I guess when I try and envision the American version of this, I see strip malls. So my first question is, are these businesses chain stores or small businesses? If the latter, how was that developed? Who owns the buildings? Are they renting it? If so, do they have freedom in their design aesthetic? (I’m thinking of the lack of creativity with strip malls)
Great questions and observation! Yes! I think strip mall is the natural result when pedestrian streets transform to car-based streets. I need a good way to represent this because it seems unbelievable but when we insert the car as a standard, every thing is required to get bigger, lots, buildings, streets, businesses. Spaces between people and where they want to go quickly become too far to walk.
As for small businesses, yes, I can say that at least 95% of the shops in this neighborhood are independent small businesses. Probably more than that. As for how it happens, there is a cocktail of stuff going on that allowed that to happen, but I think one thing that maintains it, is the smallness. Small buildings, if they are the widespread standard, are affordable (eg: you can fit about 10 Japanese buildings in the space of a suburban American house). Small buildings hold less people. Fine for a small business, but a chain store could hardly make enough profit to survive because their overhead is so big. Small buildings also seem to breed diversity. That is, if you have 120 people who want to eat out in a neighborhood, you might fulfill that with a big restaurant that can serve 120 people. But if your building stock can only hold 10 people, then suddenly you need 12 independent shops to meet the same demand, which makes for a super diverse restaurant scene.
The questions about ownership and creative freedom are complex and interesting, and I'll keep those in my notes to get to later in this series!
I guess when I try and envision the American version of this, I see strip malls. So my first question is, are these businesses chain stores or small businesses? If the latter, how was that developed? Who owns the buildings? Are they renting it? If so, do they have freedom in their design aesthetic? (I’m thinking of the lack of creativity with strip malls)
Great questions and observation! Yes! I think strip mall is the natural result when pedestrian streets transform to car-based streets. I need a good way to represent this because it seems unbelievable but when we insert the car as a standard, every thing is required to get bigger, lots, buildings, streets, businesses. Spaces between people and where they want to go quickly become too far to walk.
As for small businesses, yes, I can say that at least 95% of the shops in this neighborhood are independent small businesses. Probably more than that. As for how it happens, there is a cocktail of stuff going on that allowed that to happen, but I think one thing that maintains it, is the smallness. Small buildings, if they are the widespread standard, are affordable (eg: you can fit about 10 Japanese buildings in the space of a suburban American house). Small buildings hold less people. Fine for a small business, but a chain store could hardly make enough profit to survive because their overhead is so big. Small buildings also seem to breed diversity. That is, if you have 120 people who want to eat out in a neighborhood, you might fulfill that with a big restaurant that can serve 120 people. But if your building stock can only hold 10 people, then suddenly you need 12 independent shops to meet the same demand, which makes for a super diverse restaurant scene.
The questions about ownership and creative freedom are complex and interesting, and I'll keep those in my notes to get to later in this series!