Profs explore potential of Long Wharf Mall

COURTESY OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS INEVITABLE: School of Management Professor Douglas Rate and History Professor Jay Gitlin, CC '71, MUS '74, GRD '82, think the spread of high-end malls is an unavoidable development fo rcities like New Haven.

According to more than one Yale professor, an upscale mall may not be a boon for the Elm City. As Mayor John DeStefano, Jr.'s proposal for the Long Wharf Mall starts to become reality, city officials and mall opponents grapple with questions about the mall's economic potential and possible effect on the downtown area. The Herald talked to Sociology Professor Joseph Soares, School of Management Professor Douglas Rae, and History Professor Jay Gitlin, CC '71, MUS '74, GRD '82 to get some answers.

Of the three, Soares is the most unabashed opponent of the mall project. He doesn't buy DeStefano's claim that Long Wharf Mall will revitalize the downtown area. "Malls tend to trap people, taking them out of the downtown area, draining consumers who would spend money on local businesses," he said. "I would have to be convinced
that a mall near the downtown area would contribute to commercial revitalization and cultural life, and all the empirical evidence and records are against the proposition that having a mall located next to a city revitalizes that downtown area."

Soares also thinks it's improbable that a high-end mall like Long Wharf will hire a significant number of local downtown residents. "It is appropriate for the city to say that employees will come from the city, but I doubt the people who run the mall will feel the same way." He conceded that the mall's one "saving grace" will be its contribution to the state payroll and treasury. However, Soares thinks an alternative to the mall that would do more to attract more people to downtown would be the development of the existing downtown arts, theater, and small retail areas.

Gitlin disagrees with Soares' analysis of the economic potential of Long Wharf Mall."The consumer perspective is too easily ignored. The fact is that the New Haven area on the whole has terrible shopping," he said. "From the consumer's point of view it is a wasteland. The city needs more retail and more revenue."

He does not share Soares' concern for the preservation of local downtown retail, arguing that it is downtown retail itself, not the mall, that is dooming downtown. "There is this idea that the mall could make things worse and take away from downtown shopping," he said. "Well it can't get worse; downtown shopping stinks!"

Gitlin believes that New Haven must lower commercial rents if it is to successfully attract more retailers to downtown and increase the volume of people coming downtown to shop. Gitlin's main objection to the new mall is not its existence, but its location, which he describes as a potential "traffic nightmare."

Rae thinks Long Wharf Mall won't have a major impact either way on the development of the downtown area, but that it will bring other economic benefits. "Will this mall help downtown? Probably not," he said. "However, it will increase the city government tax base, and it is realistic to hope for as many as 1,000 new jobs for New Haven residents." Regardless of whether or not Long Wharf Mall is built, he thinks city developers should devote attention to existing downtown retail, create an "interface" with Yale, and develop theaters and museums.

Still, Soares insists there are alternatives that can combine the allure of mall shopping with the development of local retail. He believes urban pedestrian malls, such as the open-air model in Denver's 16th Street, "work really well in bringing and keeping people downtown." He added, "Such a pedestrian mall could be anchored with a historic theme component," which would be based on New Haven's association with Yale and the Amistad case.

Rae, however, thinks this idea wouldn't pan out in the Elm City. "If I thought [a historic theme component] was a credible option I would support it, which I don't," he said. "The success rates in that kind of project are not high nationally. New Haven does not have the massing of population or disposable income to make that possible."

Rae and Gitlin agree that the widespread development of malls can no longer be ignored in cities like New Haven. "Given that malls are inevitable, the case for Long Wharf is that you may as well have a mall paying taxes to the city and employing city workers," Gitlin said. Rather than allow business from the suburbs to be absorbed by another mall, Rae sees a city mall as "a rational second-best strategy. Given that other people are free to develop malls that could compete with downtown, let's build our own."

Despite Soares' suggested alternatives, Rae and Gitlin insist urban malls are here to stay. "In the best of all worlds, I would agree with Soares. In this world, however, I cannot," Rae said.

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