[extropy-chat] Seven cents an hour? (was: Riots in France)

[Alfio Puglisi]

On 11/14/05, Amara Graps <amara at amara.com> wrote:
> Alfio:
>
> There is a social impact too. Some fiorentinos told me that, when this
> place
>
> http://www.igigli.it/1001300204/portal_ne=1001300204&cp=22723&l=1&d=MPS&pt=&pg=1&ids=0&id1=.htm
>
> opened, it acted like a large magnet, attracting the young people, so
> the 'character' of Firenze changed. I have visited this place (it is
> very close to the company that built our Dawn VIR instrument), and, on
> the scale of US shopping malls, it is on the small side. Can you
> comment on how this mall affects people in Florence?

It mainly affects people living in the surrounding towns: young people
didn't have many places to go, and going to Gigli become something
common on friday and saturday afternoons, plus the whole sunday - not
for shopping, but just for hanging around. It's easily reacheable from
nearby towns, many of which are experiencing population increases (the
location of the shopping center wasn't chosen at random :-)

People living in the city tend to go there if they have a specific
reason, it's at least a 30 minutes drive with heavy traffic, and
Firenze has a lot of places for social needs. This doesn't mean that
they don't go there at all (you can even find me there once every
month or two), but that it's not a casual meeting place.

In the area near Gigli, about three or four smaller shopping centers
have opened in the last five years, along with cinema multiplexes,
Ikea stores and similar things, giving birth to a kind of shopping
belt around the north-west part of the city. In some ways, going
outside the city was the only practical choice: Firenze is very
compressed and there's literally not enough space within the city
limits for this kind of shopping centers.

Alfio