Malls as community caricature

BoingBoing linked to an article about the latest incarnation of the mall. I found the conclusion interesting:

The lifestyle center is a bizarre outgrowth of the suburban mentality: People want public space, even if making that space private is the only way to get it.

I've had that kind of feeling before. Where I wanted to just buy a bunch of land, and put everything I needed on it, and be self-sufficient, because I didn't trust other people to treat me right, or to make the products I wanted, or not to kill me when I went out for a walk. It's an outgrowth of our do-it-yourself mentality, I think, the one that has turned us all into islands.