Malls Offer a Walk on the Mild Side : Recreation: Prowling these new town centers is a favorite ‘sport’ for many. To keep them entertained, operators offer events beyond buying sprees.

It was the kind of autumn Saturday that must have inspired Randy Newman to compose the city’s unofficial anthem, “I Love L.A.”

Sensing the rarity of the occasion, large numbers of Los Angeles residents played outdoors in 85-degree weather under blue, wind-swept skies.

* A crowd of 50,156 clicked through the turnstiles at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena to watch the UCLA-Arizona football game.

* Just down the freeway in Arcadia, 34,463 racing buffs queued up at the betting windows at Santa Anita Race Park.

* Later in the day, another 59,347 would stream into the Los Angeles Coliseum to cheer the USC Trojans and Washington State Cougars.

* Thousands more lined the beaches and boardwalks from Malibu to Newport Beach.

But oddly enough, on Oct. 6--a day perfect for a picnic--the day’s largest crowds assembled at one of the 75 or so shopping malls in Southern California to engage in a far different sport: Malling.

At the Montclair Plaza, toddlers sporting the latest fashions from Benetton zig-zagged past Zales and Sears to terrorize the Yorkshire terriers at Dr. Pet. At Santa Monica Place, elderly ladies sifted through the clothing racks at Robinson’s in search of marked-down winter coats. At the Glendale Galleria, young men elbowed their way to the front of the Merle Norman Cosmetics counter to schedule ear-piercing appointments.

Industry surveys show Southern California shoppers average 11 trips to the mall every 90 days and spend $45 per visit. At the Glendale Galleria, shoppers visit about 8 1/2 times a quarter, spending $65 on each occasion.

But malls are more than a mecca for shoppers and fast-food fanatics: They also are a gathering place, attracting people who just want to watch other people.

“There is still a human need for people to meet at the watering hole to see what new animals are in the jungle,” said Richard Foy, a partner in Communication Arts Inc., a leading mall design firm in Boulder, Colo.

Louise Krasniewicz, a UCLA anthropologist, bristles at the suggestion that young people who hang out in malls are simply there to spin their skateboard wheels.

“By sitting in a mall, you are not being idle,” Krasniewicz says. “You’re participating in a human project to learn what it is to be a member of that community.”

But not all mall groupies are adolescents. Mary Sweet and Isabel Katz, both retired residents of Burbank, visit the Galleria twice a week to have lunch and people-watch. They nest on a bench on the second level in front of Nordstrom.

“They didn’t have anything like this 25 years ago,” Sweet says, nibbling on a Godiva chocolate. “You can sit and relax and see people. You don’t see so many people in the park as you see here.”

For many, malls have replaced the main street, town square, city band stand or village green as the place where people congregate. In effect, malls have become mini cities, complete with their own weather, security and maintenance.

“I think we do a much better job than the old town square because we’re providing a much wider array of services,” says Richard Green, president of Westfield Inc., owner of the Westside Pavilion. “The other is static. We are a living, breathing force with new things going on every day.”

Don Pendley, a spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers, a trade association for shopping center developers, retailers and lenders, also believes malls are an improvement over the old stomping grounds.

“You’re going to find that a privately owned shopping center will be run more efficiently than a city-owned facility,” Pendley says. “Moreover, many town hubs did not grow up as planned communities. As a result, they lack the food establishments, parking and other amenities taken for granted at a shopping center.”

But if the neighborhood has changed, so have the relationships among neighbors.

“What’s different is the kind of information being exchanged,” Krasniewicz says. “In the consumer or commodity-based environment of the mall, people express themselves through what they buy.”

Friends may talk about the merits of a new CD player with the same vigor that Main Streeters normally reserved for discussions on politics and religion, she adds.

Mall operators are sensitive to the criticism that shopping centers are commercial Shangri-Las, insulated from the rest of the community. In Glendale, for example, the fortress-like appearance of the Galleria, built in 1976, looms as a formidable barrier.

“There was a time when the mall wanted to insulate itself from downtown, which didn’t have much to offer,” says Jeanne Armstrong, director of redevelopment in Glendale. “Now with the resurgence of the downtown area, there’s a need to integrate the mall with the rest of the city.”

Santa Monica Place, completed in 1980, also is trying to open up to the community. Customers had complained that upon entering the mall, they didn’t know whether they were in Santa Monica or Dayton, Ohio.

“When the mall was initially built, the goal was to bury it into two city blocks and make it look like an office building,” says Richard Foy, hired to give the mall a makeover more in line with the city’s chic, fashion-forward character.

Foy softened the center’s fractured geometry and bold, masculine lines and moved out the entrances, highlighting them with color, signs and animation. In the new food court, metal plumes of steam rise out of giant soup kettles, suggesting the water and waves of nearby Santa Monica Bay.

Ohio couldn’t seem farther away.

