Feb 10, 2015 3 min read

When they first started to dot the landscape in the 1960s and 1970s, it was hard to imagine that malls could ever falter.

There they were, bursting with free parking, climate control, an energizing bustle and an array of goods, all available for perusal at a comfortable stroll. Cafeterias and other eateries were there to satisfy appetites and slake thirst and, later on, multiplexes showing the latest movies became part of the mix. They were the new town squares, and played no small part in depopulating traditional town squares and draining downtown business districts of the vitality they once enjoyed.

A half-century after the appearance of the first malls, though, some of them now stand empty, as quiet as a derelict castle in Scotland or a windswept Roman ruin. Some were done in by owners who didn’t upgrade them as the decades passed, and others were cashiered by changing shopping habits, anchor stores that went under or by newer, improved, glossier malls that opened a mile or two down the road.

When you come across news stories about malls that weaken and die, there’s sometimes another factor that comes into play – the perception by some shoppers that those malls became unsafe, that you had to watch your back while you were on the lookout for bargains. In some instances, those feelings of unease were sparked by specific incidents, while in other cases they were prompted by visitors witnessing hordes of young people milling about on Friday or Saturday nights, horsing around or endlessly orbiting parking lots in their vehicles. Whether the verdict is fair or unfair, the perception that a mall is somewhere you’d better tread carefully can be the first step in its death.

Right now, we imagine the owners of the Monroeville Mall are going into overdrive to reassure shoppers that the mall, which opened 46 years ago and was renovated and expanded 11 years ago, is someplace where they don’t have feel pangs of fear. This follows a shooting there Saturday night that left three people wounded, two of them critically. The shooting came a little over a month after a series of brawls broke out in the mall on a Friday night, fueled by social media, that police said involved up to 1,000 young people.

The proprietors of Monroeville Mall have vowed that security will be stepped up and, in a story that appeared in the Observer-Reporter Tuesday, the operators of other malls closer to Washington are taking another look at what security measures they impose. Police from Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair, for instance, had already scheduled a meeting with officials at South Hills Village mall to look at how they are handling security. Thankfully, officials say the primary problem they must confront are teenagers who loiter and their security staff is able to deal with the issue adequately. Other malls have adopted stricter measures, restricting the admittance of teenagers at certain times unless they are accompanied by an adult.

The operators of malls have a delicate balance to maintain – on the one hand, they must keep their properties safe, while, on the other hand, they need to be open and welcoming and not bar too many customers from the premises. We don’t envy their task. But we hope that Monroeville Mall, and all the other malls within our region, succeed on this score. The last thing we need are any more dead malls cluttering the countryside.