Retail and Pedestrian Culture

There has been a lot of press lately around the continued growth of Dubai's retail industry. More western brands opening stores in Dubai, more tourists coming to Dubai to shop and more big malls opening to support all of this growth. It's true that the malls here are really remarkable, not only for the variety of goods they contain but also for the amazing mixture of people they attract. From an urban planning perspective, I think a lot about the lack of pedestrian culture this creates. Malls create a self-contained environment, as if you leave the actual city temporarily, park your car, and enter a city within a city. It's not just malls, think about the idea of the free-zones. When Dubai residents go to work, they often enter a free-zone like Media City, self-contained and defined by the industries and offices they host. Traditional "car cities" like Los Angeles have even developed retail as a strategy to develop neighborhoods (think Melrose and Robertson) Something to consider: could locating new retail developments in neighborhoods rather than malls work in Dubai? Yes, it is hot and people don't like to be outside, especially during the summer. And yes, there really aren't "neighborhoods" in Dubai yet, except for Bur Dubai and Deira, which may not attract the affluent retail foot traffic to sustain many retailers. But this is longer-term thinking. What kind of global city will Dubai become if the heart of its identity (the people) are always hidden away in cloistered developments?