Opinions from the mall
Broadcast Date: May 4, 1979
Mall rats. Block parents. Drugs. These are words used in 1979 to describe suburban life in interviews conducted at Scarborough Town Centre. Once synonymous with white picket fences, the suburbs now evoke images of bored teenagers hanging at the mall. In this CBC Television clip, a reporter asks: What happened to the good, quiet neighbourhoods? One teenager replies: "We've got nothing to do, so we just go around destroying other people's property."Opinions from the mall
• In 1986, the Toronto Star used the term "mall rats" to refer to kids who spent too much time at the mall without buying anything.
• Malls frequented by mall rats included Scarborough Town Centre, the Toronto Eaton Centre, and Yorkdale and Dufferin Malls.
• In an attempt to control the problem, management at Scarborough Town Centre began giving out tickets.
• Special security monitors dubbed "mall men" would troll the shopping centre, and sometimes "sit and watch," to discern who was loitering and who was truly buying.
• In effect, tickets represented a ban from the mall for an unidentified period. If ticketed, re-entry meant a trespassing charge, or a $53 out-of-court fine.
• The Star article reported that kids who frequented the Eaton Centre would often travel from suburbs, which also had malls, for variety. In 1984, the Eaton Centre mall men kicked out 32,356 people.
• Mall management company Cadillac Fairview Limited co-owned and managed 42 malls across North America, including Don Mills Centre and the Eaton Centre.
• In 2001, the Globe and Mail reported that poverty had increased in the suburbs. The article, which referenced a United Way study, correlated the change to an increase in city ghettos. Since 1981, the number of ghettos in the Greater Toronto Area had grown from 30 to 120. With a decrease in affordable housing, the report said low-income families more often sought cheaper housing in the suburbs.
• Since the 1990s, CBC News has reported on increases in suburban crime (Crime in the Suburbs: March 14, 1990; Gang Wars: June 20, 1990; Suburban property crime increases: Nov. 4, 1994).
Opinions from the mall
Medium: Television
Program: Time for You
Broadcast Date: May 4, 1979
Host: Barbara McLeod
Duration: 2:01
Last updated:
Sept. 24, 2009
Opinions from the mall.
The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last updated: Sept. 24, 2009.
[Page consulted on Feb. 16, 2012.]