Cover it and they will come
This is not an economic allegory. This is history, freshly baked.
Once upon a time, there was a successful little city, with a bustling downtown, surrounded by history. The shoppers came and went, content that their local merchants had a sense of fashion, and that the tramway stopped at the front door of the major and minor shops, without prejudice.
But times change, and the tramway yielded to the automobile. Enterprising entrepreneurs decided to build malls, large malls, with places for all those cars to park without thought. And, as it happens, the public forgot their downtown and spent their available hours and dollars at the mall. Despair ensued in the local merchant community.
Realizing that if you couldn’t go to the mall, you could bring the mall to your doorstep, the merchants banded together and decided to build a roof over their main street. A thousand metres worth of roof. They did so, and it was good. “The longest, covered, main street on the continent,” they bragged to anyone who would listen.
Some of the fickle public returned, especially after underground parking was added. Cars, you know.
The city, surrounded by history, also had a Nordic climate, and this new, indoor shopping area was warm and inviting. Soon, the locals with less cash and more time than some of the car owners started to “hang out” on the main street. All day, all night, etc. The merchants began to despair of their new neighbours, who shopped but didn’t buy.
Soon, the merchants banded together and decided to remove the roof over their main street shopping area. That way, the cold weather would drive the penniless away, leaving room for shoppers with money. And so the roof faded from memory, and the downtown went back to being a place for the prosperous.
This really happened. I saw it with my own eyes.
