Golden Valley Shopping Center

Comin’ atcha from the 1950′s, a time when women actually stayed in the kitchen, is the Golden Valley Shopping Center, in Golden Valley, Minnesota. Built in the 1950′s, the Golden Valley Shopping Center was one of the Twin Cities’ first strip malls. Oddly enough, it’s still standing with most of its spaces rented out, despite all the redevelopment in this area off of Highway 55.

The architecture might say malt shoppes and saddle shoes, but the stores are your average 2010′s strip mall tenants.

Today’s tenants include:
Down in the Valley: A used CD store that I refuse to shop at. Nevermind the fact that I haven’t bought a CD since 2001 (Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers, if you must know), I won’t shop here because I feel like I need to drive a van with smoke coming through the windows and be a regular reader of the City Pages and not wash my hair in order to fit in at this place.

Godfather’s Pizza
Curves for Women
Jimmy Johns: I had to shop here to get a Turkey Tom (hold the mayo) when I was here…their sandwich artists get a little too mayo-happy and they don’t offer a low-fat mayo option. The sandwich was fast, but I didn’t freak. It’s almost disturbing how fast they make the sandwiches. This place also seems to have a hipster attitude, with the dumb fake retro signs and loud music. It’s a

The Golden Valley Shopping Center is from an era of Father Knows Best-type TV shows.

sandwich shop, why the need to be trendy? Anyway, at least I can leave here without an offensive smell absorbing in my clothes (Subway, I am looking at you).

Ace Hardware: How does this place stay in business? Ace is the Place for high prices.

Lui’s Chow Mien, a used sporting goods shop, an auto parts store and a few other forgettable tenants make the rest of the Golden Valley Shopping Center store lineup.

Sit on this bench and get a lead-based paint chip wedged up your butt.

The only former tenant I know of was a Red Owl grocery store, and Schuler Shoes. Schuler Shoes only recently went out of business–it would’ve had to have been sometime this year.

Apparently, there was a movie theater around here and a few gas stations. You can see some old pictures on this PDF document from the City of Golden Valley. Don’t get too excited; it’s nothing worth peeing your pants over. The pictures are tiny, and you can’t see much. If you’re looking for some light reading material, feel free to read about the boring tax details and redevelopment history included in the document.

Lemme level with ‘ya–I don’t have much else to say about this mall. No memories getting pinned by a boy in the parking lot or having sex in the back of a ’57 Chevy outside the Red Owl while listening to Rock Around the Clock (or any other shitty ’50s music…oh yes, I totally went there). Every time I drive by this place, I’m always amazed that something like this is still here without getting modernized. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad something like this is still here. It’s just odd that it IS here, ya know? I mean, it still has flags on the top of the building! After doing research on dead malls, I guess putting flags on the top of strip malls was a trend back in the day.

Memories of the Golden Valley Shopping Center? Post in the comments. Y’all probably have better and more entertaining information on this mall than what I can produce.

Photos taken August 2010.

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This used to be a grocery store. Today, it's an Elk's Lodge and you must know the secret handshake to get in.

I don’t trek back to this area of Brooklyn Park often. This trip to take pictures was the first time I’ve been in the area in, oh, probably 9 or 10 years. I guess it’s because it makes me too sad. The Brookdale Dr./Newton Avenue/Humboldt area is my ol’ stompin’ grounds. This is where I grew up–these are the places where my brother and I (and the neighborhood kids) would ride our bikes. We moved out of the area in 1998, just as things were going downhill. I guess I just like to keep the memories of how it used to look when I was a kid, rather than taint them with the harsh reality of what it’s become.

To be honest, it wasn’t that bad. I was expecting to see knife fights, armed robberies and crack slanged to and fro. What I did see was a few troubled youths walking down the sidewalks, screaming profanities at passing cars and a shitload of cop cars. I had to be quick with the pictures–I didn’t want to look like I was staking out the place for a robbery.

First up is this little strip mall named “Brookdale Crossing.” According to the Brookdale Animal Hospital website, this strip mall has been here since AT LEAST 1987 (though I thought it was built in the early ’90s…), because the pet hospital occupied one of the mall’s spaces back then. This strip mall was a flop, even when it debuted. I don’t think the place ever rented out even half of its spaces.

This used to be a Tom Thumb at the Brookdale Crossing. The side of the building was perpetually tagged. It went out of business sometime in the mid '90s. Today, it's a church.

Brookdale Crossing is one of those strip malls where a lot of sketchy shit happens. Even when I lived in the area, there was always something off about this mall. A lack of adequate parking lot lighting made it spooky–but ideal for a lot of juvenile delinquent shenenagines–especially tagging. I was surprised not to see any graffiti when I was there, but even back in the day, some wall or door was always tagged. The back of the mall was the worst.

The graffiti was pretty lame. This wasn’t Crips-versus-Bloods type shit. Stuff like “HI MOM!” in dripping orange Krylon was as menacing as it got. There was no artistic creativity involved whatsoever. It wasn’t the type of graffiti that made you think, “Damn. How did someone get up there?” or “Wow, that’s actually kind of neat.” No, this was lazy graffiti at its best. The teen taggers didn’t bring a ladder or multiple colors of spray paint or learn how to write in cool fonts. Instead, they just raided Dad’s garage and took the first spray paint can they saw, and at dusk, headed to Brookdale Crossing to tag the back door of Pizza Hut. C’mon guys, at least use a snappy catchphrase or draw a mural. Simply writing “Revolt” on the side of Tom Thumb just isn’t worth getting arrested for. Go to New Hope’s Winnekta Avenue and wait for the train. You’ll see plenty of inspirational graffiti work.

Brookdale Crossing

I know there was a video rental store here–Mr. Movies? I think its original location was in this strip mall, but then it moved across the street to the little strip mall attached to Bill’s Superette.

