Deseret News from Salt Lake City, Utah • 10

5 Bnsmunr 10A BEST LOOKING STREET IN TOWN Shopping Mall Is 196) Satrlat Gty, Utah, iaturday, SeptMbr 9, WtStand the Constitution of the United 7 -as 7 Vote 'Yes1 On Improvements By TED J. RAXTLS (la "The Kiwanis Magazine) THE middle of a street once choked with traffic, exhaust fumes, and the blare of angry horns, grass now grows. Fountains spurt, children play on swings, and shopper walk leisurely bn colored concrete squares, forgetting the confusion of traffic that is now A block orfnore away. This is the shopping mall, one of the newest and more daring innova-tibnsJn the city's fight to save it downtown area. It alternately been hailed a a the dtya answer to suburbia, and damned as an unpractical -scheme that wastescity funds, hurts many, merchants, tangles traffic, and creates countless other municipal problems.

Perhaps in certain cases both claims are true. Nevertheless, though the Ides has been abused by quick-buck merchants, who see it as a fast way to boost lagging cash receipts and by cities that have rushed into mall construction without study, the pedestrian mall theory has already proved sound enough to warrant construction of two permanent-malls' (in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Miami-Beach, Florida) and the adoption of long-range mall plans in at least one hundred other Ameri- can cities. -f Malls, as such, are not new. The 1 1 ancient Greeks and Romans built I Tarcade with covered walk areas. In England, and later in New England, large number of citizens are adversely af-isfinallytakenit may be only enough.

to put a temporary patch on things untilthe situation onpe again reaches the critical- point. Other communities, howevbrare so alert that they meet, municipal problem? as they arise and muster concerted conk munity action to meet the zens.ln such communities realize that any growing, city from time to time experiences certain growing pains that must be alleviated if the city is to continue mak-ing a healthy rate of progress. In Salt "Lake City, these growing pains currently Include the need for a new library to replace the present Inadequate and shabby structure, a joint city-county public safety building to help consolidate functions and increase efficiency, a storm sewer system, a Redwood "Road sewer trunk line, and treatment facilities to solve a' sewage problem in Great Salt Lake which at best is an aesthetic nuisance and atvworst a health hazard. In which category does Salt Lake City fall? Does it let its problems slide, then meet them only half-heartedly? Or does it keep current with its meeds and meet them dynamically? THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS pro serves the lull support of voters when they ballot" on the proposition in next Tuesdays bond election. It deserves approval because the program promises to meet the citys most pressing capital improvements needs while remaining within realistic financing limits.

It is both sensible and feasible. Themerits of the Individual projects have been discussed repeatedly on this page and elsewhere in the Deseret News. Suffice it to say n6w that each would fill a' long-standing -need that becomes more urgent as time passes. In fact, these needs are so urgent that they can no longer be ignored. If the proposed projects are not approved and built now, they likely will have to be built later when inflation will have boosted their cost substantially.

So Its only prudent to go ahead with them now. Ttrrvote Tuesday will be a crucial one. It will determine whether Salt Lakers are up to meeting some of the most important" municipal problems facing them. -The manner in which we meet or fail to meet this challenge will tell much about what kind of a community this is and Is to ber For communities differin'-their alertness to such problems andfar TUESDAYS BOND ELECTION wUIJielp them. Some communities Ignore their problems until- they become so critical that a Kennecott Settlement-At Last! A SIGH OF RELIEF is the natural reac- labor disputes? Its certainly worth a try Remodeled And Beautified Downtown Areas May Become Stdhdard-Facility ln U.S.

