We are hosting a Love Daly City next spring 2022. We'll use the parking lot at the mall and setup tables and booths to promote this event that will bring the church, police department, city hall, businesses and community together to partner projects like cleaning and other stuff to bring our city together.
At our mall a lot of retired people, mostly men, hang out in the sitting areas with a cup of coffee and watch the people go by. This is also a good way to share the gospel with them.
Your town sounds like it's pulling together.
Mine got amalgamated so not even sure we really a town anymore. Seven districts were all pulled into one in 2012. This is because Auckland is made up of suburbs and was urban sprawling with motorways like spaghetti all over the show, and then the powers that be decided that instead of spreading out, they would change the land use so that people can build UP. So maybe in a few years time it will be like Hong Kong?!
The main mall where I live and work in got sold to Australians some time ago, who tookover and owned just about every mall in our country, and then they sold them to some other overseas investors. There's only a few NZ owned malls left.
In the carpark of one mall on Thursdays there is a night market, where food trucks and booth congregate to sell dinner. But there are night markets all over the city. If you were mobile you could go from market to market and mall to mall if you wanted.
Last week there was a cook island performance at the mall with drumming and dancing for Cook Island language week.
One of the churches I go to has always had a coffee club, one for men at one cafe, and another for women at another in the mall.
I think though, a lot of people just prefer if they are visiting others to visit at home because coffee etc can be expensive, its usually sold in takeaway cups and people just take it to go and drink in their cars, or there may be no seating in the cheaper places so you'd just sit at the bus stop. My parents being retired never cared to go out for coffee, if they were going to go out they would go all out and have yum cha.
I think the coffee culture is only in certain areas, we don't do it well here, but in China which is a tea country they would have tea houses where people can just sit all day and sip tea, or play chess and mahjong or whatever. Here, if you got out your board game or pack of cards at a cafe, you'd probably be told to clear off. At the bookshop, we don't even have any seats. I'd be working 4-5 hours straight on my feet all the time and nowhere to sit, except the back room for ten minutes.