tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9158467536239735339.post3930249991660997111..comments2023-10-19T05:19:01.550-08:00Comments on American Dirt: MONTAGE: The inside-out of the inner city.AmericanDirthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04600555386886915000noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9158467536239735339.post-90754053783189321202016-03-24T20:18:34.481-08:002016-03-24T20:18:34.481-08:00Thanks for the comments Christi. It doesn't m...Thanks for the comments Christi. It doesn't matter that this is an old article--I still try to respond. I appreciate the updates on the Walmart out there...glad to hear someone is investing that part of KCMO. I guess Hypermarts really only peaked in metros close to Walmart's Bentonville HQ, like Kansas City. They definitely never had them in my hometown of Indianapolis.<br /><br />This blog is also closed. I'll be transferring your comment to the new domain at dirtamericana.com. Check it out and feel free to respond there.AmericanDirthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04600555386886915000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9158467536239735339.post-28685931709888021252016-03-24T08:17:52.058-08:002016-03-24T08:17:52.058-08:00I realize this is an old article, but I just stumb...I realize this is an old article, but I just stumbled upon it. I wanted to confirm that indeed there was a Walmart spinoff located in the building you described as "With an unusual combination of bold colors and a formidable size" that sported a red roof. It was a Hypermart, Walnart's attempt at a "Mall without Walls." <br /><br />Cerner has now bought the site and is in the middle of constructing a massive new campus.Christihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15261054992403779206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9158467536239735339.post-15158147683821771592016-03-24T08:16:53.478-08:002016-03-24T08:16:53.478-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Christihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15261054992403779206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9158467536239735339.post-55128832613315355892012-12-04T18:55:10.478-09:002012-12-04T18:55:10.478-09:00Thanks for the comments, ardecila. In response to...Thanks for the comments, ardecila. In response to your first question, I would imagine that much of the decentralization that seems to have transpired due to the automobile--as opposed to other means of transportation--is because it was the first privately owned vehicle that allowed individuals to travel great distances with ease. Bear in mind that automobiles existed at the dawn of the 20th century. But settlement patterns really didn't shift to automobile dominated until after World War II, at a point when the vast majority of households owned a vehicle. When automobiles were a recreational toy of the elite, as they were for the first two decades of the 20th century, urban settlements did little to accommodate them. My guess is that off-street parking lots were fairly rare up until the end of the Great Depression.<br /><br />If you want more insight on the "throwaway" building, I recommend you look at my dialogue with reader on another recent article, about some suburban apartment buildings from the 1960s and 70s that are already decaying: http://dirtamericana.blogspot.com/2012/11/even-test-market-suburbs-get-caught-in.html<br /><br />My guess is that neither our thought nor our settlement patterns were particularly stable over millennia. A 19th century settlement would look radical from the perspective of a 17th century inhabitant--the very notion of cities were an oddity for most of the world's population until the Industrial Revolution. People from those eras would just be using their frames of reference for judgment, as we use the automobile for our own. AmericanDirthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04600555386886915000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9158467536239735339.post-18001987330869479422012-12-04T00:35:37.368-09:002012-12-04T00:35:37.368-09:00I'm really interested in this series of posts....I'm really interested in this series of posts... I am curious about cycles of reinvestment before the automobile came along. It seems like the auto decoupled outward expansion from population growth, but why didn't this happen with earlier transportation technologies? Has the business world so radically changed philosophies since 1930 that a throwaway building is now preferable to a long-lasting one? <br /><br />I've yet to see good answers to these questions, but it seems suspicious to me that the car could so profoundly reshape our thought patterns after millennia of stability.ardecilahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08481897844775012398noreply@blogger.com