Hjørnesteinsbutikken (Corner Grocery)

Et bymiljø uten butikken på hjørnet er dødsdømt og kan aldri utvikles til et fullforløst nabolag. Dette fordi hjørnebutikken er hjørnesteinen i et nabolag!

Christopher Alexander skriver i mønster "89 Corner Grocery":

"It has lately been assumed that people no longer want to walk to local stores. This assumption is mistaken.

Indeed, we believe that people are not only willingto walk to their local corner groceries, but that the corner grocery plays an essential role in any healthy neighborhood: partly because it is just more convenient for individuals; partly because it helps to integrate the neighborhood as a whole.

Strong support for this notion comes from a study by Arthur D. Little, Inc., which found that neighborhood stores are one of the two most important elements in people's perception of an area as a neighborhood(Community Renewal Program,New York: Praeger Press, 1966). Apparently this is because local stores are an important destination for neighborhood walks. People go to them when they feel like a walk as well as when they need a carton of milk. In this way, as a generator of walks, they draw a residential area together and help to give it the quality of a neighborhood. Similar evidence comes from a report by the management of one of San Francisco's housing projects for the elderly. One of the main reasons why people resisted moving into some of the city's new housing projects, according to the rental manager, was that the projects were not located in "downtown locations, where . . . there is a store on every street corner." (San Francisco Chronicle,August 1971.)"

Avbildet hjørnebutikk er fra Köpmantorget i Gamla stan.

The depicted corner grocery is from Köpmantorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm.

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