It can act as both. People go to malls to shop, to hang out, and to do other things. If it looks like a town square setting, it would be one under the law. Specially in this day and age where we are losing public property.

The last store that I ran was in a declining strip plaza. My rent was $3,600 per month. (I say this as a point of reference) That’s $43,200 per year in rent.

Now if business declines due to a drop in footprints in the stores, a business is more inclined to shop around for either 1. cheaper rent or 2. increased traffic.

It is a fact, that if a customer is approached by one sort of solicitation after another on each visit to a mall or strip plaza, they will do one of 2 things. 1. find a retail venue without such solicitations or 2. start shopping more online. And when that happens, not only am I losing income, but so are my tenants, their employees, and their suppliers.

All for the sake of a low budget campaign for state office.

No Fark, a mall or plaza is not a town square setting, it is a business. And all businesses reserve the right to refuse service to anyone at anytime. Why? Because it is private property.

And I think a town square setting can exist even on private property, say, the town square of a company town.

“A mall was bought and paid for, and therefore belongs to a company or
individual”

Now your private property rule gets interesting when we consider the public efforts that are expended on malls, such as any subsidies or tax benefits they received, or even the roads that were built to get to the mall.

A mall was bought and paid for, and therefore belongs to a company or individual. This puts it under the regulation of that person or company. If they don’t want naked people painted in different colors expressing their religion, or people walking barefoot, or smoking going on, or PEOPLE CAMPAIGNING, then that is their peragotive, and none of the ACLU’s business to interfere with.

You own a house? You make the rules of what goes on inside that house. If you want people to be free to just come there and crash and sell drugs, and pass out literature for different religions, and campaigns, and have orgies or whatever…that is your house, and you can do that.

A mall, while used by the public, is used by them because that is what the individual or company trying to make money wants.

They can also make the rules of what is not allowed to happen.

What are you talking about?

Careful there fark… you might give us ammunition that just might blow your ‘ideological boat’ of ‘Separation of Church and State’ right out of the water!

I see the intent being a town square setting. I don’t see any indication that this has to be government property.

“And you citation of New Jersey’s recognition of a mall or plaza being a town square setting is moronic.”

Whats moronic about it? You think its not true? New jersey coalition against the war v. JMB realty, 50 A.2d 757 (NJ 1994).

A Town Square Setting was intended to mean a “public” forum. Not private property which happens to collect masses of people.

I have run several retail stores in several different strip plazas and 2 malls. And I can tell you, if someone was harrassing my incoming customers, I would be complaining to the property management. A retail store pays thousands of dollars in rents to be located in a secure retail environment.

This is not to be confused with the main street store front which has nothing but a public (publically owned) sidewalk in front of it. If this guy wanted to stand out in front of a main street store front and make his pitch, the most that could be asked of him is to move.

But in this case, private property is private property. And if I were the plaza manager, I’d be pushing for not only trespassing charges, but disorderly conduct charges as well.

Your case that a privately owned shopping plaza is a “town square” environment is a falsehood. And you citation of New Jersey’s recognition of a mall or plaza being a town square setting is moronic. What is the case study?

If the state were to force me to allow this kind of harrassment of customers on a retail property that I would own, I’d close it down and leave it vacant just to avoid this confrontation. Then who suffers? The people who would normally shop there.

Plaza and mall management has a responsibilty to provide a safe and pleasant shopping experience for the customers of it’s tenants. Period. Allowing a deadbeat with no budget to push his campaign for public office is an intrusion on that pleasant shopping experience. And as such, cannot be permitted. Period.

It says town square setting, not town square. Are you really getting hung up on the shape, as opposed to the setting?