THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 18, 1996 TAG: 9602180018
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
The biggest obstacle to an urban mall's success, industry experts say, can be convincing suburbanites that coming downtown will be a safe and comfortable experience.
Downtown streets are still the site of frequent murders in Columbus, and the homeless are seen walking around the City Center mall.
For real protection and to establish an ambiance of safety, the developer, The Taubman Co., has developed an elaborate protocol which it intends to follow in Norfolk.
Shout obscenities, walk in the mall without shoes or even just sit or stand in what the management feels is the wrong way, and a security guard will politely hand you a white card listing the center's 12-item ``Code of Conduct.''
Like a referee handing a soccer player a yellow card before throwing him out of the game, a mall visitor will usually get two such cards - the second with the offense circled - before being thrown out of the mall.
It's a strategy that appears to have worked. Despite a fatal shooting at the mall in 1994, in dozens of interviews at City Center this month, no one mentioned safety as a concern, whether in the mall or the attached parking garage.
At entrances and key intersections around the mall, the Code of Conduct is posted on prominent signs. The 12 rules cover specifics such as no pets or smoking. But there are also more general prescriptions, such as not ``standing, walking or sitting in such a way as to cause inconvenience to others.''
As private, for-profit spaces, malls have wide powers to control who is allowed in and what they may do.
Security at the mall was unobtrusive but apparent. Guards with trooper-like hats, radios, insignia and clean white shirts solemnly patrolled the mall.
When obviously homeless people are spotted in the mall, a security guard will ask whether they need help in any way and offer to drive them to a homeless shelter, says general manager Norman Plourde. Because loitering is prohibited, the mall can legally ask homeless people to leave. If they are found panhandling, they are told this is against mall regulations.
Plourde says the mall's policy is to treat everyone - including the homeless - with dignity and respect.
The most serious crime, and tragedy, occurred in the summer of 1994 when Raylynn Diamond, a 15-year-old boy, was shot and killed in the middle of the mall during what police called a gang dispute.
``As dramatic as it was, our business did not suffer at all,'' said Kaisa Mikkola, assistant mall manager, a statement that seems borne out by the crowds milling around her in the mall. ``People nowadays understand that this kind of thing can happen.''
KEYWORDS: SHOPPING CENTERS SHOPPING MALLS URBAN
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