Sociology prof talks on loss of public space

Analyzing the ways in which The Disney Store, NikeTown and other corporate superstores are creating a new urban "landscape of power," Community University of New York Sociology Professor Sharon Zukin spoke about the future of urban revitalization Wednesday afternoon in Meyerson Hall. Invited to Penn for the Urban Studies Department's 13th annual lecture, Zukin addressed a crowd of more than 150 students and faculty attracted by her work in the "privatization of public space." "It seems frivolous for me to talk about shopping," Zukin said in beginning her lecture on the social differences reflected in the retail world. In the speech, "The Privatization of Public Space: From the Disney Store to NikeTown," Zukin explained that she first began to examine shopping critically about a year ago after realizing that it was becoming an "overwhelming" focus in department store windows and in society as a whole. "I was reading more and more about shopping," she said. Citing examples from her hometown of New York City, Zukin argued that "retail emerged as urban redevelopment" beginning in the early 1990s. Open public spaces were transformed into places of mass consumption which appealed to the "visual appreciation of the paying public." With a series of slides of the streets and storefronts of New York City, Zukin compared current examples of small, local businesses with their glitzy corporate counterparts along the new 42nd Street. "Madison Avenue? has incrementally lost its local flavor," she noted, explained that branches of international chain superstores have replaced individual, independent businesses. Madison Avenue gradually expanded and revamped its retail offerings, as rents increased and stores like those of designer Giorgio Armani moved in to cater to a more upscale clientele, she explained. Zukin expounded on her observations with slides of the redevelopment of the Times Square area of New York. As pornographic movie theaters and off-track betting facilities were systematically shut down or abandoned, huge corporations rushed to fill the spaces lining the busy, tourist-ridden sector. The Gap and the Disney Store moved into Times Square, just as NikeTown moved onto Fifth Avenue, using "museum-like" displays of sporting goods and enormous television monitors to showcase their merchandise to consumers. Zukin concluded by questioning whether a balance of private and public spaces could be achieved in future urban revitalization, noting that class, race and ethnic barriers discourage certain people from shopping in stores. After Zukin's speech, Temple University student Lisa Serverin said, "She gave me things to think about. The Disney Store is so overdone and awe-inspiring. It really does make me want to buy."

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