During an interesting conversation regarding the dissonance of what constitutes a community amenity and a destination, the simple fact that a personal lens of scale creates the metric of difference came to light. Whether applied to the marvel that was the enclosed shopping mall, the strip mall, the arcade mall or to a grander plan such as a convention center or even theme park, the hubris of identifying the personal boundaries of space constituted a more appropriate understanding of determining which population is being served and whether said population forms a "local" community or not.
To be fair the main purpose of the aforementioned conversation was whether a destination could result in direct community amenity, in this case "Would the Cleveland Med Mart truly bring some life to downtown Cleveland?" The lens through which the incident was being initially studied was as a Clevelander who would like an excuse to go downtown more but find it a bit boring. What would the Med Mart do for people like me?
This acknowledgment was immediately a mistake. I am not part of the community that the Med Mart would serve, there is a larger National/International Medical community to which is being targeted, I belong to a second localized group, one that is tied via geographic location which according to my previous statement of "finding downtown Cleveland boring" can easily be overridden. Here usage beats simple proximity. Would the Medical community be drawn to the Med Mart? If it offers ease, convenience and purpose then one could assume that the community would definitely visit. Is there a geographic based penalty (distance = less opportunity to visit)? Possibly but again, geospatial location can be easily overridden (through the marvels of planes, trains and automobiles).
What then about local community amenity such as grocery stores, libraries, schools, etc. Some offer function that cannot overcome geographic location (schools typically serve a specific community), some destinations must serve those with limited transportation options (libraries, grocery stores) some overcome geographic limitations by constructing their own transportation system (hosptial/healthcare). Here the scale of the community being served is lessened as there are multiple destination/amenities created to serve multiple communities. There are more than one library, grocery store, school, hospital, each created to serve within a certain geographic location. Here the argument that the community is smaller and possibly more distinct allows this scale to be seen as the distinction between amenity and destination. However if the community (say the International Medical Community*) is highly mobile and there are less fewer amenity/destinations then the label may change depending on if your metric for scale is based upon local community or the more specific International Medical Community.
So what of the all important automobile? This creation really threw a monkey wrench into the scale argument of community amenity and destination. Initially the sense of scale shrinks to include only those that are located within the automobile. As most communities do not strictly delineate with signage at the borders the automobile creates this highly mobile but highly contained sense of space that defeats the geographic limitation (average daily commute in the US is around 48 minutes) exposing the auto traveler to multiple communities in one journey albeit usually only to limited areas (those with the quickest passage through). Previously to the advent of the auto (and for most citizens until they turn at least 16) the local community is defined by a radius that is easily walked (or ridden by bicycle) which allows not only the option of a more meandering path (and greater intimacy with the community) but also sets specific delineations of where the acceptable "edges" of the community are (based upon physical exertion, spatial familiarity and geographic properties). Again, another scale is developed that must be supplemented by an eagerness to travel once auto access is granted.
Public transportation is an anomaly that stitches the difference between pedestrian level travel and auto travel. The community is expanded to include whomever is on the bus/train and the continuous stops and less engaged operation (for the passengers) allow more time to identify with fabric along the route. Still travel is limited to a predetermined path, however it becomes more than simply a destination to destination journey as there is the introduction of a larger population (passengers) and more frequency of interactive changes (stations).
Regional access allows the metric by what we consider an amenity to shift based upon our mobility however the way that we also define ourselves alters what the basis of our communities are. Simply put, if we were to only define ourselves as Clevelanders, then our community would be simply Cleveland. If were to expand our self definition to include cultural attributes such as hobbies, occupation, or interests then our sense of community would expand and by extension our definition of amenity. The argument that is most often heard is based upon an assumption of which community is being served and in which manner, regardless of whether the "target demographic" is stated. Air travel and the ease in which some may attain access to other parts of the world have created a lens that can encompass a larger community, stretching from the city region to encompass entire nations. There is a direct connection between our mobility and geographic limitation and what can be logically considered a "community amenity" if the community is being defined by only geographic terms. This makes an important distinction between the attempts to capitalize on existing cultural/community amenities in order to create greater exposure to a larger "culturally based" community.
Again, to make a proper argument a sense of scale must be defined in order to validate the assumptions made when considering what a community truly is. Today's modern society is highly mobile and exploratory and has found easy ways to breach the geographic limitations that have been placed upon it in earlier decades. This isn't to say that local geographic communities would succeed if they abandoned all local amenities, but it is to suggest that cultural destinations are rapidly becoming cultural amenities and population migration will shift in response to such.
*to be fair I do not know if there is an International Medical Community but it sounds scary to me.
