Malls are over.
The symbols of our failure to deal with our problems when they were manageable are the gated community and the upscale mall.
Malls worked when the people who frequented them were more homogenous, believing in civility and laws and being able to function in public with others.
The problems arose when too many malls were in too close geographic proximity, mall decay began occurring, and often in the older malls that weren’t revamped and modernized. Those downhill malls attracted bad elements often, to add to the problems.
Some malls were built in bad spots of cities and never had much of a chance. Malls that had theaters attached have thug problmems because of large areas of people mulling around.