Cities tion tothe news that a settlement has elsewhere. spent fa neighborhood and suburban stores and shops. 7 been reached in the strike that crippled operations at the Utah division of Ken- City planners in Akron, Ohio view "shopping malls as-a small but vital part of a program that will see 75 ect that 'would benefit a relatively, "few retail shops. But fa June of 1959, ex-Mayor Glen Allen dumped the -of course, -is a voteln- fa vor of each and pedestrian and vehicular traffic was demonstrated in New Yorks Rockefeller Center and in San Franciscos Malden Lane. Following the cities In, Europe, such as Rotterdam and Coventry, rebuilt their central bhkiness districts ac-.

cording to similar plana- THE SHOPPING MALL fa America can be traced not tq the destruction but to the deterioration of the ioj centers multiplied In 1955 (more than 250, with at least twenty stores fa each, were then being planned), downtown retailers suddenly found their property values and their business sharply declining. Shoppers, sick of traffic jams and the generally" grimy appearance of downtown business areas, bej shopping centers as if they had found Mecca. Seeking to save their own downtown from commercial destruction, leaders in Vorth, Texas fa 1956 called upon Victor Gruen Associates to draft a lonWange pro-' gram to rebuild and rrfodemize the put on many families will be eased and -that the burden it put on-the states welfare rolls will be -relieved. It is a time for everyone to pull together in close cooperation to get operations back to normal as rapidly and smoothly as possible. WHICH SIDE won the strike? per cent of all the buildings In the 306-acre downtown area renewed within the next twenty years.

Some other cities that have indicated serious interest fa permanent malls are: Raleigh, North Carolina; Cali formal Green Bay, Wisconsin; Grand Haven, Michigan; and Spring- Much credit for the settlements being reached finally can go to Governor George D. Clyde, whose suggestion that marathon negotiations be held until an agreement was reached seemed to turn the trick. This technique for settling labor-management disputes contains some sound thinking. Its based on the fart that all A start on the Gruen plan fa Fort with ther construction of two legs of a loop freeway that will encircle the central business district Funds for the purchase of rlghts-of-way for the other two legs have been voted by the citizens- of Fort Worth. These are the first Stepsln the overall plan.

It must be emphasized that others that he later devised, included, shopping malls as but a small part of a broad urban rehabilitation program. A shopping mall without a long-range plan is rather like putting on an expensive silk -tie but forgetting to wear a shirt. SHORTLY AFTER GREEN'S revolu- mall plans fa the lap of Nicholas Kik, parks department superintendent, saying: Nick, youve got until August 19 to do the job On Wednesday, August 19, 1959, 7 the mail was dedicated. Fifty thousand shoppers thronged the" area," -opening, some 125,000 persons jammed the two-block mall area, and business boomed. Even with the novelty now worn off, merchants on the mall have had a general business rise of more than 14 per cent One mall merchant the Kooi-Knapper Clothing Company, has had ft, phe- expects to complete a permanent mall during 1961.

SUCH EFFORTS are intelligent' attempts to use the mall as one means of physical betterment, traffic diversion, mass transit and parking improvement, and consolidation of land. But for every Kalamazoo to11- But for every Kalamazoo or That-might be hard to say. But theres little doubt about the fact that lhe xeaJwln- "Jierfrom the ending ofthis economically stifling Strike Is the public. such disputes are settled sooner or later and that if the disputing parlies conduct their negotiations continuously father than Intermittently the settlement will come sooner rather than later. The apparent success of this method does much to commend it for use in any future stubborn disputes, without prior gubernatorial prompting.

Moreover, if thismethod works in Utah might It not also work in other states and fit national cltya central area. Gruen, a leading tionary plan for Fort Worth ap- nomenM Increase of 76 per cent Only American offered a plan poaroH nether -Amerjean-ehy-was na-of fifty-aix merchants, the Rochester there are dozens of other ftiSF' atviNn rtntUAM iUlmna ...4 ..1 4U .4 HtipS MUnPTP PHI Dfifa TV TYlfl llO hllff thaUTncTuded, other been built to make the cash registers Jingle more often, and then were Smoke Over America-And Russia among things, a pondering what seemeda bleak fu- owner of meat proposal to build a permanent down- ture. ia Kalamazoo, a city of 82,000 did not affect his business, town shoppers malL jn the southern part of Michigan, a -Gruen has seldom minced words reappraisal of real estate in 1956 about the traffic problem in cities, showed a $1-5 million drop in as-Statistics show, he has said, that sessed valuation and an annual tax the economic well-being of any city loss to the city or $50,000. Sears center decreases in exact proportion Roebuck had moved from the central to the increase in private automobile business district, a gigantic shopping traffic within the built-up area. It center was about to open south of the was no surprise, therefore, that city, and Kalamazoos retail shops Gruen, in his plan for Fort Worth, were lining up for space at the new chose to apply the pedestrian is- center land concept to the entire downtown But Robert Brown, then manager area.

