L.A. Moore: Making the Mall Matter Again

Only in Los Angeles, the birthplace of mall culture, could billionaire mall king Rick Caruso be the frontrunner in the mayoral race.

But with a prolonged pandemic recovery, record vacancy rates and inflation weighing on discretionary spending, not to mention the allure of congregating online rather than offline, the mall has- does it have the same meaning as before? Or is it destined to disappear like Beta-max tapes, Polaroids and Tab, to be referenced in nostalgic tracks like "Stranger Things?"

Analysts are predicting the death of malls long before the pandemic, before Amazon, before it got social media attention, and before the struggling American Dream's double in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and Unibail- Rodamco- Westfield's announcement that it intends to sell all of its 24 shopping centers in the United States within the next two years.

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Nationally, mall footfall indicators have been about as volatile as the stock market lately – up one month and lower the next – but still lower than pre-pandemic levels . (With this in mind, June visits to indoor malls were down 9.5%, outdoor lifestyle visits down 9.4%, and shopping malls down 14.3% from a year ago.) is three years old, according to a report by Placer.ai.)

But historically, malls are as much a part of the fabric of L.A. as the sun, the surf and the stars.

Urban squares in the midst of urban sprawl, they were incubators for fashion trends like feathered hair, Sasson jeans and Juicy Couture tracksuits, where teenagers could play out their independence, romance and their rebellion.

'Clueless', Alicia Silverstone, 1995, (c) Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection. ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection

The Sherman Oaks Galleria was the focal point of youth culture in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982) and "Valley Girl" (1983), while Fashion Square was the respite of Cher Horowitz in "Clueless" (1995).< /p>

Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza and Slauson Supermall were both in Tupac Shakur's 1996 Lovefest video "To Live and Die in L.A" in his hometown, and getting lost at the Del Amo Fashion Center in the South Bay led Robert De Niro in Murder in the 1997 Film "Jackie Brown"

In recent years, however, L.A. has not been immune to mall difficulties. A blatant sign of online search and shopping dominance, The Westside Pavilion is now One Westside, a $180 million adaptive reuse project that transformed 240,000 square feet of the mall's retail space owned by Hudson Pacific and Macerich into a creative, leafy office campus for Google, Amazon, Netflix, Square and more.

Nevertheless, having visited a dozen malls in the L.A. area over the past two months, I can report that people are still going there, just not in droves (there are plenty of parking spots), and not always for shopping. The teen scene was dark, with few teenagers hanging out - they'd rather buy Shein online or get style ideas on TikTok.

But they will eat Din Tai Fung Dumplings, see “Top Gun: Maverick” and score basketball goals. They're going to be wearing trendy crop tops and bike shorts, and they're going there because they need a place to go that isn't home.

"It's not the mall that's the problem," said Alexandra Lange, author of the new book "Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall" (Bloomsbury Publishing). “There are bigger issues in retail, some of which are dragging them down. But if you can get the...