Jacob Landefjord said...
I just dropped in, read the previous post and can't resist an urge to comment.
Living in supermarket wonderland Sweden, I always feel like I want to move to another country after visiting places like Denmark, Germany and Italy, where the important things in life is just around the corner. There are big infrastructure projects planned in my town (Stockholm) just to keep the cars moving. There are also big supermarkets planned in many cities across our country.
Everything feels so wrong when I compare our life to the life with our neighbours in Denmark. I think that at least here the problems emerge from the capital that sees opportunities to invest in supermarkets and earn a lot of revenue from that. They of course wants the planners to care for the infrastructure for this. And the planners happily helps them as taxes rise with more shops in there community. Perpetum mobile so to say...
So, are there any good examples out there of planners who have done something different?... Anyone?
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not so much a reply but a comment...usually the "system" is made so that the infrastructure costs (roads, water/electricity supplies. sewage) are paid for by the developer who builds the shopping centre...i don't know about sweden, but the two countries I have worked in (Italy and UK) both have legal systems for this and it would surprise me that sweden wouldn't have the same regulations...
ReplyDeleteI am in no shape or for advocating the shopping centre!
The model is very old, in the UK for example (which has one of the most contemporary economic models in europe, a.e. a service economy with loads of consumer debt and a desperate need for people to spend) the Mall model is being driven out of the developers minds by a mixture of long term unsustainability, economic crisis and the need for a massive initial investment. A series of large scale commercial schemes have been presented in the last few years, and they are all in central london (they are all now halted by the economic crisis obviously).
in italy...well,here everything is 5 years behind europe and 10 years behind the states, so cities have built their own "car park with shoebox in the middle" hell, but trends are turning here too, as we see, for example, the multiplex being discarded as it is no longer considered viable investment in new out-of-town developments.
so to wrap it up, don't worry, sweden is a small economy going through the same motions as any other western countries in the last 20 years, it will all fade in time, hopefully :)
Richard, you are right. Of course the entrepreneurs pay for their part of the infrastructure in Sweden. But I wasn't really clear on what I meant, the big infrastructure projects I was talking of are tunnels and roads in a ring around Stockholms +1 million people. The idea with this is to get people moving about; home-work-shopping-home. Big infrastructure projects like this tend to work in favour of entrepreneurs who wants to build shopping malls, and not in favour of the small close-by privately owned shops and businesses.
ReplyDeleteAnd... I am not shure the trend will fade in Sweden. When I visit Norway, the same companies that run the shops in Sweden show up in Norway. So it is like there are no privately owned shops left (I am exaggerating, of course). And that's what scares/bores me.
yeah, i know what you mean. and there also deeper, hidden social costs in de-centralizing towns...cities are a social engine, and also there's the whole issue about people having to travel to work, pollution, job losses etc etc. But i do really thing the mall model is going to fade...only problem is what will take over? best of chances, it will be...nothing. people will buy their stuff on the internet and that will be it, so there will not even be the fake socializing that occurs in the mall...we'll see!
ReplyDeleteThis is wonderful posting. Thank you.
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wow this is a nice that a There are big infrastructure projects planned in my town just to keep the cars moving.
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