The No Build Alternative for Jamestown Mall

Reinventing suburbia is sexy somehow. I guess we have a general idea that something's wrong with it. But this reinvisioning never really touches on roads or cul-de-sac neighborhoods, no, when we talk of a new suburbia we're speaking of rebuilding retail. Add in a couple apartments and voila, it's a Live-Work-Play (maybe even Pray) community. It's also a ridiculous and wasteful idea.

No where is this absurdity highlighted more than with the current effort to build a new development on the 142-acre Jamestown Mall site. The North County mall has been the subject of two years of public meetings and planning by urban design firms. The conclusion? A proposal to remake the site as a walkable mixed use community. At first glance, it sounds ok, or at least better than its current state, but it's a mistaken vision. The St. Louis region should pursue a "no build" option for the failing Jamestown Mall.