Let me tell you how: be creative and focus on the right measures. Change urbanization policies.

“In the heart of Ankara, in Kızılay, stores on busy streets are not worth a hill of beans. Shop keepers are out on a limb.” I heard this observation at a meeting about the retail sector in Ankara. The participant who shared this observation also lived in Ankara. He complained about the mushrooming of shopping malls in the city. The number has almost reached 40 now. As the Ankara mayor has declared proudly, Ankara not only ranks first in Turkey, but also beats the European average, with 215 square meters of shopping mall area per capita. More shopping malls squeeze out the small shop owners and shop keepers.

I don’t think the street shops in Kızılay are out on a limb because of the shopping malls. The increase in the number of malls is an outcome, not a cause. I believe that they have no customers because Ankara has become less pedestrian-friendly every day; because Ankara’s children cannot play freely on the streets. Let me highlight this fact as local elections are approaching, and take it one step further: at this rate, Ankara will break all world records in the number of shopping malls. The less walkable a city, the more of a social need it becomes to construct artificial walking trails. People start looking for artificial places on which to walk safely with their families. Since municipalities do not bother to build parks or playgrounds for children, private shopping malls meet the need. Turkey builds malls instead of parks, because the municipalities don’t do their jobs. Having malls instead of parks in Turkey must be considered to be like advertorials between TV shows. Let me tell you how.

It was about two years ago. Back then, my nephew Sarp was seven and my niece Ela was five. We were on our way to do their weekend homework. When we arrived, it was difficult to find a place to park downtown. After driving through many streets, we found a spot near a sidewalk. In fact, municipalities charge a certain amount per each new building to allocate a parking area, but then do nothing. Instead, they use the money for their populist agendas. And no one calls them to account. Anyway, we started walking towards out target. Automobiles were parked on the sidewalks, which as they were intended to be ornamental, were already narrow. With the cars parked on them, pedestrians were forced to walk along the edge of the busy street. As you can imagine, one of the kids had to walk on the side with the traffic. You feel terribly uncomfortable.

Of course, even if cars are not parked on the sidewalks, you occasionally have to walk very carefully because Ankara’s sidewalks have a tendency to disappear! Even the one passing by the presidential residence in Çankaya is interrupted several times or blocked when two people coming from opposite directions meet. I think that Turkey’s mayors have never walked on the streets. If they had even once, everything would be different. Because they have not, Ankara increasingly is turning into a city designed for cars. So, let me tell you, in a city where you can only drive, stores on busy streets will not be worth a hill of beans. Streets are alive and stores on the streets are buoyant only in cities where you can walk. Small shop owners have to keep a close eye on municipal zoning decisions.

Returning to the story, when we finished the homework and returned to the car alive and well some hours later, the kids were starving. Do you know what we did? We drove to a shopping mall, easily parked the car, walked into the mall in peace and had a bite to eat. No one wants trouble in their lives. Shopping malls are so popular and widespread in Turkey because they are convenient, if you ask me. They assure the convenience and peace that the city and the streets fail to offer. If small shop owners are about to go bankrupt, it is because of the absurd urbanization policies of the municipalities.

During the retail sector meeting, participants discussed for hours how to protect the traditional retail sector against the modern retail practices. Let me tell you how: be creative and focus on the right measures. Change urbanization policies. Make municipalities steer towards child-friendly cities. Forget about the twentieth-century municipal management style. Municipalities in the twenty-first century should not expect to get credit for collecting garbage or constructing roads, but for creating child-friendly cities. Only in cities where children can walk alone on the streets can small businesses survive. Cities where children can play on the streets are to the benefit of small shop owners.

Or are you stuck with the municipalities of the previous century?

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 31.12.2013