JACKSONVILLE: The obituaries are being written for what has been an intrinsic part of life for half a century, as the country’s ubiquitous shopping malls face a slow, painful death.
As shopping and driving habits change, retailers are facing difficult times, and some have estimated that over the next 15 years half of all malls will die.
The shopping mall was born into a world where people were moving out of the cities and into a new, rich, indulgent life.
But Mark Hinshaw, an architect, city planner and author, has been watching the decline.
“It’s a major phenomenon that’s lasted for six decades and I think people assumed it would just go on forever,” he said.
“But that course is changing now; people are now looking at other ways of living.”…