His plan envisioned a one-way, 0f the Kalamazoo Chamber of Com- the'maU businesses have increased multilaned motor road that byl970 merce had se Grues Fort Worth ,103 pe nt vinly. because the would encircle a vast pedestrian area Dian an(j recognized that the situa- lusre of the suburban shopping cen- in 4h Only bu tod, p. SsLSU'S crating from terminals along the belt in his own city. With his assistant, Planned tomove im the new South- Marvin C. Moody, a member of the Kiwanis Club of Kalamazoo, he or- SINCE THE FIRST SECTION was opened, Kalamazoo has built another block area at an added cost of $25,000, making a total of $130,000 thus far spent The cost to to former Mayor Allen, has been only fifty-five cents each.

But the benefits reaped fa Kalamazoo by the mall go far beyond mere Increased profit figures for mall Gross, sales for off land Shopping Center have adopted a wait and see attitude, Kalamazoo is serious about its abandoned after only brief trials. Toledo, phie is the largest of the cities to experiment with a temporary mall. About the same time that Kalamazoo opened its mall, Toledo closed off four blocks fa its downtown area and built. In a matter-of days. Shoppers See-Way, a $20,000 pedestrian shopping area.

It closed after a 125-day trial. Reaction to the project was mixed. 1 Shoppers, mall mer-chants, and City Manager Russell Rink liked it Because the Toledo mail was discontinued, a voting machine waasetjip to poll shopper attitudes. On the question, Do you believe the mall is an asset to Toledo?" The vote was 3.531 for and ,2.252 against- YOU HAVE TO GIVE credit where credit belongs and so you read with more than passing Interest about how the Soviet Union is working overtime to reduce the tobacco habit among its youth. The Kremlins minister of public health, in charge of the effort, urged all young Russians to abstain from smoking, pointing nut with some smugness that jn the capitalist world the whole system of life pushes man toward the use of nicotine and narcotics, while by contrast, Soviet tween the ages of 30 and 50, almost twice as many heavy smokers as non-smokers may be expected to die.

Specifically, he asserted that in comparative groups of 100,000 there will be 18,461 more deaths by age 50 in the heavy-smoking group than among non-smokers. Tests of hand-steadiness conducted by Dr. Jesse Gehman and reported in book, Smoke Over America prompted him to conclude that smoking does "not steady the nerves at ait, asthe radio and TV commercials claim, but agitates and aggravates" them instead. In this test recognizlng-that Planning Commits In Falwr, SSSSSSKfe 1957. The committee formulated a terest Kalamazoo.

Dring 1960 the plan for subscribing downtown prop- 7 Chamber of Commerce got more in- it did fa aR the previous fifty-four world, has no need to smoke." This same Soviet authority, a Dr. A. Kuzcntzov, authored a statement that -found its way into the-Amerlcan press a few weeks ago, to theeffect that the properly trained Russ soldier of today is immue to pain." He then went on to boast -that Soviet youth has no part in the Much against the wishes of the DTA, the Toledo City Council voted to finance a second mall experiment fa 1960. This one lasted twenty weeks before it. was -dismantled last.

No- -vember, and traffic again began to flow. through Adams Street "Some Toledo leaders, still have hopes that the mall may one day be revived on a permanent basis. Ned SkeldonT" president the Lucas started. First it had to solve a more pressing problem: the need for a long-range water supply. After, bond Issues were-approved, enabling the city to Install anew reservoir and -pipeline, city officials turned their attention tdthe Gruen plan.

The Fort Worth City Council twice endorsed it by unanimous vote; more than one -hundred civic groups added their ap-proval through resolutions. $15,000, enough for a Gruen Survey, The Downtown Kalamazoo Association, a merchants group, offered full support, and nearly the entire business community voiced approvaL Gruens plan for Kalamazoo brought the first permanent Opposition to the Gruen plan was 'hopptarH1irmericarIir minor. One businessman scoffed athls recommendations, Gruen called the subject tries to insert an electrified needle in a small hole in a metal plate without touching the sides and closing the circuit. The findlngs: After two ciga-rettes unsteadiness increased 100 after -12 cigarettes, errors were up to. 330 above those committed by non-smokers.

