July 4, 2008

A DEAD CITY IS A CITY WITH MALLS


When the city starts building more malls it will loose it's ability to be a livable city and it will die.
A livable city is when the citizens shop, stroll, and socialize on the sidewalks and the streets.

Who would imagine that ZAHRAN street will have a Shopping Mall of more than 11 dunum land? Who would imagine to locate a Shopping Mall between the 6th and 7th circle? between the two inaccessible nodes to an unlivable corridor! Who would imagine after Jordan Gate and the many many debates and problems it caused and a few meters away on the main corridor we will have another MALL?

What about Wakalat street which is only a few meters away? What about the Whole Swefieh shopping area? How much more traffic will this new mall generate? How much will it harm the businesses in the area?

Was it part of the Amman development plan? HDMU? or Corridor intensification?

If we couldn't stop building the Jordan gate towers! And nobody is calling for putting them down. Can't we immediately stop the building of this mall?

I wanna be a believer. I wanna see a livable city, a city with a soul.
I don't know from where this MALL came from!

Excuse me but we do live in a city full of ignorance, greed and conspiracy. On the other hand, we do have great leadership surrounded by a few good men who can make a difference, but they need to move faster.

Instead of building malls we could have infrorced an urban re-generation plan for the Swefieh area were all the shops, and businesses become part of it. Delivering solutions to incrase the social, economical, and urban live of that neigbourhood.