Mall of America

Forget “shopping centers.” Now it’s “lifestyle centers.” Private retail complexes designed to look like thriving, organic city spaces, but are in fact carefully engineered malls:

There’s something a bit unhealthy about faux public places designed to attract rich people and make them feel comfortable. (At least the traditional mall didn’t try to hide the fact that it was a shopping center.) The lifestyle center is a bizarre outgrowth of the suburban mentality: People want public space, even if making that space private is the only way to get it.

It’s like the “Truman Show” for capitalists instead of voyeurs. I can just see it now. “Now Entering MyMililani™ by MSN — Neighborhoods are better with the butterfly!”[via Boing Boing]