Caring for Trees: Update

After I blogged recently about the damage done to our local ash trees by the emerald ash borer, an article in the New York Times took a grim look at the impact of this exotic pest. The conclusion: the borer will almost certainly destroy 99 percent of all ash trees across 17 states in the midwestern and eastern United States. The effects “will ripple through forest ecosystems, affecting other plants, animals and water supplies,” the article said. “You end up with a different ecosystem that different species prefer and where the old ones can’t do as well.” Among the animals affected could be woodpeckers, which likely will be unable to find as many of the caterpillars and other bugs that sustain them. Emerald ash borers almost certainly arrived in North America in packing materials carried by cargo ships and airplanes, so they’re one in a long line of sad examples of how humans are changing the planet in ways that are not good.

The Future of Shopping Malls

I had a vision of the future for shopping malls recently when I went to a big one here in Cincinnati that I hadn’t visited for a couple of years. Not only had the store mix changed substantially, but there were many empty storefronts, a glaring dearth of shoe stores, and signs everywhere encouraging shoppers to support sales taxation for goods bought online.

So here’s the vision: I think malls are headed for declining business and big trouble. Major retailers such as Sears and Best Buy have been struggling for years, of course, but I think the Internet will eventually kill entire shopping malls the way it has all but killed traditional bookstores, newspapers and magazines. It turns out that online competition poses serious problems for malls in much the same way it led to sweeping changes in the media industry.

Malls: A troubled future

I happened to read an article this morning that supports my idea. A photographer has traveled around Ohio and Michigan, compiling a book on derelict shopping malls, including abandoned ones with skylights and glass storefronts shot out. (Read that article here.) Perhaps the most interesting part of the article was one expert who was quoted saying that half of America’s 1,500 shopping malls will go out of business in the next 15 years. Another expert had a sunnier outlook, saying that only about 15 percent of the malls will fail.

Shopping malls took off in the 1960s, and they have been a fixture of suburban life – and to a lesser extent, urban life – ever since. My feeling is that they face a relatively rapid decline. Our whole consumer paradigm has been forever altered by the Internet. There will be positive and negative repercussions from that, but as they say, it is what it is.