Last week RiverTown Crossings mall in Grandville banned The Rapid's busses from stopping at the mall entrance. Instead, the bus will now stop hundreds of yards from the mall's entrance. The mall's General Manager, Randy Zimmerman, said that the ban was due to "several violent incidents" blamed on bus passengers, although Grandville police dispute this claim saying that the incidents were at worst "rowdy behavior" and that nobody has been cited for the disturbances. Zimmerman claimed in the Grand Rapids Press that The Rapid has failed to address the problem—which he claims has been ongoing for the past five years—and said that to continue allowing The Rapid to drop off passengers at the mall's entrance would "risk having something happen to a mall customer." By forcing the bus to drop passengers several hundred yards from the mall's entrance, Zimmerman is sending a message to bus riders--some (but not all) of whom are low income--that they are not welcomed at the mall. Similarly, it is quite likely that race was involved in the decision as well, as the urban demographic served by The Rapid is noticeably different from the middle to upper middle class demographic of suburban residents that malls depend on for ongoing profit. In the Grand Rapids Press, Dick Bulkowski of Disability Advocates of Kent County stated that the mall is "saying to everybody who rides the bus, 'We really don't want you here.'" and raised the possibility that the move may violate the federal Americans with Disability Act as public facilities are required to be handicap accessible. The new stop requires passengers to step onto a grassy patch of land between a road and parking lot and is likely impassible for those using wheelchairs.
In addition to highlighting the ways in which race and class determine who is welcome in public and private spaces, the banning of The Rapid also highlights the growing corporate ownership of areas commonly considered "public." As mentioned in the article, far from being public areas in which equal access or freedom of speech are protected, malls are "pseudo-public" spaces that are corporately run in which their activities and operation are strictly controlled. Malls are controlled environments designed to encourage consumerism where everything--from the aisles to the lighting--is researched and planned to promote unthinking consumerism. As such, any activity that might disrupt these highly researched environments is generally strictly controlled. Consequently, political demonstrations, leafleting, signature gathering, or other such activities that one would usually consider as taking place in public settings—are prohibited with those engaging in such activities on mall property being threatened with arrest. Similarly, malls—unlike truly public areas—can decide who is and is not welcome and consequently may engage in activities ranging from targeting people for harassment based on their race or age (in the case of curfews) or banning "potential troublemakers" who wear political t-shirts. Beyond being a problem with malls, this is an issue that underscores the problem of corporate control of public space whether it is malls or the airwaves, as such control is at its core anti-democratic.
RiverTown Crossings' General Manager, Randy Zimmerman, can be contacted via email at Randy.Zimmerman@generalgrowth.com or by using an online form. RiverTown's corporate owners, General Growth Properties, can also be contacted via an online form. Media Mouse assumes that he/they would love to hear from citizens regarding his decision to move The Rapid stop.