“A mall has to reflect the neighborhood,” Foy says. “The trick is that you have to really come up with a solution that is unique to a particular region. You can’t transplant ideas from one area to another in cookie-cutter fashion.”

But tampering with the architecture and tenant mix is not enough to ensure the viability of malls, most shopping center experts agree.

“All we can do is set the stage,” says Foy. “It is the job of the mall operator to manage the theater of retail. They must keep the place an ever-changing pageant of commerce and ideas.”

Westfield’s Green relishes the notion of the mall as prime-time player.

“Basically, we are the show,” Green says. “We let the outside world tell us what we’re going to specialize in. The merchants tell us, the consumers tell us. We serve as the staging area for what everybody wants.”

And most everyone seems to be clamoring for more entertainment.

In Bloomington, Minn., Melvin Simon & Associates is building the Mall of America, a 4 million-square-foot edifice with 400 retail stores anchored by Knott’s Berry Farm’s Camp Snoopy.

“That’s really going to set the trend,” says Pendley of the International Council of Shopping Centers.

Until the project is completed in the fall of 1992, the roller coaster inside the West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta, may reign as the granddaddy of mall amusements.

In Southern California, malls offer slightly tamer attractions, such as skating rinks and electric bumper cars. Providing entertainment, however, remains a keen concern of area developers.

“Our surveys show us that 40% of all mall purchases are due to impulse-buying. So naturally, it’s important to draw people to your center with a strong mix of attractions and community events,” says John Gilchrist, president of the San Diego-based Hahn Co., the West Coast’s largest shopping center developer.

At one Hahn development--the nationally acclaimed Horton Plaza in San Diego--there are two performing arts theaters. Jugglers, mimes, magicians and musicians also provide daily street entertainment.

The public’s perception that there is always something happening at Horton Plaza has made the center San Diego’s third most popular tourist attraction, trailing only Sea World and the San Diego Zoo.

Often, the line between self-serving marketing events and community programs blurs, but neither the mall operators nor the public seems to mind.

The Westside Pavilion recently held a “Married . . . With Children” Peg and Al Bundy look-a-like contest in conjunction with one of its tenants, Spencer Gifts A2Z store. While the sales of tight-fitting spandex pants certainly increased profits at several Pavilion boutiques, thousands of community residents were given the opportunity to participate in the event.

“Who’s to say where marketing activities end and community events begin?” asks Westside’s Green. “We just want to be the focal point of the community, whatever that takes.”

During the holiday season, the malls’ marketing/community activities kick into high gear. The Westside Pavilion and several other regional malls celebrated Halloween with candy, carnival booths and costume pageants.

“One year when it rained, I bet we had half the Westside community in here,” Green says.

An elite group of nine GoGetters at the Glendale Galleria are known as the Memo Squad. During their morning walks through the mall, they distribute memos to merchants, providing an invaluable communication link between management and their tenants. Squad members receive a nominal fee for their services.

“It’s been a wonderful program,” says Cindy Chong, marketing director of the Galleria. “You should see our walkers. They’re very protective of their turf.”

Malls have proven such effective organizers and magnets for community events that several public agencies are routinely showing up at their doorstep.

About six times a year, the Glendale Fire Department sets up a display at the Galleria on fire prevention and life-saving techniques. Anticipating Halloween horseplay, this year firefighters demonstrated how to make costumes fire retardant.

“This is the ideal place for us because of all the people,” says Stuart Stefani, a fire engineer inspector. “You’re never going to get this just setting up in front of a drugstore or supermarket.”

WHAT’S ‘PLAYING’ AT YOUR MALL

Local malls offer an array of events beyond shopping, but this is the time of year when most of those activities have to do with the big guy in the red suit. Listed below are a few events playing at a mall near you this weekend:

* Beverly Center, Los Angeles. Live musical entertainment from pianist Liz Kinnon, Saturday, 1 to 4 p.m., and from the Westwood Methodist Church choir, Sunday at 2 and 3 p.m.

* Westside Pavilion, Westwood. On Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m., Santa will help deaf children hear the sounds of Christmas by signing his Yuletide greeting.

* Santa Anita Fashion Park, Arcadia. Through February, a 180-ton sand sculpture, titled “Peace On Earth,” in the center of the mall.

* Glendale Galleria, Glendale. Every day through Dec. 26, a free shuttle service will run from the Galleria to the Los Angeles Zoo.

* Gift drives being conducted throughout the mall include the California Highway Patrol’s “CHPs for KIDS toy collection,” the Salvation Army Angel Tree for needy children, and the Glendale Chamber of Commerce’s canned food drive.

* Puente Hills Mall, Puente Hills. Welcome to Club Santa. For a one-time $8 fee, a child receives a T-shirt, button, balloon and membership card. Baby-sitting is provided from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday through Christmas Eve. There’s also a 20-foot Nerf fire engine for kids to climb.