[Chef]

Dead malls could be the '80s and '90s era lofts of the future. It would be the perfect place for artists, nightclubs and cheap living. You could convert the smaller stores into living spaces, the larger spaces become venues and the food court remains a food court - a self contained walkable community. This is how bohemia goes to suburbia. Artists, musicians and other marginal types have always lived in the detritus of the discarded ideas of previous eras. There is no reason why a dead mall in an aging blue collar suburb in 2025 would be any different than the Lower East Side in the '70s.