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November 20, 2004
What's old is new again ...
When I did back-to-school shopping with Siobhan I was confronted with an escapee from the 70's...the poncho. I had thought of much of the hideousness of fashion of that era that has crept into current clothing that one would have stayed forever in the past right along side bustles and whalebone corsets. At least powderblue leisure suits haven't made a comeback ...
Yet ...
And it looks like the trend of recycling is not limited to fashion. As a bunch of us were commiserating on most hated times to shop at Costco on ASV, Trish mentioned how fascinated her daughter was by "small stuff" rather than the megagallons offered at Costco. She adds
the days of warehouse shopping are moving towards the fate that awaited the dinosaurs of the past.
Possibly, though for many the convenience and cost savings of going to places like Costco will keep some form of warehouse shopping around. For several years, as a Band Booster Mom, I ran the snackbar at the football games and PriceClub (as Costco was known then) was the only way to get everything we needed ... from big cans of nacho cheese to bags of chips the size of small children to flats of sodas and boxes of candybars.
However, I think there is a trend afoot that may see malls ... the great roofed in, weather controlled, Muzak flooded, generic storefront shopping centers ... become obsolete and their traffic return to the "downtown" type of shopping they replaced in the 60's - 70's.
As a little girl it was a special occassion at Christmas time to pile into the car and go downtown ... to places like Bullocks Wilshire ... and look at the Christmas windows. As more people moved into the suburbs, so did the shops and then we went to the malls (two or three anchor department stores with smaller businesses and shops in generic stripstyle buildings between them) close by rather than the long trips into the downtown area. The malls continually spruced themselves up, first by enclosing themselves with roofs, sometimes adding second stories and then by adding other attractions like restaurants and movie theaters.
Yet, they may have to change again, or wither away.
A new "mixed use" regional shopping center just opened in Rancho Cucamonga called Victoria Gardens. It looks like an old-fashioned downtown with architectually varied shops, a main square that has an European feel, buildings with shops on the first floor, offices and residential loft space on the second. It will soon also have a performing arts center, cultural center and public library. Rancho doesn't have a real "downtown" so they've built one from scratch.
A fluke? My parents live in Orange County and my mother tells me the old struggling Whitwood Mall is slated to be redone in this "open-air town center" style.
I have to admit, I like the more downtown feel, especially since with offices and residence space, it will be more of a 24/7 area then the unnerving deadspace malls become when they are closed. There's an outlet mall called Ontario Mills Mall in the Inland Empire area of So. California. They tried to make it different in that it is asymetrical and each section of several shops is considered a "neighborhood" with a different feel but as you enter the mall, and the doors automatically open, an ethereal female voice greets you "Welcome to Ontario Mills, you are entering Neighborhood #2 ..." and to this day I still flash on Logan's Run and I wait for her to say "Last day. Year of the city - 2274. Carousel begins." As I recall, the 1976 movie was filmed at a mall! Heh.
This trend is also giving a boost to cities who have been struggling for years to revitalize their downtowns. The city of Ontario is pursuing this mixed use of shops, lofts, condos and offices. San Diego has redeveloped an area of downtown - Horton Plaza and south of it - that in the 70's was dominated by aging buildings with tatoo parlors, pawnshops and "adult entertainment" into the "gaslight" district with restored art deco buildings, sidewalk cafes, upscale stores and boutiques.
Not everyone wants to live in a suburb and spend too much of their life in a car driving just to buy groceries or grab a bite to eat from a small restaurant. I think this is a healthy trend of old is new again.
But can we still get rid of the poncho?
Posted by Darleen at November 20, 2004 08:25 AM
Comments
We have outlets in my town, but are also fortunate to have a city manager who has made possible an intensive refurbishing of our old downtown area; adding an additional library branch on a side street, repaving crosswalks with brick, adding planters and providing low-interest loans for businesses to convert many of the older homes adjacent to the core area to offices and retail space. The area is used for a weekend Farmer's Market and also hosts several community events - a Tree Lighting at Christmas, a walk and talk wine tasting tour hosted by various businesses, and so on. I feel very fortunate when I compare this town to the neighboring one, where the only mall for miles resides.
While the mall seems to be thriving (as witnessed by the few times I force myself to go there), the downtown area there is nothing but miles of continuous strip malls and gas stations.
I do have to say that I've yet to see ponchos in either location....and God willing, I never will....lol!
Posted by: Trish at November 20, 2004 02:30 PM
- Russia's Putin looked like He had a clown hat on, so uncomfortable was he in that "hand-made" Chilian poncho at the "World Economics summit" Photo-Op....Bush of course smiled and looked relaxed (Macho Hombre El gringo...heh)....
- My godzilla teen has re-discovered Lava Lamps...Now all I have to do is get him a babyblue philco portable radio, bell bottom jeans, and a potted plastic palm tree for his room and he'll be "groovey"....Oh... and a Beatles "yellow submarine" wall poster...Damn...did we really look like that...uggghhh... Just the mention of leisure suits gives me hives....The recent Expedia TV adds with "Cooper", showing just how obnoxious the typical idiots were that wore them at the time, comes to mind....
Posted by: Hunter at November 21, 2004 11:18 AM