Places That Are Truly Alive (3)

Have you been to a high street or a shopping center lately that felt more dead than alive?

By The Empty Square

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Photo: Dario Glionna/Unsplash

Have you been to a high street or a shopping center lately that felt more dead than alive? Closed or cloned shops can pull out the attractiveness of any place. The consequence of lifeless places is a remarkable decrease in the number of visitors, property values, municipal taxes, social capital etc.

Many town and city centers are looking for new functions and renewed generators.

Here is a thought: The high street is challenged. That’s a fact. Another fact is that the mental imbalances, not least among young people, are on the rise and dramatically so. Depression, anxiety, sleeplessness, diagnoses of all kinds, you name it – all are increasing.

Fact number three: A lot of people possess ideas, talents and resources that are hidden, not exposed, not unfolded.

Finally, fact number four: It is possible to combine the three - empty streets, mental imbalances, and local talent - and create marvelous results: More life in the streets, happier citizens, new businesses, great stories, and a more meaningful life to a lot of people. It is already being done.

The point is the potential of strategies that embrace the imbalances. Not hiding them in ghettos, institutions, and statistics, but accommodating them right there in the middle of the city center, transforming empty shops into workshops, businesses, and great stories. The result? A renewed attraction of people, commerce, and attention.

By doing that, we can invent and install the new functions that cities are looking for while at the same time solving problems and creating new value on many levels.