There is no doubt that the Mall of America is a ready display of American culture’s addiction to consumerism and the myth that personal possessions will boost self-esteem. It’s also an outpost of a half-century of urban design predicated on the notion that America has enough room, energy, wealth, and moxie to continue building drive-up giant market places that sooner, rather than later, get thrown away.
(via PLANetizen/Michigan Land Use Institute: “The Maul Of America: A “city within a city” it’s not,” by Jacob Wheeler [September 12, 2004])