The large building was a grocery store. It might’ve been a Country Market? We shopped there occasionally, but their prices were a bit steep. It didn’t last long.

Today, the nameless supermarket is an Elks Lodge, one of those fraternity organizations where members wear weird hats and chant and need to give a password to the Grand Poobah in order to enter the building…which obviously made me think of the Flintstones’ Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes.

Other tenants were Pane in the Glass (a stained glass craft store–’ya gotta love the name!), a barber shop (they had one of those twirly poles!) and Pizza Hut. We bought an obnoxious amount of Big Foot Pizzas there in the ’90s. I was surprised to see Pizza Hut still there, but kudos to them!

That’s all I can remember. I’m guessing Brookdale Crossing had your usual line-up of strip mall stores: an insurance office and a dry cleaners, but I can’t say for sure.

Across the street from Brookdale Crossing lies the Brookdale Animal Hospital and a tiny strip mall with an Angenio’s Pizza (that’s one pizza place from which we never ordered).

Kiddy-corner from Brookdale Crossing sits Bill’s Superette (a gas station favorite of my childhood) and a small strip mall. Back in the day, it was home to Dominos Pizza (again, we ordered pizza from here far too often!) and a flower shop.

Now, about that Brookdale Animal Hospital. The building is located across the street from Brookdale Crossing and it used to be a 7-11. It opened in 1991, which was the same time when we got our doggie. So, since it was so close, this is where we took him for check-ups. I am thrilled it’s still here–and Dr. Jeffrey is still there! I doubt he remembers our doggie, but he was wonderful. I didn’t get a picture of the building, but there is one on their website.

"Lesh schee...wut do you want fer Christchmas, little girl? Oh, ish okay, I only had one beer."

A wee bit further down Brookdale Drive lies the VFW. We went to many bake and craft sales here. At Christmastime, Santa made an appearance. One time, my mom took my sister to visit said Santa. When they arrived at the VFW, Santa was on “break.” They waited around, until they saw a soused Santa stumble out of the bar and trip down the stairs. Despite his inebriated state, my mom still had my sister sit on his lap. During her visit, she didn’t get any promises of Polly Pockets under the tree–all she got from Santa was a broken mini candy cane and a strong whiff of booze breath.

Go even further down Brookdale and you’d discover a neighborhood favorite: Tom Thumb. It was there in the ’80s and ’90s. Today, an ethnic grocer occupies its space.

This small building once housed three tenants: a liquor store, a hair salon and Tom Thumb. However, in the early eighties, the hair salon went out of business, giving way to Tom Thumb’s expansion.

Next to Tom Thumb sits a gas station. This place looks the same, except for the name. It went through a LOT of name changes during my life in BP; the only one I can remember was that it was a ’76 at one point. My parents fueled up here a lot and bought smokes (Marlboro Lights, if you must know. My dad put the carton in the freezer to keep ‘em fresh and collected Marlboro Miles (he didn’t care too much for Camel Cash). Oh lord). Yeah, at one point, both of my parents smoked. But this was the ’80s…it seemed like all adults smoked back then. Thankfully they quit.

The former Tom Thumb

If you’re expecting stories of how I got a lot of five finger discounts at Tom Thumb, you’re mistaken. I was a good girl and so was brother. But not Eric, the neighborhood hoodlum. One time, when Eric and my brother went on a Tom Thumb run, he stole a pack of Sixlets. The boy had great taste in candy, I’ll give him that, but the poor life choice got him grounded for a week. My mom gave my brother a stern lecture that he wasn’t allowed to go to Tom Thumb with Eric anymore. In case you’re wondering, no, Eric isn’t singing show tunes in prison. He turned out a-okay.

If you remember this particular Tom Thumb, then you probably remember Bernard, or “Bernie”, as he was more affectionately known. Bernie was the manager, or perhaps the owner of the Brookdale Drive Tom Thumb. He was a cool dude and he knew us by name.

When you walked into Tom Thumb, the area to the left showcased produce of questionable freshness. The store had about 6 aisles, offering candy, toys, cereal, baking mixes and other processed food. I don’t remember what the back wall had; milk and soda bottles were sold on the far right wall. The deli area (usually manned by Bernard himself) and a self-serve fountain drink station were in the front, offering goodies such as and 72oz. cups to fill with your favorite carbonated beverage (I was partial to the Cherry Coke).

Speaking of which, one time, my brother and I rode our bikes up to Tom Thumb to fuck around. We didn’t know what we wanted; we just wanted to go to Tom Thumb. We each ended up buying a 72oz. cup of Cherry Coke. Outside the store, we tried to hop on our bikes, but realized riding our bikes with a 72oz soda would be challenge. We went back in the store, explaining our

If Tom Thumb didn't have the candy we wanted, we'd walk over to this gas station to see what offerings they had in stock.

conundrum to Bernie. He handed over two paper bags and we placed our sodas inside. *shakes head* A liqued beverage inside a paper bag at that age…how classy. After we got back, we dodged Mom and made a beeline to my brother’s room, where we holed up all afternoon, guzzling thousands of calories in soda and playing Night Trap on Sega CD.

So what would we buy here?

Mom would buy Polka Dot milk, frosted cake donuts out of the display case (damn those were good!) and ciggies. Sometimes, she’d buy us some JoJo potatoes from the deli. Tom Thumb’s were the bomb diggity.

My brother and I would buy Donruss and/or Topps baseball cards, a copy of the Auto Trader, candy CANDY candy, Dell’s latest word search puzzles magazine, packets of Panini stickers (Barbie albums for moi, He-Man for bro) and these really good turkey sandwiches from the deli.

