SHOPPING
Economic & Business Development
The Death and Afterlife of the Mall
Video by The Atlantic The shopping mall has had a dramatic fall from grace. Once the veritable town square and a cornerstone of American consumerism, malls have aged into oblivion, replaced by cheaper and more convenient alternatives. Today, these sprawling complexes are mostly ghost towns—dilapidated vestiges of their former selves. In a new episode of The Idea […]
Economic & Business Development
Dead Malls, Everywhere
Readers weigh in on malls past their prime
Economic & Business Development
Dead Malls, Reborn Cities
Ideas from the readers
Economic & Business Development
What Happens to Abandoned Malls?
Opinions differ
Economic & Business Development
Dodge City Postcard
Notes from the ground, from the sky, and from the people of Dodge City, Kansas
Economic & Business Development
A Community College at the Center of an Oregon Recovery Story
When the lumber industry left, the region bet its future on technology—even though it lacked a research university
Economic & Business Development
The Battle for Downtown, From Canada to the Carolinas
"It is strange, but true." What one reader says about Raleigh, North Carolina, applies many other places as well.
Economic & Business Development
An Incredible Time-Capsule View of One Downtown’s Development
Can tearing up a noted artistic zone be a path to civic success? City leaders say yes, while some of their citizens say no.
Economic & Business Development
Can Cars Save Downtown?
Fresno, California prepares to rip up its landmark pedestrian mall and replace it with a street.
Economic & Business Development
More on Nice Downtowns: Do They Just Happen? Or Are They Made?
Tampa has kept trying to revive its downtown, and has kept failing. Asheville has been wildly successful—but was it even trying at all?
Economic & Business Development
Nice Downtowns: How Did They Get That Way?
"Visitors think, 'That's just how Seattle is.' But it wasn't." Lessons via places ranging from Fresno to Shanghai.
Arts
Ajo, Arizona: Oasis in the Desert
How a city with century-old "good bones" tries to reinvent itself.
Arts
The Story of Moop: How an Unlikely Company Came to Be
A Pittsburgh woman managed to build a successful bag company from a failed effort to make a dress.
Arts
A City’s Turning Points
The steps toward success, or failure, and why our understanding of them matters.
Economic & Business Development
A New Type of Growing City
"This is where the talent wants to live"
Economic & Business Development
Buying Local: the Google Angle
OK, I'm biased -- but I think this is an interesting new project.