Strip Malls Could Solve America’s Housing Crisis
They’re a blight on the suburban landscape. If razed and replaced with multifamily units, however, they could relieve pressure on the country’s hottest real estate markets.
Blight on the landscape or land of opportunity?
Photographer: Jessica Pons/BloombergForget the open road. The true emblem of the contemporary United States is the “stroad” — those high-volume, hybrid arteries that are not quite walkable streets, not quite high-speed roads. Lined on both sides by parking lots and strip malls, they are the commercial lifeblood of conventional suburban development. They may also be the answer to America’s housing affordability crisis.
Civil engineer and urban planner Charles Marohn named these soulless features of the U.S. landscape back in 2011. Route 59 in metro Chicago’s DuPage County, a short distance from my home, is a prime example of the type. It’s full of never-ending, often-repeating retail franchises every few miles, served by traffic moving at 50 miles per hour.