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Open-air ‘mall parks’ are on the rise in SoCal — and exhausted parents are loving it

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Open-air ‘mall parks’ are on the rise in SoCal — and exhausted parents are loving it

As the sun peeked out from behind the clouds at 9:30 a.m. on the day after a rainy Saturday, the strollers at Runway Playa Vista rolled in. Giggles echoed in a nearby play area where children twisted knobs and spun a wheel in a car-like play structure. Toddlers whizzed by on scooters as parents chatted about the struggles of parenting during a rare L.A. storm.

Their solution to kids with pent-up energy wasn’t to head to any park — it was to come to a mall park. Or rather, the turf fairway and play structures that sit just outside storefronts at this southwest Los Angeles “shopping center.”

“My older daughter does dance right here, so this is a Sunday routine for us,” said Daniel LaBare, who sat with his Whole Foods shopping bags by the play car with his younger daughter, 2-year-old Ellie. “She goes to dance, and we hang out and play.”

With the rise of e-commerce, it’s no secret that retail developers have had to get creative to keep attracting customers. One method that seems to be working? Catering to families by making green turf and other kid-friendly spaces a mall centerpiece.

Some of these areas are just patches of turf with Adirondack chairs — popular with exploration-minded toddlers, or kids with a ball. But there are also shopping centers with more elaborate play structures, such as Rancho Cucamonga’s Victoria Gardens “Orchard Play Area” (“near Shake Shack and Silverlake Ramen,” according to the website). The lawns often serve as activity centers where malls hold kid concerts, adult exercise classes and Christmas tree lighting events.

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A child plays on playground equipment, conveniently located near Shake Shack, at Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga.

(Brookfield Properties)

“More and more centers are moving away from just transactional spaces, and they’re moving towards community destinations,” said Paul Chase, president of JLL Lifestyle Property Management, a commercial real estate developer and investment firm that owns shopping centers across the globe. In November, it refocused Chase’s division from “retail” to “lifestyle” — a semantic change that reflects a shifting focus. The division now manages retail spaces as a place to spend time, not just shop, whereas it previously focused on the latter. Chase said the industry name for the landscaped places where kids play and families gather is “entertainment zones.”

One JLL Property, Manhattan Village in inland Manhattan Beach, underwent a renovation in 2021 that transformed a flat parking lot into an “entertainment zone” featuring a turf lawn with benches, fountains and short rolling hills. On any given weekend, toddlers can be seen summiting the “hills” to stick their fingers in the water features while parents sip coffee from the cafe that sits at the west end of the green space.

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Just across Rosecrans from Manhattan Village in El Segundo, families flock to the Point, the South Bay’s first mall- turned-park development, which opened in 2002. Fresh from soccer games, kids kick a ball on the same patch of turf where babies crawl and families picnic — with food purchased from the mall’s restaurants, including Mendocino Farms and Cava. Conceived as “the South Bay’s living room,” the Point’s “anchor tenant” would not be a department store, explained Jeff Kreshek, a senior vice president and western region president and chief operating officer of the Point’s parent company, Federal Realty. It would be 45,000 square feet of open space.

“If you look at traditional malls, there’s a commerce aspect, and they threw in some places for you to sit down,” Kreshek said. “So it was kind of reverse engineering what shopping centers had been for decades.”

Three girls do craft activities on the lawn during the Lunar New Year celebration at The Point.

Charlotte Nguyen, center, and her friends do craft activities on the lawn during a Lunar New Year celebration at the Point in El Segundo, on Sunday, February 22, 2025.

(Stella Kalinina/For The Times)

There are plenty of parks in these neighborhoods, and parents say they bring their children to public playgrounds, too. But they come to Runway, the Point or Manhattan Village because of the convenience of having nearby food, beverage and shopping options as their children play.

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Convenience has yielded community. Daniel LaBare’s daughter goes to preschool nearby, and they frequently run into classmates’ families at Runway.

“She’ll see at least one or two people who she knows here today,” LaBare said. “This is our community as far as I’m concerned.”

Tori Kjer, executive director of parks management and advocacy organization LA Neighborhood Land Trust, is all for it.

“We are 100% supportive of gathering spaces of all shapes and forms because we believe those are the critical places where community members have a chance to come together and meet and celebrate,” Kjer said.

The combination of shopping and green space is by no means a new phenomenon. Catherine Nagel, executive director of parks equity organization City Parks Alliance, points out that where parks go, shopping often follows. It’s a symbiotic relationship where parks attract families, and then families can get the provisions or fulfill the errands they need to further enjoy the park. That’s a recipe for a healthy community.

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Twin sisters Emma and Ella Sandoval greet the character Mei Mei
Twin sisters Emma and Ella Sandoval, left, greet the character Mei Mei at the Point during a Lunar New Year celebration. Kids and parents participate in craft activities at the celebration on Sunday, February 22, 2025.