One other Tom Thumb memory that sticks out in my mind is the time we spotted the ice cream man at Tom Thumb. Seeing the ice cream man’s truck parked outside of Tom Thumb pretty much took out the mystique and magic of the ice cream man. Tom Thumb’s his dealer? He’s buying his Flintstone Push-Ups, Rocketpops and Chipwiches out of their Good Humor freezer and selling them to kids for twice the price? Just who does he think he is, tinkling down the street, selling ice cream novelties with a 200% markup to hungry children? It was a tough lesson in economics for a 10 year old girl. Despite finding out his source, we still chased the ice cream man with our bikes whenever we heard the bell ring. Like cattle to the slaughter…

Unfortunately, Tom Thumb went bankrupt in 2004, closing all 131 stores in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

My mom got a gut-ache eating at Bok Ho. We never returned.

Next door to Tom Thumb was another building. I want to say it was some sort of child care place, but I can’t remember. Today, the place looks like it’s under renovation by new owners, but the oval sign remains, telling me it once was *maybe* a Children’s World??

One other place worth mentioning is Bok Ho, the disgusting Chinese restaurant with a name sounding like it’s a profanity you’d use when getting into a pissing match with an enemy.

“BOK HO!”

“Oh yeah? Well BOK HO you too!”

“BOK HO to you and yo’ mama!”

“….”

Back in the day, the building was red and lacked windows. We ate there once and never returned. We went to House of Hui’s for our chicken chow mien. I don’t know when Bok Ho went out of business and this other restaurant moved in. This was here the entire time I lived in Brooklyn Park–you could say it was a landmark on the corner of Humboldt and Brookdale Drive.

Oh, there wasn’t always stoplight here. I can’t recall when the city installed them–my guess is early ’90s or late ’80s. I had to walk to school when I attended Monroe Elementary in the ’80s, so I remember the stop signs well. Looking back, it’s a damn long walk, even for an adult. She was probably scared out of her wits every morning and afternoon when I’d walk home! No wonder my mom and all the other neighborhood moms lobbied the school to get us buses. (and they did, starting when I was in second grade).

So that’s once section of Brooklyn Park’s Brookdale drive for ‘ya. Any memories you want to share? Did you shop at Tom Thumb? Did you steal stuff from Tom Thumb? (SHAME ON YOU, but I want to hear the juicy details!). Who got the squirts after eating at Bok Ho?

Photos taken August 2010.

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WE LOVE IT!

Why am I headed toward the aisles of Fleet Farm?

Because… I (we) LOVE IT.

Well, no. I don’t love it. But why not cover it?

I know, it isn’t dead by any means, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be discussed here. I understand there are probably hundreds of malls within Minnesota that I haven’t covered yet, and being that I currently do not have a job, I have time to explore them and snap pics. (The time thing is only partly true, being that I’ve been tied up with volunteer work for the past two months). When August ends, so does summer–and the majority of my volunteer work. Anyway, let’s move on.

I’m covering the Double F because when you walk inside, it’s like a time warp to 1987. Which was, in fact, the last time I was inside a Fleet Farm. I’m not in Fleet Farm’s target demographic. I have no use for a dog kennel cozy, elastic waist Gloria Vanderbilt slacks, Field ‘N Forest footwear, Durabuilt livestock tags, multipack Hanes Her Way briefs, or turkey calls.

Fleet Farm is a store with small town American values...and drums of cheeseballs.

If you don’t know what Fleet Farm is, let me explain. It’s the general store to end all general stores. Think of it as a cross between a Gander Mountain, Kmart, Menards, a saddle shop and a body shop. And during the holiday season, it turns into a Toys ‘R Us. Safety orange is Fleet Farm’s signature color. They sell stuff for Rambos and Bubbas: military surplus gear, jugs of deer piss, livestock feed, tackleboxes, handguns, butt-ugly work jeans, and embroidered Christmas sweatshirts–all with a patriotic, “America, FUCK YEAH!!” vibe.

But this “general store” is a little different. It dubs itself as the “MAN MALL.” The theory behind this is if they don’t sell it here, ‘ya don’t need it. I would take issue with that, but I am not a man. Fleet Farm’s the kind of store a man could take his lady to and get sweet revenge for all those times he had to sit on a mall bench outside Ann Taylor, waiting for her as she tried on armloads of shift dresses, scoop neck tanks and pencil skirts in the dressing room. Here, he could check out the latest Rapala lures; swap huntin’ tales with the dudes at the gun counter; test out ice augers; trade in his civies for BDUs; decide between a “These colors don’t run” or a “Don’t tread on me” bumper sticker; and buy a five lb. bag of chocolate stars.

Go team, go! And take these hideous Vikings/Packers/Gophers overalls with you!

And the wifey can’t say boo.

Fleet Farm isn’t for the dudes rockin’ frosted tips, puka shell necklaces and pink polo shirts. Fleet Farm is for the kind of man who has an American flag tattoo rippling down his bicep and drives a POS truck. It’s for the kind of man who drains away stress by using his hands. The kind of men who give carpal-crushing handshakes..The kind of guy who looks like he’s been changing tires all day and cleans firearms at the kitchen table.

Because Fleet Farm is patriotic down to its very core, it’s only proper that they support America’s favorite pastime–sitting on the couch and eating junk food–by having an obnoxiously large candy section.

Hardware-type stores always have the best candy section–except for Home Depot and Lowe’s. They don’t even have candy sections–all they have are single-serving checkout lane candy bars. I don’t even think they sell the king-size shit. What’s up with that? The purpose of having a candy section at a hardware store is because ‘ya get HONGRY after puttin’ together furniture and sanding things, son! If I’m workin’ on the job and get a little snacky-snacky, a small box of Junior Mints or a Snickers bar the size of my index finger just won’t do. I need to suck down a few Pearson’s Salt ‘N Nut Rolls, a 60 oz. bag of spice drops and a 16 oz. bag of Old Fashioned Red Licorice Twists to hold me over ’til supper.

