RIP to a piece of movie history

[23skidoo]

I've been studying the whole Dixie mall scenario with interest ever since I first learned about it (I knew the movie, just not the story behind the mall). Anyone who thinks failing shopping centres and abandoned properties is somehow a recent, post-9/11 (or for the more cynical, post-Obama) phenomenon, needs to look at this mall, which was only in operation for about 10 years, and which amazingly sat abandoned and undeveloped for more than 30 years. I mean that's just insane. And I can't even default to my moaning and groaning about people not liking malls - this thing was abandoned back when enclosed malls were still in their heydey.

You'd think by now a Wal-Mart or a big box shopping centre or at least some apartment blocks would have been put in there, instead of letting the place just sit for all this time. Check it out on Google Street View before they update the images. It's like a small war zone.

But then I learn about a factory in Detroit that has been sitting abandoned and vacant since before World War II. Not everything is roses down there.

Alex

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

^ What you said hits a nerve for me.

Lakehurst Mall was in operation maybe 20 years, but got squeezed out by a "discount" mall (Gurnee Mills) that turned into a specialty mall. G/M a sprawling load of shite as far as I'm concerned.

Where Lakehurst once was stands the 4th or 5th Wal-Mart within 15 minutes of where I live.

I think Lakehurst's problem was that it was kinda "in between" a lot of cities and not too many other satellite stores ever built up around it the way they did around other malls. Then of course Gurnee Mills popped up around 1991.

 

[Trekker4747]

Well, from my understanding the land the mall sits on has been a mis-managed bureaucratic nightmare to the extent at one point two separate companies thought they owned part of it. Furthermore even when the mall was open the area it was in had a skyrocketing crime-rate. It's hard to attract tenants when robberies, car jackings and even murders are happening in your building and on your property. And after it was closed the declining area being one you don't want to drive in at night makes it hard to attract big-box retailers to build there. Hell it seems even the police there stopped caring about the mall's explorers.

 

[Kira's Mom]

That Dead Malls site makes me sad. The mall my friends and I hung out in during the 80's, Westminster Mall in Colorado, was recently demolished. It was a great mall back in the day...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

There is a dead mall (Crossroads) not too far from where I live. It's a fucking ghost town in there. 80% of the mall is abandoned.

I think they're finally going to level the place and use it to build student facilities for UNO or something likewise.

 

[the 4th hanson bro]

That Dead Malls site makes me sad. The mall my friends and I hung out in during the 80's, Westminster Mall in Colorado, was recently demolished. It was a great mall back in the day...

I remember Westminster Mall. That was a pretty cool place back in the day.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

The mall on there in my area... I want to tell my city's powers that be what schmucks they are. They're as much at fault as the developers...