Dr. Alton Ochsner, renowned lung In recent lecture fa Salt Lake-City said The incidence of cancer of the "barsoare(T'DpW3''IjrrTIiTe exactly parallel with that of cigarette sales charts. I do not smoke. Im afraid to! Smoke Over America is right! Our cigarette consumption averages better "than eight per day for every man, woman and child in the country, or upward of 20 per day for every smoker. Nicotine consumption alone exceeds two tons every" 24 hours.

Two-thirds of all American adults are smokers. Four out of every 10 women are addicts. Our cigarette consumption has multiplied 10-fold over the past quarter century. Aspirin Age" of the capitalistic countries. suits.

A group of Utahns recently returned from the Fifth Annual International Congress of Biological Chemists in MoscowT were surprised to rind very litne" smoking among the Russians, especially-the youth. Dr. Max L. Sweat noted "that the Soviet authorities arq making a tough campaign he lise of tobacco and apparently--are getting splendid public support. years of its existence.

Chamber executive Joe Freeman estimated that because of the mall the city has had ---at least $20rnillion worth of free publicity. Kalamazoo civic loaders are anx-, ious to move ahead fa their-down- town face-lifting at an even faster pace than Gruen recommended. City Manager Clarence Elliott said; got a bear by the tail and we wont be able to wait until 198(1 to complete the entire program. Possibly, it will have to be done by 1970." In Rochester, New York, the most ambitious permanent mall plan of all is now under way and is expected to be completed by October 1962. Actually a downtown shopping center.

Midtown Plaza, as it has been con-L ceived by Victor Gruen Associates. will cost $27 million and will have an inner shopping area -covering seven acres. There will be thirty new stores, an eighteen-story office building, a supporter, said: Malls arent for they are for -people. Downtown is the merchandising, business, political and, to a-certain extent, cultural heart of the city. The environment must be nice.

IN THE WASTE MAKERS author Vance Packard wrote: In Toledo, Ohio, which built a line downtown mall, the value of it so largely Judged by whether it helped the sales volume of downtown stores that the Toledo Blade felt it necessary to remind the city that malls should be regarded as city parks and not just as aids for merchants. County, city, and state highway for a program, "Kalamazoo 1980, that would eventually see an area of fifty square turned Into mall territory. Traffic Would loop around this dream garden" and shuttle buses would rapidly bring shoppers into the mall area. THE FIRST STEP fa actual construction came when the city and merchants agreed to split proportion ately the $60,000 cost of tearing up two blocks on Burdick Street in the downtown area to install a perma-. nent pedestrian malL The largest property owngr paid $3,800 and the-smallest $122, roughly what a two-day promotion would cost a retailer in advertising expenses.

the plan, which he hadnt seen, and Said that he did not want to do busk ness" In a botanical gardetv Some merchants in suburban shopping centers feared that a revitalized downtown would hurt their business. Speaking for the vast majority, how- ever, Irvin Farm an, executive secre- tary of the Greater Fort Worth Planning Committee, Incorporated, said: Economic studies Indicated that, as a result of the Gruen plan, there would be a rebirth of activity within -the downtown area, that new office buildings," hotels, retail establishments, restaurants and places of entertainment, would be constructed. New Jobs would be created and the ANcvr jvua wuuiu uc vitraicu nu uie COMRADE KUZNETZOV may be off his base about the Russ super-youth, but he is right abpqt one Tobacco is responsible for more shortening of lives than feny other major cause such as heart disease or cancer. Dr. Frank Leighton Wood fa his book, What You Should Know About Tobacco," reported a study-of 6,912 white males divided into throe categories non-smokers smok- ers and heavy smokers.

He found that be. IT IS SLIGHTLY MORE than ironic that our America this land choice above all others, should be complacent about the 4. a vasiaung enects ofjobacco, -ffhtigod. tire metropolitanarea would bene: Thre coiirse, objections, thousand car underground garage. comes Put flat-footed and fit, because for every job to a down- Some citizens complained about tear- Shoppers will be able to enter either loud-pedalea against the How long town office building, there is a home ing out one hundred metered parking -on foot or underground by bus or are we going to permit our enemies to the suburbs.