Three aisles of candy. THREE AISLES filled with giant sized bags of candy. Most of it is the stuff you’d find in a grocery store bulk food section, except it’s neatly packaged in a plastic bag with a Fleet Farm logo. Sure, you’ll find the nasty shit, like dusty circus peanuts, dinner mints, spearmint leaves and bridge mix. But they sell some damn fine chocolate covered raisins and chocolate milk balls. A bag of each followed me home when I visited FF.

"No time for potty breaks! Dump 'n run, boys!"

Anyway, we never went here much when I was growing up, but every now and then we’d pop in. The last time I remember piling up in the dadgum truck ‘n goin’ to Fleet Farm was when we needed a new mailbox in ’87. There isn’t a funny story behind it–I wish there was, but the story’s pretty simple: we needed a new mailbox and we bought one (and six Pearson’s Nut Rolls–two for Dad and one for each of us–and a container of Planter’s Salted Peanuts). Walking into Fleet Farm in 2010 isn’t much different than shopping there in 1987. The store fixtures, the wooden paneling and even some of the merchandise screams 1987–yes, they’re still selling CRT television sets and VHS tapes. There were quite a selection of VHS tapes–think movies like 3:10 to Yuma, Platoon, Scarface, and instructional hunting videos starring Jeff Foxworthy.

And then there’s TOYLAND. Every holiday season, the Man Mall turns into a playpen.  My mom never shopped here for whatever reason–perhaps the deals weren’t that great or she just didn’t want to go here. Can’t say I blame her. As a kid, I never really cared to look at Fleet Farm’s Toyland circular. Sure, I’d give it a passing glance, but I guess it just seemed weird to ask for a Barbie Dream Home from a place that sells poultry feeders and mud flaps.

What are your memories of Fleet Farm? Do you still shop there? As a kid, did you salivate over the TOYLAND section of the Fleet Farm catalog mailed out around Christmas? Do you still salivate over Toyland? Post in the comments!

Photos taken August 2009 and June 2010.

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Winter, spring, summer or fall--any season's a good season to make a trip to this mall

As noted before, even Money Magazine’s best place to live has a few eyesores. Plymouth Center being one of them and the Four Seasons Mall being another. If you’ve driven on Highway 169 in the Twin Cities within the last 30 years (who hasn’t?), you’ve probably seen this mall. And unless you live in the area, you probably have never been in it.  The back of the mall faces the highway, with signage on the structure noting what was probably at one time, a sexy lineup of stores. Today, most of the signs are blank white rectangles.

I made my first, only, and last visit to the Four Seasons Mall on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in August 2009. I have no warm fuzzies about this mall and I don’t know of many former tenants. The Four Seasons Mall was built in 1978 and judging by the wood paneling and totally awesome tiled floors with colored squares placed at random, it likely was never updated.

It’s pretty much empty. There’s a quilt shop, a Fresh & Natural Foods (which is actually pretty busy), one of those for-profit colleges advertised on daytime television, a bridal shop, a pizza place, and Thai restaurant. And that’s about it.

I only saw one other person in this mall: a blue-haired lady who was probably on her way to the quilt shop to pick up some batting for her latest creation. She gave me a funny look. I don’t blame her though; I’m walking around a dead mall with a camera dangling from my wrist. Probably thought I was casing the joint or a misguided tourist.

The barren hallway of the Four Seasons Mall

The interior gave me big time Village North flashbacks. (You know, when Village North was in its decline). I’m guessing they were built around the same time (late ’70s). The mall is depressingly clean and the pumped-in music echos down the empty hallways. And plenty of posted signs at every nook and cranny of this mall banning guns and rollerblades.

You really don’t see a lot of those gunbuster signs anymore, although they are still around. Back in 2003, Minnesota passed conceal carry, causing every business owner to freak out, throwing up knee-jerk reaction “No guns allowed” signs in their windows, thinking a trip to Starbucks was going to turn into a shootout. And rollerblading? Really? I don’t think you need to worry about delinquent rollerbladers, Four Seasons Mall, this isn’t 1992.

Okay, so no gunplay and no rollerblading down the hall. Got it.

Really though, this would be a kick ass place for a bunch of lawbreaking juveniles to break out the skateboard. Not to give anyone ideas. Nothin’ like a little rampz, rails, and trespassing!

According to this article, there is little hope for this mall. The property is up for sale and if it gets any takers, it will likely be razed & redeveloped.

I, personally, know nothing about this mall, but another Dumpy Strip Malls reader with the handle “AFS” posted information in the comments–if this isn’t a “sexy” line up of stores, I don’t know what is!

Four Seasons! Ah, the bygone days of my youth, running through the mall on Tacky Hat Day with the Armstrong cross-country team. Former tenants:

Erickson’s NewMarket: As a young lass I’d kick and scream to shop here instead of that blasted Holiday Plus across the street. If you’ve been in a NewMarket and a Holiday Plus, I shouldn’t explain.

This isn't 1992. Deliquent juvies don't rollerblade anywhere anymore, much less in a mall.

Summit School of Dance: if you weren’t quite snotty enough to go to the Dance Shoppe in “downtown” Plymouth, you went here. Was the feeder school for the Armstrong cheerleader squad, yet not the dance team.

Golden China: awrrrsome all-you-can-eat buffet. My now very obese aunt once walked off with one of the steam trays in Homer Simpson-esque fashion.

Woody’s Our Own Hardware-my dad preferred this place for some reason.

Some sporting memorabilia shop called Team Sports that lasted all of nine months. I remember my mom bought my dad a Quebec Nordiques hat from there for Christmas. Ah, they were a lovely team.