Twin sisters Emma and Ella Sandoval, left, greet the character Mei Mei at the Point during a Lunar New Year celebration. Kids and parents participate in craft activities at the celebration on Sunday, February 22, 2025. (Stella Kalinina/For The Times)

Parks — like retailers — have also begun to offer more activities in recent years, said Nagel. So retailers and the stewards of public lands (whether that’s the city or the nonprofits that often manage parks) are learning from each other.

“There’s a lot of attention now to activating these [public] spaces in a way that will bring people to them,” Nagel said, referencing activities like salsa dancing in Bryant Park in New York that use park land for structured public gatherings. “Because if you don’t activate them, they can quite often become places where unhealthy, unproductive activity takes place.”

At the same time, a mall park’s green space is not truly public.

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“It’s totally fine and great if private property owners want to create gathering spaces in their malls, but there’s no replacement for a robust city park system that has green spaces with trees and lawns and play structures and just places for people to gather,” Kjer says. “The beautiful thing about parks is they are open to everyone. They are intended to be safe spaces for people to protest, to celebrate, to go about their daily lives, without any stigma or worry about being asked to leave.”

At a park, visitors are citizens or patrons. At the shopping center entertainment zone, they’re customers.

“It comes down to dwell time,” Chase said. “The longer that people stay in a center, of course the more money they’re going to spend.”

But families say the mall aspect doesn’t bother them. After all, this generation of parents are the millennials and Gen X-ers who grew up socializing at the mall a la Cher Horowitz in “Clueless.” Now, as parents, the convenience, manicured turf and camaraderie offers something valuable for them in this season of their lives.

“You can let them run, and do your shopping, so everyone wins,” said Charlotte Ahles, who was playing at Runway with 2-year-old daughter Chloe. She pulled at her mom’s pants, towards the Micro Kickboard store directly across from the play area.

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“Scooter, scooter,” Chloe said.

“The scooter store isn’t open yet, honey,” said Ahles.

Lifestyle

‘Wait Wait’ for March 28, 2026: Live in Savannah with D.W. Moffett

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‘Wait Wait’ for March 28, 2026: Live in Savannah with D.W. Moffett

Actor, director, chair of film and television department, SCAD, D.W. Moffett speaks on stage during Rising Star Award presentation to “Star” on Day Three of aTVfest 2017 presented by SCAD at SCADshow on February 4, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for SCAD)

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This week’s show was recorded in Savannah with host Peter Sagal, judge and scorekeeper Alzo Slade, Not My Job guest D.W. Moffett and panelists Adam Burke, Shantira Jackson, and Joyelle Nicole Johnson. Click the audio link above to hear the whole show.

Who’s Alzo This Time

Flotus and Robotus, Ineligible Bachelorette, and a Change of Season

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Panel Questions

Fold-out Coach

Bluff The Listener

Our panelists tell us three stories about a hot new dining destination, only one of which is true.

Not My Job: Actor, director, and chair of the film and television department at SCAD, D.W. Moffett, answers our questions about melees

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Actor D.W. Moffett, part of the cast of One Battle After Another, plays a game called “Lots of Battles All At Once.”

Panel Questions

Hairless Whisper, Signing Off

Limericks

Alzo Slade reads three news-related limericks: Buns on the Runway, Constructive Play, Getting Work Done at Work.

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Lightning Fill In The Blank

All the news we couldn’t fit anywhere else

Predictions

Our panelists predict, after the Bachelorette, what’ll be the next TV season to get cancelled at the last minute.

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Gen Z is the loneliest generation. Here’s what can help

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Gen Z is the loneliest generation. Here’s what can help

We are more connected than ever before, with our high-speed internet, pinging smartphones and ever-updating apps and social media networks. (iPhone 17e, anyone?!)

And yet, we are also lonelier than ever, especially younger generations who are even more likely to be on their digital devices for longer periods of time. Gen Z, it turns out, is the loneliest generation of them all, according to the 2025 Cigna Group report “Loneliness in America.” It found that 67% of Gen Zers reported being lonely (65% of millennials, who also grew up with digital technologies, did as well, as compared with 60% of Gen Xers and 44% of baby boomers).

What’s more, about 1 in 5 teenagers ages 13 to 17 experiences high rates of loneliness, according to a World Health Organization’s 2025 report; and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 40% of high school students reported “persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness” in 2023.

Dr. Shairi Turner, chief health officer of the nonprofit Crisis Text Line — a free, 24-7 text-based mental health service — calls it “a public health crisis” that is especially affecting Gen Z for a reason.

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“They’re 14-29 now, so they’re digital natives, very comfortable with being connected to people by phone,” she says. “But that connection isn’t a replacement for human connection. It gives the illusion of being close, but without real interpersonal interaction.”

That’s compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and increased single parent households, she says.

“This is a generation that lived through the pandemic during some key developmental years — some of their formative years may have been in lockdown, using smartphones, [instead of] developing critical social skills,” Turner says. “And Gen Z is more likely to have been raised in single-parent households, and may have come home to an empty home where one parent was working or they were going back and forth between homes.”

So where to go from here? Note the warning signs, Turner says.

“Is your child spending more time with their phone than their friends?” she says. “Are your kids coming home upset about interactions at school or with their friends more times than not? And: Are they avoiding in-person extracurricular activities like sports or clubs? These are all things to look out for.”

