Threshold Resistance by A. Alfred Taubman Read Free Book Online

planner, Rouse studied man’s built environment and worked throughout his distinguished career to improve the quality and sensitivity of land-use decisions across the nation. While he was generally complimentary, Jim was uncertain about some of my merchandising theories. He was concerned that people would find my environments more controlling and manipulative than traditional downtown shopping districts. “You know, Al,” he said, “you really can’t force people to do things they don’t want to do.”
    I certainly wasn’t going to dismiss the opinion of James Rouse, who had developed thriving communities from a blank sheet of paper. But I didn’t think that we were that far apart in our thinking. “Jim,” I said, “many inner cities are failing, especially as retail destinations. I want to duplicate the best aspects of the downtown shopping experience and eliminate the disadvantages that are holding our cities back. Ultimately, the shopper will have more freedom to do whatever she wants in my space. That’s the beauty of being able to start from scratch. By reducing the amount of threshold resistanceinherent in the physical layout of traditional retail districts and focusing more on the merchandising of the space, I think both the shopper and the retailer can win. And I’m sure the landlord will be better off.”
    I’m not so sure I made a sale that day with James Rouse. But just consider your own experiences, and I think you’ll understand my point of view.
    Let’s start with a typical street grid in a typical downtown. Let’s say Main Street is the primary east-west commercial artery. Intersecting Main are north-south cross streets we’ll name First, Second, Third, and Fourth. The distance between each cross-street along Main is about 330 feet, a typical city block. The town’s most popular department store stands on the northwest corner of Main and Second. Two blocks east, at the southeast corner of Main and Fourth, is a multilevel parking deck, the primary parking spot for downtown shoppers.
    Because so many shoppers park their cars at Main and Fourth, walk to the department store at Main and Second, and return to their cars, the street-front shops along Main between these two destinations are situated in what we call “100 percent” locations. They can count on the highest level of pedestrian traffic passing by their front doors day after day, and benefit the most from impulse buying. Consequently, the landlords of these buildings can command the highest retail rents. By the way, studies as far back as those conducted by Leonardo da Vinci tell us that a person feels comfortable walking only about three blocks, or 1,000 feet, from his or her home for discretionary trips. Beyond that, one senses a need to return home. That’s why walkable, high-volume districts within cities are typically three blocks long.
    Because of the considerable rent premium paid for direct access to pedestrian traffic, a healthy downtown typically will not feature restaurants, banks, travel agencies, and other services along Main.These uses are less dependent upon walk-in traffic and impulse purchases, so they will be located on the cross-streets, midblock off Main. (Walk up Madison Avenue in midtown New York, one of the world’s great retailing strips, and count the restaurants. You won’t find many.) In struggling downtowns, as opposed to healthy ones, you tend to see those secondary uses, especially banks, occupying prime locations better suited for retail.
    Now, here’s where opportunities for improvement come in. In our pretend city I purposely placed the department store and parking deck on opposite sides of Main Street. In this very typical situation, a pedestrian will have to cross Main at some point between Fourth and Second on her way to the department store and back to her car. (I should point out that women are the majority of mall