Junk Food Places

Sarah Goodyear, writing for the Atlantic Cities:

I’ve been thinking about the strip malls and freeways of South Florida as a kind of junk food. These are the empty calories of place and space, filling us up, crowding out the more “nutritious” places where we can interact pleasantly with other humans, enjoy the shade of a tree, or walk along a street. We consume these places without thinking, like potato chips in front of the television, and it is no coincidence that they help to make us fat.

I think it’s a good analogy. These kinds of places satisfy a craving but don’t provide lasting value.