The Many Factors of Main Street's Decline

Transportation improvement was a major factor toward the decline of main street America.  The airplane, second only to the automobile as the means of transportation, grew up on the outskirts of cities.  Prior to that, a city's prosperity depended on the coming of the railroad or a canal.  In the 20th century, a city's prosperity depended on the building of highways and airports.  The bigger the airport, the further outside the city it was, until airports were built between cities.  A person arriving by air, didn't need to go into the city proper. 

The coming of the motion picture and neighborhood "picture houses" took people away from the downtown theaters, opera houses and music halls.  When television became a household item, people could see what they wanted (and what they didn't want to see) without leaving their living room. 

The "shopping center" grew up in the 1920s outside the central city.  It took business away from the city center to the suburbs.  The first shopping center, Country Club Plaza (picture on right), was built in 1922 in Kansas City, Missouri.  A Kansas farm boy who went on to Harvard, wrote his thesis on the "economics of land development" and then went to Europe to collect architectural ideas to apply to his shopping center.  The shopping center covered 6,000 acres and was one-tenth of the total area of Kansas City at the time.

By 1940 about one quarter of the nation's retail sales were in suburban shopping centers.  By 1950 the percentage was one-third.  There were 1800 shopping centers built on the outskirts of business districts by 1955. Meanwhile increasing number of people held jobs outside the city center.  Professional centers sprang up for banks, doctors, lawyers and factories.  A smaller proportion of the population worked downtown and had fewer reasons to go "into the city."

There are many factors that contributed to the decline of main street - transportation, infrastructure, shopping centers, and just a growing populations.  What was once a mom and pop street in the heart of the city became almost obsolete in the 21st century.  What a shame!.

Next time...Boom!
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Today in Pioneer History: "On August 29, 1911, Ishi, described as the last surviving member of the Native American Yahi tribe is discovered in California.  Known as the "Stone-Age Indian" he was found lost and starving in Oroville, California.  He was unfamiliar with white ways and spoke no English. He was 50 years old and taken to live in the Berkeley Museum where he was cared for until his death at 56.  He was cremated according to the customs of his people.