Hobby Time was the name of the hobby store on which the commenter above waxed nostalgic. I remember its train sets vaguely; I believed it was closed by the 1990s.

Some beauty school with students smoking out in front.

A bridal discount warehouse. My mom pointed out a pregnant teen girl shopping for gowns there as a “warning.”

The Fan Man: not once in my 13 years of residence in the 55442 did I see a customer in there. My dad posited that they ran some sort of mail order business, but for ceiling fans? Well, this was Plymouth.

Perfection Hair Stylists, just across the hallway from competitor salon Golden Razor. My parents always took me to GR whilst I secretly yearned for the KMS-ridden haze of Perfection.

Snyder Drug was the other anchor, after NewMarket. The source of many of my prescriptions filled through the years, where I once got a flu shot (meh) and the source of the annual coupon book with 5 free items in every book. Packing for college: 10% done. They didn’t hire me for a part-time job (bugger!) but the post office window inside was where I sent off an envelope to the UK in 1995 in the hopes of joining the Bjork Fan Club.

Some discount book shop that I had been inside all of 10 minutes when I left school early senior year of hs in 1999. The cashier gave me the stink eye.

At its high point, Four Seasons Mall got annual visits from Santa, monthly craft fairs and my Girl Scout troop setting up a table to sell Girl Scout cookies. Some 10 years later, it was where my mom called out fellow mothers of Armstrong’s class of 1999 for making and selling coffee with Four Seasons bathroom tap water.

Marcellos Pizza is still there I believe, and this former Chicago and current NYC resident will admit that its pizza was fanthasthico. Later on, it was where my track team would have carbo-loads. Going the distance, going for speed.

Photos taken August 2009.

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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!

The oddball artwork inside the Shoreview Village Mall makes this a great hangout for stoners.

It’s a proven concept that people go bonkers for places that have shit all over the walls. Just look at your average Applebee’s and TGIFridays. The parking lot is usually busy and on Friday nights, the wait list can get up to 45 minutes to get a table. The food isn’t very remarkable, so it can’t be the menu.  It’s gotta be the visual interest element. People are obviously coming because there’s a tire hanging from the ceiling and a leaf blower glued to the wall.

So why not apply that theory to a shopping mall?

This little-known Twin Cities treasure did just that, but judging from its exterior, you’d never know it. Located off of Lexington Avenue and Hwy 96, the Shoreview Village Mall looks like your average strip mall from the outside: an oversized parking lot, boring stores, a smattering of empty storefronts, and “Space Available” signs.  Blah and BLAH. Not a whole lot going on here right?

Slow your roll — it’s a foil. Don’t let the vanilla exterior fool you. Much fun lurks inside! Because someone turned this mall into an arts & craft project.

On the walls inside this shopping lair lies a 19th century-style village brought to life, mural-style, catching off-guard shoppers by surprise. An overwhelming — almost dizzying – Victorian-era mural hits you the minute you walk in the door, making you yearn for a Magic Eraser.

Uh oh! Looks like Charles Dickens is makin' a move for the groove.

No matter where you go inside this mall, the wall paintings follow you.  The mural runs throughout the entire mall, capturing that “Ye Ole Towne” charm & excitement with a vignette of happy townspeople wearing frilly dresses and overcoats, cobblestone roads, loony innkeepers, rolling hills, and lush vegetation. It takes you back to the “good ole days”, when children worked in unsafe factories, hammering away at the soles of shoes until they fainted.  Back when the village idiot would be hung in the town square while the townspeople watched with glee. The days of the Bubonic Plague! Gosh, I’m cheery today.

The  mural is intertwined with the mall tenants. For example, at Meister’s Bar & Grill, the mural depicts a gang of inebriated males drinking ale and toasting the town. The benches, potted plants, fake flowers hanging from the ceiling, and plastic tree stumps are strategically-placed, giving the artwork a 3-D effect. The artist did a nice job showing The Good Life, but should’ve done a real period piece by adding a headless horseman,  a toothless wench in a tight dress with her boobs spilling out of the top, and a scary troll hiding under a bridge to the montage.  And then throw in Jack the Ripper for good measure. Then again, Shoreview Village Mall is a shopping center, not a haunted house. Still would’ve been cool though.

So what’s all in this place, besides the creepy artwork? It houses your average strip mall tenants: A dry cleaners, a dance studio, chiropractic office, Snyder’s, Subway, Hallmark, and so on. There’s also a few places to eat: Wok Cuisine, Subway, an ice cream & coffee place, a pizza place, and a German bar.

A Fresh & Natural Foods anchors the mall, which is great if you like eating grass. This grocer used to be a Jubilee. As far as other former tenants, I really don’t know of any, other than one of those eBay “I’ll sell it for you” shops like on The 40-Year Old Virgin and my dentist’s old office.

This mall didn’t always have its creative flair.  Until 2002, the Shoreview Village Mall was your typical quiet strip mall with flat color walls free of any drawings of butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers.  It was built in 1982, but I never visited this place until sometime in mid ’90s.  My dentist moved his office to the Shoreview Village Mall in the ’90s (creatively named “Shoreview Mall Dental.” Clearly the work of an imaginative individual).  I remember this mall always being creepy, dark, and dingy, and because I associate this mall with going to the dentist (never a pleasant experience), I think of bitter “bubblegum” flavored fluoride treatments, and gritty “berry” flavored toothpaste whenever I drive by this mall.

I can't figure out if these outdated computer monitors & TVs-needing-converter-boxes are *supposed* to be here as part of some sort of artistic symbolism or if it's Shoreview Village Mall's version of a sidewalk sale. Oh yeah, there's a grill. Just in case of an impromptu BBQ.

Dental memories aside, this mall was always pretty dead, so in 2002, the mall owner poured money into this puppy to revive the sad shopping venue to win shoppers & retailers back. The exterior got a face-lift, but what could be done to perk up the inside?

