[raisethehammer]

I don't think Mike used the right term in the above post about closing malls.
De-malling is actually a trend ripping across the US and starting to hit Canada - its where an old mall site is reconstructed into a more walkable, mixed use development with retail, housing, offices, cafes etc....

I really don't think that the old suburban malls - Eastgate/Centre/Limeridge are the leading factors in downtown's decline, although they certainly didn't help.
The real problem occured when downtown built their own mall in an effort to compete with the burbs.
It can't.
Downtown needs to be a unique, vibrant place - think Byward Market in Ottawa or any number of neighbourhoods in downtown TO.
Downtown cant and shouldn't try to compete with the suburbs on their level - highways, interchange ramps, free parking galore.
Downtowns should be entirely different. Thankfully I slowly see the seeds of that being planted in Hamilton, yet the mindset in groups like the downtown BIA continue to hold the core back because they are too suburban minded - where's the acres of free parking?? why are there posters on the street poles??
They need to embrace urbanism and all it's forms. The suburbs have mega billboards that blaze light into people's bedrooms at night. Downtown has a pile of little clubs and businesses that rely on human beings walking by and shopping/eating there. Signs on poles are more effective than mega billboards on the 403 or Main Street.
Less free parking and more destinations should be goal (again, TO and Ottawa).

Oh, and Ted...I didn't make the assinine assumption that because the biggest companies are advertisers that means we don't have a true free market.
I gave very clear reasons (in the form of trillions of dollars) why we don't have a free market. Nice try though.
Remember, the free market guys are always the ones screaming for the government to just get out of the way and let them do business. I say "great idea". No more $1.5 billion annually to the oil industry anymore in Canada (last year we gave them even more).
No more free land servicing and highway interchange construction.
They want government right out of the way, that should include the money too.