cultural, and social centers in the U.S. When there is no apparent need that is not met by
resources available in the suburbs, the city diminishes in importance to many. As a result, central
cities in the U.S. are often abandoned by many caucasian and middle-to-upper class people who
move to suburbs, while the deserted city is disproportionately populated by ethnic minorities and
the poor. From what I have learned about the effect of the MOA on the surrounding city of
Minneapolis, the mall seems to pose no clear threat to the economy of the city and in fact is
good for business in Minneapolis, which is different from many other instances where surrounding
downtown areas of cities were negatively impacted by the building of malls in nearby suburbs,
as was the case when Southdale mall opened in Edina, Minnesota. Sam Grabarski, President
and CEO of the Downtown Council remarked that "It turns out, the world thinks the Mall of
America is in downtown Minneapolis. We didn't tell 'em that. They just think that." The recent
addition of the light-rail connecting downtown Minneapolis and the Mall of American built a
solid partnership between the two business centers. The two major public centers have
ended up complementing each other rather than inhibiting the success of one another. The MOA
works to attract people to its variety of retail choices, and downtown Minneapolis still attracts
people with its still thriving nightlife and abundance of art museums. Thus, the success of the
MOA does not really qualify it as a “new downtown” as malls have often become, but rather has
clearly supplemented the attractions present in downtown Minneapolis.

In "The Society of the Spectacle", Guy Debord echoes Karl Marx in that he works to
make explicit how alienated consumption has developed as a counterpart to alienated labor in
developed Capitalist societies. He asserts that as these type of societies, most notably the
United States, have become encapsulated in a vicious cycle of production and consumption
in order to accomodate the demands of a surplus production of commodities. Whereas it used
to be that only those at least somewhat well-off financially were the target consumer base,
the American economy embraces all citizens as consumers of commodities which now
encompass all aspects of life. Debord writes, "The spectacle is the moment when the commodity
has attained the total occupation of social life. Not only is the relation to the commodity visible,
but it is all one sees; the world ones see is its world. Modern economic production extends its
dictatorship extensively and intensively." (42) The existence of the Mall of America and everything
it has to offer is enough to demonstrate the validity of Debord's assertions. When the mall first
opened, its slogan was,"There's a place for fun in your life.", which hints at the reality that malls
have become the prime spot for social recreation for modern day Americans. Thus, work
and play have both come to be controlled by the circulation of the almighty dollar. As a
combination entertainment-retail complex, the MOA works to attract visitors and keep
them there as long as possible spending money on a variety of "fun" activities.Jackson writes,
“There were few windows in these mausoleums of merchandising, and clocks were rarely
seen, just as in gambling casinos.” Here Jackson makes an interesting comparison of malls
with casinos by pointing out how each works to establish a public space into a sort of time
warp where people will lose themselves in expensive splendor.Louis Wirth, another urban
theorist, writes, "Catering to thrills and furnishing means escape from drudgery, monotony,
and routine thus become one of the major functions of urban recreation." Here Wirth notes
that the function of urban recreation works to turn experience into a commodity, where one
pays for a pleasant experience rather than simply creating it themselves. Debord, Wirth, and
Jackson make explicit the dark side of such places as the MOA, and make it hard to find any
good in the fact that such places hold so much weight in modern day America, but in my research
of the MOA, I have found that, as with many things in life, you always end up getting some good
with the bad.

Of course the mall is in its most basic sense, a huge complex of commercialism, but
within that there are elements of humanity that seem to be genuine. A trip to the mall serves as a
neutral meeting place for all different kinds of groups and is one of the most common destinations
of family outings. All of the mall employees that I spoke with during my visit to the mall reported
having a positive attitude and feeling toward the social atmosphere while working at the mall. A
clerk at DSW shoe warehouse said that he felt that people are usually happy when they're at the
mall and are often pleasant to interact with. He also felt that a good atmosphere at the mall was
maintained by a sense of community among all the employees at different stores. The store
manager at Hot Topic reported that she didn't feel the economic interests behind everything in
the mall purely corrupted her work environment, and said she felt the mall took good care of her
as an employee. I also spoke with an employee named Greg at the Explore MN store who is
responsible for meet -and-greets with tourists visiting the mall. He showed me an entire wall of
free information and brochures available in the Explore MN store which highlights numerous
outdoor attractions throughout the state. Greg said that many tourists ask him about other areas
in Minnesota beyond the mall that are nice to see. Besides retail-shopping, the mall does utilize
its public space in ways that seem to foster genuine human interaction not driven by economic
interests: There is a Walksport program which allows people access to the mall to get in their
exercise in a controlled, comfortable environment. Non-profit organizations such as Race for the
Cure are allowed to utilize space for their campaigns without charge. Numerous free events
are held in the mall including live music performances and kid-friendly interactive activities. In late
2005 the mall held a first of its kind exhibition titled, "Homeless Awareness: Artwork by Minnesota
Artists that have experienced homelessness". There are also three different schools located within the
mall, a college, an alternative high school, and an elementary.