For every dollar spent spaces. Others felt it unfair for the car. Escalators will lead up to the benefit by our follies? downtown, there, are three dollars -city to pay $30,000 to finance a proj- mail and plaza. hu.T tOTTpinai, officials must be consulted on the im- portant problem of traffic re-routing. Fire, police, and hospital authorities should advise on how to facilitate, the entry of emergency trucks and cars.

The question of whether a city street can be legally closed must be determined at the start The general interpretation of the courts has been to allow the closing as a reasonable exercise of the citys police power, but some "state laws could prove troublesome. Vs A Doctor In The House' UTAH STATE Medical Association caring for THE SHOPPING MALL: AN EXPERIMENT OT every city is suitable for shopping malls. than an overnight fad that does nothing' to awaken a city to It? real needs. As Victor Gruen put it: The downtown mall experiments are only Some might find the. traffic relocation probr lem impossible; others might not be able to metered parking spaces.

It is also evi nother-measura-fa-the endless series of single. young athletes In the Jordan School District, especially in checking them for fitness before the games "and supervising fife procedures of trainers and first-aid crews. Doctors throughout the state have been contacted and a goodly number have indicated they will arrange their appoint-ments so as to attend the games, so far as it i9 possible to do so. Considering the customary wait the doctors pa timit en-dures at the office before he can see the learned medico, this break-away from the office must be regarded as something. a personal sacrifice, a gesture of -sports- manship" and an indication of genuine Interest 'in the boys.

PARENTS, TEAdlERS, coaches and players alike are going to feel better about participating in the rough and rugged game of football if theres -a doctor in the house. merits three cheers and an extra hurray for its announced plan to have physician in attendance the high school games this season. In college and professional competitions the home team is required to have' a physician- and com-. first-aid equipment on hand, but most high schools have not taken such precautions in the past 1 Actually, it Is Just as essential to have ardoctor on the bench as It Is to have a referee on the field. Immediate medical attention, as every coach knows, can greatly redaoe the extewt cf 4njm lea- surt feredby a player and could even save a life.

Leadership in the care and protection tot high school athletes has resulted in the appointment, by the Medical Association, of Dr. J. Bernard Critchfield as chairman of its committee on athletic Critchfield has devoted many years to Financing of a mall is a question that must be determined at once. There is no strict rule here. Die initial $60,000 cost in Kalamazoo was divided equally by the city and the-merebants, but.

in the city -paid $15,000 and downtown merchants only $5,000. Two large retail stores fa Rochester are providing. $15 million; than half the amount needed for- the Midtown plaza project The Miami Beach mall was financed by a bond issue. "What' ever type of financing pan is chosen, the ground rules must be decided be-, fore the game starts. OTHER QUESTIONS the responsibility for maintenance, arrange-- rnent for -entry by delivery trucks, personal injury liability also can be touchy unless rapport between the city and business Interests is established.

unrelated measures like one-way streets, municipal garages and parking lots, scramble crossings, spot redevelopments, new street lighting, and Ml the gimmicks which' are so popular be- cattse they create for a certain time a certain amount of excitement and can be' implemented without the Investment of too much brainpower or too much money. 'Only if we recognize that rthe urban crisis, which is the outcome of.a deep-seated disease which has progressed for 50 years, cannot be cured by administering aspirin in the form of unrelated small measures but that an over-all treatment based on dear understanding of the problems is needed, will we be successful in re-" -vitalizing our cities. The Kiwanis Magazine. dent that malls are not desirable for all types of busl-' nesses. They are not advisable for quick-stop outlets, such as drug stores, supermarkets, and dry cleaners.

adaptable are those that thrive on leisure shop- ping In ToUflo, a jewelry store Was one of the businesses that benefitted most the" mall, and Kalamazoos biggest -gain has. been recorded by a mens clothing shop. 7 la any city, a may without a far-reaching redevelopment plan usually fa little more i.J.ui ij i i. i ni.m.. i fft ii.iim.ii.