Why, hire a local artist to draw painted lady rowhouses all over the walls and the fun will create itself! Of course.

The owner must’ve been high as a kite when he made that decision. Or perhaps he got the business idea straight out of the pages of Harold and the Purple Crayon and took the concept — if it doesn’t exist, draw it — a bit too far. Since no one is coming to this mall, we will DRAW people in the mall!

Okay then.

Did it work?

…Well, what do you think?

Fuck no, it just made the mall creepier.

I suppose it could’ve been worse — they could’ve went with macaroni art or Spirograph. Or put up velvet paintings of dogs playing poker WITH Elvis and Jesus and James Brown and–AND–AND!!! Have Michael Jackson ghost-moonwalking on the table!

Or did the mural Simpsons-style.

Wait, no. A Simpsons-style mural would’ve been wicked cool.

Photos taken June 2009.

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Old-skool Circuit City stores, like the Roseville store, had an entrance shaped like a UL standard plug.

Circuit City has been circling in the drain for years and in early 2009, it finally kicked the bucket.  Its demise was a long time coming. Circuit City has been living on borrowed time this past decade. With its empty parking lots and deserted stores, it was one of those places you wondered how it stayed in business. I swear, places like Circuit City and some of these other companies must have a deal with drug cartels to stay open and never have any customers.

Alright. So, it’s seven (or so) months later since the second-fiddle big box electronics dealer closed its doors and I’m finally getting around to writing about this. Better late than never, right? I can’t ignore a huge chain store closing – so it’s about time to pay homage to the giant red plug in the ground.

The pictures in this article are all from the Rosedale store, but I didn’t shop at that location very often.  I shopped at the Brooklyn Center location. Actually, I think the only time I ever went into the Roseville store was during the liquidation “sale”, but we’ll get to that later.

For the record, here’s a list of the other locations that were in the Twin Cities at some point:
Brooklyn Center
Burnsville
Coon Rapids
Edina
Mall of America (Circuit City Express. They sold stuff like cables and wires and cell phones. So, kind of like a Radio Shack.)
Maple Grove
Maplewood
Minnetonka
Woodbury

Retailers everywhere are BEGGING for Circuit City's square footage

I was never a huge fan of Circuit City, but I can’t say I ever had a problem with it. It’s not like I’m hoping the chain is burning in hell as we speak. In a way, it kinda blows that Best Buy now has no real competition here.  I always shopped at Best Buy for my electronics needs, but on occasion, I did stop in at Circuit City. Why didn’t I care for CC? A few reasons:

#1: Circuit City had checkout stations located haphazardly throughout the store and no one was ever manning them. When you wanted to purchase something, you had to wave down an associate or bring your purchase up to the Customer Service desk and get in line with people doing returns or filing a complaint. Best Buy has easy-to-find checkout lanes all located at the front of the store, where they should be.

#2: The entire checkout process was annoying. When you finally did find someone to ring you up, it was always complicated, arduous process, even if you were just buying a CD. The sales associate would ask you for your name, address, and whatnot. You had to stand at the station for like 10 minutes while they typed god knows what into the computer. All I wanted was a Smash Mouth CD! You expect paperwork when you buy a car or a house, but a CD?  I’ve gotten bank loans faster.

#3:  Circuit City was a confusing mess. The VHS (later DVD) and CD sections were one giant clusterfuck. Plus, Circuit City kind of had a slimeball feel to it; it always felt like something shady was goin’ on there, but I could never quite put my finger on it.

#4: I don’t like shopping in the dark. Upon entering Circuit City, you felt like you were entering an electronics bunker.

#5: Best Buy is a Minnesota company, so they’ve got that whole “Hometown Hero” thing going for it, just like Target. I don’t even know where CC is based out of, nor do I care.

#6: Their coupons were full of holes & you needed to read the fine print carefully. You couldn’t use them on anything you actually wanted. They basically amounted to, “Good for $15 off a purchase of $100 or more in USB cables.” I can’t say Best Buy is any better though. Plus, Best Buy makes you join some silly little club to get their 5% off coupons in the mail or whatever. Meh.

That said, I did make my first big purchase as an adult at the Brookdale Square Circuit City (you can see photos on the Brookdale Square post). I still have the paper trail to prove it.

My cell phone has more storage capacity than this $2,000 computer.

The year was 1997. I graduated high school that spring and was ready for college.  I wasn’t going away to school to live in the dorms — I was going to continue living with my parents and commute to school. I insisted to my parents that our family computer, a Packard Bell 486SX purchased in 1995, was getting slow and I needed something that could handle the projects, papers, and tasks my professors would require.

My parents aren’t the most tech-savvy people out there, but they weren’t stupid and they certainly weren’t buying my plea. I wasn’t majoring in Computer Science or Graphic Design — I was going to major in Journalism (at the time).  I’d be writing papers, not creating Shockwave animations. In their eyes, I could’ve gotten by with a typewriter. In the end, they gave me two options — they offered to buy the Compton ’97 Encyclopedia CD-ROM for me (uhhh..thanks, but no), or I could buy the computer myself with some of my graduation money.

That was good enough for me! My graduation money was to be used for college-related expenses ONLY (books), not for buying fun stuff like makeup, shoes, or CDs.

Visions of Windows 98, 56K modems, and After Dark screen saver software packages danced in my head, as I took a hammer to my piggy bank and headed out the door.

Now I could continue this charade of me telling you that I wanted a new kick-ass computer system to write papers, but I think you’ve already figured out my MO. The truth was, I bought the computer to fuck around:  To play my cheesy games (SimCity2000), have more hard disk space for MIDI and WAV files, work on my Geocities homepage, and have a faster modem so I could download shit like AOHELL 9.0 and spam chat rooms with 50-line macros of Bart Simpson getting blown by Lisa.  Sure, I’d use it for my coursework, but if that alone was the sole reason for wanting a new computer, I could’ve gotten by just fine with the 486. For a while anyway.

