Crap walking in Southampton

Southampton has

a massive amount of urban space, made up mostly of multistorey car parks, but also of the series of retail parks that accompanied the main mall - three of them, all themselves with attendant massive car parks. Needless to say, this is not a nice place to walk if you are a pedestrian. The entire area - there might be a mile of this stuff or more - is simply not for walking in, and although this might be expected on the Kentish hinterland of the M25, it bears repeating that this is right in the centre of a city. This is part of its justification: it keeps people in the city. But the economy is exactly the same as that of an out-of-town mall - reached by car, actively discouraging leaving the malls and venturing into the city around, uninterested in the possibilities of the city itself, and leaving the other side of town, the side of it that is not shopping mall, to rot.