The times they are a changing

Speaking of changing retail districts, the Wall Street Journal reports, in "Tattoo Parlors Start Hitting Mall: Shop Owners Aim to Attract More Young People, but Some Artists Are Resisting Move" that tattoo parlors are opening in shopping malls. (You know the kinds of places that because of problems with teens, have curfews and/or require adolescents to be accompanied by an adult during certain time periods--see "Bye-Bye, Mall Rats" from TIME Magazine).

Shopping districts, be they traditional commercial districts, like Mount Pleasant, or monstrous malls, are managed along the same lines--you try to provide high quality experiences that fit the customer segment you are reaching for. That's why I find publications on traditional shopping districts just as useful to read as ones on urban areas. These publications from the Urban Land Institute are all very good:

-- Reinventing Suburban Business Districts
-- Reinventing America's Suburban Strips
-- Ten Steps for Rebuilding Neighborhood Retail
-- Ten Steps for Rethinking the Mall