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Here are Turner’s top three tips for helping your Gen Z kids cope with loneliness.

Be present and engage in active listening

“Give them the space to share their feelings. Just be present and listen to your child — don’t put words in their mouth. Create that safe space so they know they can share with you that they’re feeling lonely. Ask open-ended questions. Instead of saying ‘did you have a good day?’ where they can say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ ask a question that elicits more: ‘What did you do today that you enjoyed?’ Or: ‘Is there anything you found challenging today?’ Brainstorm with them options or ways that they could have handled a situation differently; or do some role playing with your child, so they feel prepared the next day.”

Plan outdoor social activities

“That can be with your child or with your child and their friends. Connect in a low-pressure way: ‘Let’s bring some kids over and go to the park.’ Plan something around a shared interest, like soccer or baseball, where they’re enjoying the sport together and they don’t have to sit and talk in a high-pressure way — they can just have fun. Our report on young people in crisis shows that outdoor third space areas — parks and recreation — help young people cope with their mental health. These same young people identified sports and opportunities for social connection as helpful to their mental health and well-being.”

Explore mental health resources

“Know what the school resources are, what’s available, before your child needs mental health support. Are there counselors, school psychologists? What’s the bevy of resources in school or in the community if my child is in need — therapists, local support groups? Our Crisis Text Line is great because it’s on the phone and most young people are comfortable with that and they can text our volunteers and it’s confidential. It’s about being prepared and aware.”

Ultimately, Turner says, young people are resilient — their brains are still growing — and intentional parenting goes a long way toward offsetting the effects of digital devices and social media.

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“It’s never too late to encourage — and model — positive interpersonal skills,” Turner says. “Meaning: human to human connection.”

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‘The Madison’ adds to Taylor Sheridan’s ‘Yellowstone’ legacy — ‘Marshals’ not so much

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‘The Madison’ adds to Taylor Sheridan’s ‘Yellowstone’ legacy — ‘Marshals’ not so much

Michelle Pfeiffer stars as Stacy Clyburn in The Madison.

Emerson Miller/Paramount+


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Emerson Miller/Paramount+

Since introducing his Yellowstone TV series, starring Kevin Costner, in 2018, Taylor Sheridan has made a very successful career of building dramas around veteran stars. Now Sheridan has a new official sequel series — Marshals, on CBS — and a seemingly unrelated series, The Madison, that I suspect will connect to the Yellowstone storyline before too long.

The Madison is a six-episode drama, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell. It streamed half its episodes when it premiered March 14 on Paramount+ and has been renewed already for a second season. All six episodes were written by Sheridan and directed by Christina Alexandra Voros, who directed many episodes of both Yellowstone and its prequel, 1883.

The Madison is set up as a sort of dramatic Green Acres, and presents Pfeiffer and Russell as Stacy and Preston, wealthy New Yorkers who are close to approaching their 50th wedding anniversary. They have daughters, and granddaughters, and Preston also has a cabin and some land he shares with his brother Paul in Madison River Valley, Mont. He goes there when he can to relax; when he does, his wife Stacy stays behind in the city.

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Before long, Stacy decides to take her daughters and granddaughters to see the Montana cabins for the first time. The whole family is there: One older divorced daughter with two girls — a teenager, and one in grade school — and the younger married daughter, who has just been mugged.

The Madison, like Yellowstone and all its prequel series, is all about legacy and responsibility and relationships — but focusing on the women instead of the men. Some scenes and concepts in The Madison are absurd in the extreme, like the idea that the streets of New York are more dangerous than any wild west. But there also are moments of true beauty and calm — and the valley setting itself, I suspect, eventually will link to previous series in the Yellowstone canon.

Fly-fishing figures prominently here, as it does in most other Yellowstone-connected series — but Sheridan and The Madison, with Russell fully enjoying the peace of the river, nails the emotion. The new CBS sequel, Marshals, which also has a male-bonding fly-fishing scene, does not.

Luke Grimes as plays Kayce Dutton in Marshals.

Luke Grimes plays Kayce Dutton in Marshals.

Sonja Flemming/CBS Entertainment


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Marshals, which premiered March 1 on CBS, stars Luke Grimes as Kayce Dutton, one of the sons of Costner’s John Dutton from Yellowstone. Sheridan co-wrote the first episodes, but Marshals isn’t nearly as good a series as The Madison. It finds a way to get Kayce hired as a U.S. Marshal, but mostly to give the character a chance to run around with more advanced weaponry. And his relationship with his son Tate, played by Brecken Merrill from Yellowstone, is explored a lot less credibly, and dramatically, than the maternal dynamics on The Madison.

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Marshals adds to the Yellowstone legacy, with its allusions to long-established storylines like a seventh-generation land surrender, and modern clashes that echo deadly standoffs of old. But it’s The Madison, like 1883 and 1923, that brings the best out of Sheridan. And bringing back veteran movie stars Pfeiffer and Russell? Even in a modern Western, that’s a real Bonanza.

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