Hello! If anyone’s still reading this blog, I’m back. Let me explain my absense:
I was laid off from my full-time job. So, instead of blogging on my DumpyStripMalls blog, I had to find a way to actually earn money from my writing. Trust me, the ads on this website *maybe* made me $5 in the last year.
Very pathetic.
Instead of blogging, I began writing mind-numbingly boring online content via Demand Studios (basically writing articles for eHow, Travels.com and LIVESTONG websites) and on AOL’s partner sites. I’ve written articles on sites like WalletPop, Gadling, Aslyum, Jobs@AOL and Kids Online. The work isn’t as fun as writing for this blog (read: I can’t use humor), but it pays bills. I was (well, still am) a victim of this economy and had to find a way to make money writing.
I still don’t have a job. In some ways, it stinks, but in other ways, I’m happy. I’ve went a completely new direction in my career. I’m writing, and although it’s just at online content sites, I enjoy it.
So why am I back? I MISS THIS! I love writing this blog. Getting laid off was a huge shock for me; I didn’t know what to do. I’ve NEVER been without a job since I was 15. It’s not that I didn’t WANT to update this site; I had to find a way to make money and Dumpy Strip Malls doesn’t pay the bills.
So, that said, I’m ready to do this again. I have over 300 comments to “approve” and I have plenty of material to write. I’m still looking for a job, but after doing so much of boring online content writing, I *need* an outlet where I can be creative and take shitty iPhone pictures of ugly buildings.
Plus, because I am freelancing (and looking for a regular job, but in the writing field instead of marketing) and not working a traditional 9-5, I have much more time to hit up places and take pictures.
Dumpy Strip Malls has risen from the dead!

#1 by Jenny on June 28, 2010 - 4:13 pm
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Great news–welcome back! I thought that you had just run out of dumpy places to review…
#2 by Rachel on June 28, 2010 - 5:36 pm
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I am also delighted to see you back!
#3 by chad on June 28, 2010 - 8:29 pm
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woohoo!!!
#4 by Matthew on June 28, 2010 - 9:19 pm
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Hooray! I await the next installment of your tour of all that is dumpy in the Twin Cities area with bated breath…
#5 by TheOldScowl on June 29, 2010 - 3:01 pm
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I am glad to hear you are still with the living Dumpstripmalls. That is two affirmations of still breathing this month for me. The other is seeing ‘Twinstown’ in business just a short jog east from the newest AxeMan Surplus on Bass Lake Road.
Looking forward to reading and seeing more of your work.
#6 by Tim on June 29, 2010 - 8:06 pm
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Yay, we were worried about you, what a pleasant surprise. Some day I will have to send you some pix of the strip malls around Albertville outlets, can they be classified as abandoned if they never had tennants to begin with?
Ditto the above comments.
#7 by Kimberly on June 30, 2010 - 1:59 am
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I just found you after an intense, but brief search for “whatever happened to McGlynn’s bakery?” So to me, you’re brand new! I’m enjoying everything I’ve found so far, and glad you’ve found at least some paying writing gigs (I have a similar paid writing background, and right now I’m dazzling the corporate world with my technical-writing-come-alive pieces.) I too am in the process of building a blog (no shingle yet) – purely as an outlet for the humor that is crushed out of me daily.
Great to find you!
#8 by Jim on July 16, 2010 - 4:22 pm
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Great to hear. I read most of this site about 6 months ago, just visited again to see if it was still going, and yay! New posts. Tremendous work. I drove by Brookdale and Gasoline Alley this week and was reminded of your blog.
#9 by spaz on July 19, 2010 - 5:56 pm
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Glad your back, looking forward to more suburban decay!
#10 by jayson on July 27, 2010 - 8:12 pm
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i came on here 1 last time b4 i moved all my files to my new computer and i see you have a new update! glad to see you back! hope you find a job soon and im still waiting for that stupid coon rapids family center story lol
#11 by Mindy on August 16, 2010 - 5:06 pm
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I just came across the website for the first time, and you crack me up, I’m a little young to remember some of the places clearly, but most of them I do. You know which one I would love to hear you write about, Discovery Zone. (Across University from Northtown Mall, there’s I believe a Panera and some bookstore there now.) I remember that place as a kid but not vividly enough to remember how dumpy it probably was! keep writing, you entertain me!
#12 by Steven Appelget on August 16, 2010 - 7:52 pm
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This can’t be done until Apache Plaza and HarMar are covered!
#13 by Adam on August 24, 2010 - 7:10 pm
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Double whoohoo! The happiest day of my life was the day I found this site via a google search of Plymouth Center. What a sad, dead mall. You do a fantastic job, though, on drawing out the sadness/deadness of all the malls you cover. Thanks!
#14 by cheri burger on August 28, 2010 - 2:47 pm
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check out swedish village mall in center city. just down the road from lindstrom chisago city forest lake.