Activate, activate and activate
Retrofitting suburbs is not a one-sided improvement that can be achieved but requires very comprehensive thinking. One of the essential factors to activate an area is to attract a large number of people. I used to think that if I tried to activate any place, I would build a one-stop shopping mall there, which could meet the needs of different people and attract a lot of people. My experience of living in China for almost 30 years tells the truth.
But when I lived in the US for a while, I found that some malls were doing well, while others were deserted, even before the pandemic. I'm just wondering why this trick doesn't work here? I've found that one primary reason is transportation. Private cars facilitate people's travel but increase the sense of rupture from one life scene to another, and the large surface parking lot increases the distance between buildings. All of this strengthens the irreplaceability of private cars and weakens the demand for public transportation. It also reduces the density of the building. If the density of people in a particular area is not large enough, everything will become challenging, such as the economy, environment, and regional attractiveness. Only by considering all aspects of life, work, entertainment, environment, etc., together shorten the physical distance between people and further promote the vitality of the entire community.
I think it's interesting that you bring up the mall. The shopping mall, theoretically, "meet[s] the needs of different people and attract[s] lots of people". Isn't that the whole idea of mixed-use development? But I agree with you, one of the reasons for the death of the American mall is the requirement of the private car to actually use the mall. But, I also think that another failure of the mall is that it isn't really mixed-use. Yes, there are different types of shops, some service-oriented stores, and food. But there is generally a very narrow target audience and the overall use is still shopping. This is one of the reasons that I am not super optimistic about the newest version of the mall - the new-urbanist town center. I think that this is still too similar to the mall, just moved outdoors with some high-end apartments slapped on top.
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