As Sharon Zukin discusses in her piece, "Whose Culture? Whose City?", there are
certainly risks involved when public space is privately funded. When private money goes into
public space, those footing the bill have the control to shape that place in ways that makes it
more or less welcoming to certain people. Ethnic minority and working-class people are often
implicity shunned from public spaces which work to appeal to more middle-to-upper class
and Caucasian people. Zukin writes, "Many Americans, born and raised in the suburbs, accept
shopping centers as the preeminent public spaces of our time. Yet while shopping centers are
undoubtedly gathering places, their private ownership has always raised questions about whether
all public has access to them and under what conditions. (146)" Segragation in public spaces is
not entirely something of the past here in the United States, but from my visits to the MOA, it did
not appear to me that certain steps were taken to make specific populations feel less welcome
there, and I came across people from many different background who appeared to have no insecurity
about feeling they had a right to be there just as much as anyone else. In fact, the MOA could be
said to live up to its claim to have something to offer for everyone. With the inclusion of stores such
as The Dollar Tree, Sears and DSW shoe warehouse, those without a lot of money to spend can
find something within their range at the mall. Also, stores such as DEB, Rainbow, D.E.M.O. sell
merchandise which appeals to the fashion tastes of many young African-Americans. If anything, the
availability of numerous metro tranist bus routes which provide people from inner-city areas easy-
access to the mall suggests that the MOA welcomes anyone and everyone. Safety within a mall of
such magnitude requires extensive efforts of social control. There are 100 security officers staffed
inside and outside of the mall, and are on duty all hours. Also, there are 160 closed-circuit tv cameras
located in parking ramps, surface lots, commons areas, and the indoor amusement park. The officers
and the technology are in place to protect the integrity of the mall and to provide a sense of safety to
visitors, but in the past there have been occurrences of violent crimes on its premises, and as a popular
hang-out for young people, teen crime was a growing problem. In 1996 the mall began enforcing the
parental escort policy which requires that youth aged fifteen and younger be accompanied by an adult
aged 21 or older on Fridays and Saturdays after 4 p.m. The mall rules state: "Conduct that is disorderly,
disruptive or which interferes with or endangers business or guests is prohibited. Such conduct may include
running, loud offensive language, spitting, throwing objects, fighting, obscene gestures, gang signs, running,
skating, skateboarding, bicycling etc. Intimidating behavior by groups or individuals, loitering; engaging
in soliciting; blocking storefronts, hallways, skyways, fire exits or escalators, and walking in groups
in such a way as to inconvenience others is prohibited." These rules could be interpreted and exercised
in ways which result in certain types of individuals as being looked at as potential problems by mall
security, and thus their activity would likely be monitored more closely while at the mall. For me,
the behavior that groups of young African-American males often exhibit while socializing comes to
mind while reviewing these rules, and so to see I sought out a group of young African-American males
at the mall and asked them if they ever experienced discrimination while visiting the mall, and they
responded that they felt they were watched in stores by clerks and security more closely than other
shoppers, but were never explicitly discriminated, and they said that being watched while in businesses
was something they were used to, and that mall employees did not seem to do so more than employees
at any other business they frequent. The only group MOA seems to discriminate against is teens, for two
days a week only, and only after being given good reason to do so.

Plans for expansion set to begin this year at the MOA are expected to double it in size with
the addition of hotels, an ice rink, a performance arts center, and possibly even a water park. The
addition, called Phase II, will connect the mall to the Ikea store north of the mall. I came across a
message board online which featured a discussion among Minnesotans concerning the expansion of
the MOA and the subsidy mall owners are asking for in which I thought some good points were
made. User s4xton writes,"They can't even make use of their existing 4th floor...while creating the
largest mall in the United States may have been a great idea then, from what I gather, a lot of
retailers are realizing that many people don't a mall atmosphere...I don't think having a bigger mall is
going to make a lot of people suddenly want to go to the MOA." Another user The Liquid Lens
asserts,"We make our money back on education. We make our money back on roads. We can seem
to afford improving either of those. What makes the mall so special?" These comments illustrate
the kind of differences that arise between those building a public space and those who are likely
to frequent or at least come across it. Increasingly people have no say so or input into how
public spaces are constructed, it is likely that only certain people will be pleased with the result.
An excerpt from the mall's website containing information on the project reports that "While still in the
planning stages, Mall of America Phase II concepts will display a lifestyle-oriented, progressive and
innovative personality that will complement the existing shops and attractions at Mall of America."
If this is the direction that the project ends up going in, then I think it could be very likely that the social
atmosphere of the mall will be altered dramatically as it begins to appeal more to certain interests rather
than to all retail shoppers. With the addition of venues that cater to seemingly more "refined" cultural tastes,
the mall will likely implement strategies to create more of a carefully constructed environment to appeal to
the comfort of a narrower target audience.

The Mall of America represents the prominence of which economic activity shapes human
necessity and leisure and works to exploit this reality. As public spaces, malls present a risk of certain
people not being made as welcome there. In my research of the Mall of America, I have found that
both of these realities are indeed present, but the latter only in a small degree.Economic interests do
not prevent other aspects of humanity from shining through within the mall. Life still goes on at the
mall, where 11,000 people work, children go to school, and the eldery go to walk safe from
bad weather.

Works Cited
Debord, Guy."The Society of the Spectacle". Detroit: Black and Red, 1983 (2000).
Jackson. “The Drive-In Culture of Contemporary America”. In City Reader, ed. Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout, 67-76. London: Routledge, 1996.
Fishman, Robert."Beyond Suburbia:The Rise of the Technoburb". In City Reader, ed. Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout, 77-85. London: Routledge, 1996.
Zukin, Sharon. “Whose Culture? Whose City?”. In City Reader, ed. Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout, 135-146. London: Routledge, 1996.
Wirth, Louis.“Urbanism As a Way of Life.” In City Reader, ed. Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout, 97-104. London: Routledge, 1996.
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