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Article: The mall of dreams.(Silver Spring, Maryland's The American Dream mall)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- May 4, 1996
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND
YOU can see America wilting in downtown Silver Spring. Old office blocks stand empty. A grand art deco cinema is frequented only by ghosts. Glitzy department stores have decamped to out-of-town shopping malls. Tattoo parlours, pawnbrokers, discounters remain. This decay, multiplied a thousand times in towns across America, is especially painful in a country built on the idea of progress. Lacking a common history, ethnicity, or even language, Americans are held together by a singular optimism: by the American dream.
There is no British dream, no Japanese dream; but the American dream is invoked in countless contexts. Silver Spring, just ...