the red hook
Old school journalism for the 21st century
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NOVEMBER 2019 INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
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THE NEW VOICE OF NEW YORK "We have a new dystopia to worry about: robot-powered fulfillment centers, operated by an all-powerful megacorporation that looks to control every single retail transaction in the country."
Kings Plaza has staying power
O
by Brett Yates
n television, the Democratic candidate Andrew Yang has for the past year run a single-issue campaign for president in 2020, centering a promised universal basic income (UBI) of $1,000 a month for every adult in the United States. His website, however, lists about 200 additional policy proposals, the most novel of which may be the American Mall Act, which aims to find new uses for defunct suburban retail space. The plan pledges public subsidies to spur the transformation of shopping malls into offices, indoor recreation centers, or schools. (In 2014, Highland Mall in Texas became an Austin Community College campus.) Yang explains that, due to the prevalence of e-commerce, 300 malls will likely close in the next four years, leaving behind millions of square feet of blight. The text of the proposal begins in an elegiac tone, describing an apparently bygone era: “Malls used to be a hub for socialization and commerce in many American communities. They were where families would go shopping for school supplies before grabbing dinner and catching a movie. Teens would have their first jobs working retail there and spend their Friday nights with friends.”
In a way, the Yang campaign’s nostalgia for shopping malls is more striking than any statistic about tough times in the Amazon-dominated retail market. Not long ago, these sleek consumerist temples symbolized America’s disquieting future of sterile corporate capitalism. Built on the outskirts of cities, they hollowed out historic, mixed-use downtowns, replacing them with false town squares – reachable only by car – where teenagers, mistaking them for public space, contended with private security forces whenever they asserted their right to exist without buying something. Main streets shuttered; local cultures died. Now we have a new dystopia to worry about: robot-powered fulfillment centers, operated by an all-powerful megacorporation that looks to control every single retail transaction in a country where, thanks to online shopping, going outside and interacting with other humans have become optional. To some, shopping malls feel quaint and communal by comparison.
za – at Brooklyn’s southeast corner, in low-density Mill Basin – operates as a destination unto itself, with a massive parking garage attached. In other words, it doesn’t complement a traditional pedestrian shopping district; it exists instead of one.
Kings Plaza is the largest indoor mall in Brooklyn. In the suburban sense of term, it’s the only true indoor mall in Brooklyn: while newer multi-level urban retail developments like Atlantic Terminal and City Point situate themselves within the cityscape, Kings Pla-
Having not shopped at a mall in years, I visited Kings Plaza to see what one looks like in the year 2019. To my surprise, it looks almost exactly like the shopping malls where I used to hang out as a teenager: eerily so, in fact. It brought back plenty of awful memories
Primark is an Irish-based low cost fashion retailer with a big presence in Brooklyn's only true indoor mall. (Photo by George Fiala)
as I wandered its incomprehensible geography for a couple hours. Alongside the notable additions of European fast-fashion retailers Zara and Primark (which, for instance, sells faux-leather chukka boots for the frighteningly low price of $24), the same old clothing stores from 15 years ago – American Eagle, Aeropostale, Express, Hollister Co. – are still blasting pop music and perfume at adolescent shoppers. The salespeople at Foot Locker are still costumed as referees.
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