Supermarkets are moving in to spaces vacated by department stores in malls, which until recently were too costly for grocery stores to rent.
Elaine Misonzhnik reports that the trend is popular again because property managers see groceries as great at generating traffic, and with so many retailers hit by the economic crisis malls are lacking in large tenants:
"While people visit a mall about once a month, they tend to shop for groceries at least once or twice a week, according to Green and others. Westfield reports that in the three weeks since it opened a Seafood City Supermarket at its Westfield Southcenter in Seattle, Wash., foot traffic to the center increased 26 percent."
FULL STORY: Regional Mall Owners Experiment With Supermarkets
How Smaller Supermarkets Could Transform American Communities
Bigger is not always better.
Six Positive Innovations in Housing From 2024
The year saw some encouraging developments in housing and zoning policies that could alleviate the housing crisis and offer renters and homebuyers more diverse options.
One Weird Trick for Eliminating Food Deserts
How enforcing one federal law, ignored since the 1980s, could bring back small grocers and ensure more people have convenient access to fresh foods.
What ‘The Brutalist’ Teaches Us About Modern Cities
How architecture and urban landscapes reflect the trauma and dysfunction of the post-war experience.
‘Complete Streets’ Webpage Deleted in Federal Purge
Basic resources and information on building bike lanes and sidewalks, formerly housed on the government’s Complete Streets website, are now gone.
The VW Bus is Back — Now as an Electric Minivan
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Healing Through Parks: Altadena’s Path to Recovery After the Eaton Fire
In the wake of the Eaton Fire, Altadena is uniting to restore Loma Alta Park, creating a renewed space for recreation, community gathering, and resilience.
San Diego to Rescind Multi-Unit ADU Rule
The city wants to close a loophole that allowed developers to build apartment buildings on single-family lots as ADUs.
Electric Vehicles for All? Study Finds Disparities in Access and Incentives
A new UCLA study finds that while California has made progress in electric vehicle adoption, disadvantaged communities remain underserved in EV incentives, ownership, and charging access, requiring targeted policy changes to advance equity.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research