Circuit City wasn't in the electronics business, they were in the insurance business

After pricing out computers at Best Buy, Computer City, and Circuit City, I ended up buying my PENTIUM (!!!) Packard Bell computer from Big Red. I don’t know what made me buy it at Circuit City– it must’ve been the price, or perhaps I thought that the sports coat-wearing commissioned sales guy was cute (An 18-year old girl is swayed easily by these things).

I purchased the entire package — computer, monitor, printer, and according to my receipt, I must’ve been strong-armed into buying the 5-year warranty plan,which I never cashed in on.  The computer also came with a software bundle with shit like Word Perfect, Corel Draw, and MS Encarta (which made Mom happy).  (Oh Mom…sorry to break this to you, but I don’t think I even clicked on the Encarta icon. I probably ended up deleting the program so I could free up hard disk space for more WAV files and Photoshop Plug-Ins).

I didn’t pay with this purchase in cash like I had originally intended — I ended up getting approved for a Circuit City credit card. Being that I was only 18 and had little credit history, I wasn’t approved for the entire price of the computer, so I paid part of it on the CC card, and part with my Visa. The idea was to pay the cards off with my graduation money as soon as the bill arrived to build some credit history, and I did just that.

After buying the computer, my mom and I had to wait around in the pick up area of the store for it to be “delivered.” It was kind of like waiting for your luggage at the airport. They had this procedure for a lot of the stuff you’d buy at CC, not just computers.  Most of the time, you couldn’t just pick up a VCR or whatever off the shelf…you had to flag down a sales dude (who was busy blowing spit bubbles and starting at the ceiling), tell him which model you wanted, then listen to an annoying sales pitch and extended warranty ballyhoo before you could actually buy the damn thing & be directed to the pick up area.

Check out this sweet $2,000 setup! Rory the Lion beanie baby keeps me company while I get into a flamewar on the AOL message boards. The diet Cherry Cokes and a bag of Easter M&Ms give me enough fuel to keep my trolling fresh and sassy.

I was thrilled with my purchase and my new system allowed me to be the AOL Renegade that I had always wanted to be.  I could hop from chat room to chat room,  harassing other AOLers with {S duckjob in 56K warp speed!

(if you get the duckjob.wav reference, kudos to you!)

Other than the computer, I really didn’t buy much at Circuit City. I remember stopping in one time, thinking about buying a Minidisc player. I requested help from an aloof sales guy, and in response to my question, he picked up the item I was holding and began reading the side of the box to me. (I didn’t end up buying a minidisc player. Even at the time, I felt that Minidiscs weren’t going to catch on & that MP3s would be the next big thing).

I bought a few CDs here and there, but shopping here was only out of desperation. I’d only stop in if Best Buy or Target didn’t have the oddball CD I wanted. It was too much of a hassle to shop here. Even their Black Friday loss leaders never tempted me. It was just too much work & effort to go to Circuit City.

When the liquidation sale was announced earlier this year, I didn’t rush down the same day to pick over the bones of the dead company in hopes of irresistible savings, but I did stop in a few times. At the time, I was looking for a new computer (a Macbook), and checked out CC, hoping they sold Macs . They didn’t.

The going-out-of-business sale sucked. I think I stopped in 3 times. The first two times, I went to the Roseville store. It was packed, it was messy, and it was loud. Everyone was looking for the same thing — the good stuff, like discounted WIIs, cheap HDTVs, and after-market car stereos for pennies on the dollar. We knew Circuit City was closing FOR SURE. They weren’t fucking around, like Wilson’s

The Circuit City Rosedale was in a poor location

Leather or mall jewelry stores. This was it. Circuit City’s gettin’ snuffed and electronics junkies everywhere were lookin’ for deals.

Like most big stores that go out of business, they turn the sale over to a liquidation company. The company they chose couldn’t even run a going out of business sale properly. Everything was marked back up to its original MSRP. The 20% off a $19.99 DVD of Pretty in Pink wasn’t tempting; it was insulting. Target has the same DVD for $5.

“Up to 30% off”. What’s 30% off? CD disk cleaning solution, laser pointers, and candy bars. Right, time to hurry in! Anything you’d actually want was only 10% off. The discount gradually increased over time, but even in the sale’s final days, I didn’t see anything good. Even if I did find anything good, those frightening “All Sales Final” signs pretty much deterred me from purchasing any big-ticket items. I did buy a candy bar though (Baby Ruth, if you must know). It was delicious.

I went to the Maple Grove store during Circuit City’s final weekend. The store looked like a warzone.  We went there looking for speakers, but there were none to be had. What was left? A bunch of CDs no one wanted, J-Lo movies on DVD, cables, and broken shit.  The store was in complete disarray, with broken store displays, cords hanging from the ceiling, and empty CD-R spindles and plastic twist ties from speaker-wire packaging littering the floor. We walked out of Circuit City for the last time, empty-handed. There wasn’t even a discounted candy bar to buy.

Fourty years from now, I can’t say I’ll be waxing nostalgic about Circuit City to my grandkids. It wasn’t my favorite place to shop, but it wasn’t horrible either. However, throughout the years, it changed for the worse.  The sales guy who sold me the computer in 1997 was great. He was helpful & knowledgeable. Sometime after that, Circuit City made a turn for the worse. The sales associates no longer wore dapper blazers; instead, they sported red polo shirts. Sales folks all became non-commissioned hourly employees, and in 2007, many of their high-paid store associates were let go to make way for cheaper, less knowledgeable employees to save the doomed company money. Because of all this, Circuit City’s customer service reputation took a hit throughout the last decade. The poor service combined with the confusing store layout and high prices resulted in Big Red going down in flames.

