Ugh! The holiday season. Is anyone else getting tired of parties and behaving like sailors on shore leave?

In spite of our attrocious end-of-year posting schedule (yes, it will pick up in a few days - I hope) I thought I would throw something up on SD so you knew that you weren’t forgotten in the holiday rush.

This Monday, be sure to listen into ScaleDown Radio (noon ’til 1:00 on CJAM 91.5 FM), as we are lucky enough to have Shawn Micallef from Spacing Magazine in the studio to discuss tonights Psychogeographic Walk as well as Spacing magazine in general. Any fans of the magazine, or Shawn’s popular [murmur] project (which a little birdie tells me may have a future here in Windsor) should be sure to tune in.

In the meantime, so you don’t lose your SD-edge, here’s a recent article published in the Conneticut online journal The Day questioning the future of the ubiquitous ‘70/’80’s era enclosed mall and asking whether or not they have a future in our communities.

The enclosed mid-sized shopping center, such as the Crystal Mall, is a relic, a dated architectural style being replaced by open-air venues, by mixed-use developments that include offices and residences, and by “lifestyle centers” with boutique stores and organic supermarkets.

They simply do not build Crystal Malls anymore.

”We don’t see any enclosed (shopping) centers in the pipeline,” said Erin Hershkowitz, a spokeswoman for the International Council of Shopping Centers

…”Developers have realized that not only do they need to respond to what consumer tastes are, but they have these parking lots that have basically functioned as land banks all this time,” she said, “so they have the ability to do something.”

A paper by the Congress for the New Urbanism - a nonprofit organization that, in part, promotes “walkable” communities - said obsolete shopping centers represent “a possible treasure trove of redevelopment opportunities.”

The organization calls the dead shopping centers “greyfields” and studied how to build “New Urbanist neighborhoods” on the sites.

…”I think shoppers are attracted to kind of the urban feel, the outdoor, the streetfront, urban feel to it,” Kramer said. “And I think that’s a fairly strong trend. I don’t see that going away too fast. It’s kind of like a return to what it was always, for centuries, so it makes sense that it fits right.”

Is there a future for some of our local, dying enclosed malls such as Central Mall on the near-east side or the west-end University Mall? It would take a developer with vision to take a look at these relics and envision something better, but with a track record like we have in Windsor, we will probably be left with vacant eye-sores blighting our urban fabric.

On behalf of Brendan, James and Mark, I would like to take this opportunity to give all our readers,commentors and supporters a big cyber-hug for making ScaleDown what it is and giving this writer/contributor hope that all is not lost in this city. I look forward to working with you in the New Year and making some more headway into developing the mindset that Windsor has what it takes to be a more pedestrian-friendly and livable city.

Cheers!