Adios, Circuit City. You reap what you sow.

Photos of Circuit City taken June 2009. All other photos are circa 1997.

Did you find any treasures during the Circuit City liquidation? Former employee? Any Circuit City memories you’d like to share? Post in the comments!

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Check out the Plymouth Center, a retail shopping oasis conveniently located off of Highway 55

Oh dear. What have we here? Could this possibly be the quintessential Dumpy Strip Mall? The Dumpy Strip Mall to end all DUMPY STRIP MALLS?

Let’s see…

Empty store fronts? CHECK.
Deserted, weed-choked parking lot? CHECK.
Crumbling architecture from 40+ years years ago? CHECK.
Businesses putting “Yes! We’re Open!” signage in the window to attract uncertain customers? CHECK
A dump truck staked out in the parking lot? CheckMATE.

This strip mall looks like it belongs on Coon Rapids Blvd, but no.  It’s located off of Highway 55, in the #1 Best Place To Live: Plymouth, Minnesota.

When Money Magazine handed out the awards, apparently they overlooked Plymouth Center

Obviously, it’s attractions like the Plymouth Center that consistently boost Plymouth to the top of Money magazine’s “Best Places To Live” list.

Just as I suspected, there is no information about this place. I can’t give you the juicy details about when it opened, what stores used to be here,  and what the future holds for this place.  But I doubt anyone cares. I mean, look at it! This isn’t the kind of place where we’d see protesters chaining themselves to the building in hopes of saving the mall.

What’s amazing about this place is that it’s still standing. What kind of prize-winning city would let such this roadside shithole take up valuable real estate space?  The entire mall is a gross disregard of Money Magazine’s award, yet somehow, some way, it’s still here.

Plymouth Center looks like a throwback to old skool 1960′s Plymouth, before it became a suburban nightmare with all the soccer moms and copy-cat businesses seeping in. Back when the town was made up of farmland, split level housing, and those zany Church Basement Ladies. Looking at it now, it was built at the wrong time and probably peaked at the wrong time. It’s kind of like the sad story of the guy who peaked in high school who had the fancy car, dashing good looks, and was dating the entire cheer squad. He’s 47 now, in prison.

This strip mall is completely abandoned, despite the welcoming signs in the windows.

Tenants were:
Java Express
Forster’s Meat & Catering
Insomniac Beads
Hair Designs

And Seattle Sutton’s, a unmanned weight loss clinic claiming to be open, with a name that sounds more fitting of a Roller Derby team. You know you’re at a dead mall when a business needs to put “Yes! We’re Open!” signage in the

The decals say YES, but the empty parking lot and locked door say NO

window to attract customers. But when a business has said verbiage in the window and is closed…well, then what?

Really, what the fuck? Seattle Suttons employees too lazy to peel off a few window decals? Think of the all calories that could’ve been burned and the lean muscle mass that could’ve been built. Then again, I’m guessing that Seattle Suttons is one of those “fuck exercise!” diet clinics, and tells its dieters to simply load up your freezer with their frozen shit and watch the pounds melt off. Then they scare you into thinking that the only way to keep the weight off is to keep buying their TV dinners or in a few short years, you will need to be lifted out of your house via crane.

It doesn’t look like this retail blemish will last much longer, with the menacing dump truck chillaxin’ in the parking lot. There are no “For Lease” signs on the premises, so it doesn’t look like commercial real estate agents are out pounding the pavement, trying to sell space in the building. The future doesn’t look rosy,  but for all I know this primitive strip mall could still be standing intact five years from now.

If you have any war stories about the Plymouth Center (and I doubt anyone does), feel free to post in the comments!

Photos taken July 2009

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Brookdale Center, 1962

From Dave:

“This store opened on May 17, 1962. You’ll notice the little kangaroo
(or whatever it is) sign on the parking lot light pole. The architect
who designed this mall, Victor Gruen, was big on cartoon-style signs
as a reminder for shoppers to remember where they parked their cars.”

Thanks Dave!

Dave has a blog – Pleasant Family Shopping — that has lots of old skool pictures of shopping centers and stores — check it out!

I should have new entries coming up soon, hopefully a new post tomorrow.

Compared to Target's new architectural design, the Greatland stores look pretty dated

Stores come and go, such is life. You come to expect closings from nail salons, dollar stores, or lately, your neighborhood Starbucks. When that store is Target, it’s quite a surprise.

The Maple Grove Target Greatland opened in 1998 and only nine years later, shut down. If you leave it at that, it’s pretty odd. Target closing up its only store in a flourishing suburb? What’s going on here? Is this some sort of experiment by the government?

Conspiracy theorists, put away your tinfoil hats; the explanation is simple. Target wanted to compete with the nearby Wal-Mart Super Center and couldn’t do that in its current spot. Much like a growing hermit crab in search of a new shell, Target did not have enough room in the building to grow into a SuperTarget. The Greatland closed in October 2007 to move eastward into a more size-appropriate structure.  Also helping coax Target into relocation was a nearby retail development called “The Grove”, a new hospital, and a Home Deport — all promising high retail traffic by an idealistic developer.

According to an article dated December 2007, the old Target store was supposed to be redeveloped into several smaller retail spaces but these plans never materialized and the building still stands empty today. What will become of this I-94 eyesore? My anticipation is growing by the day.

If you’re not familiar with this area, Target Greatland Maple Grove did not have a bad location. With a Rainbow Foods next door, a Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club/Menards across the street, and an adjacent strip mall,  there’s a considerable amount of traffic in this area. While it might be a bit out of the way from the bustling Arbor Lakes area, this seems like a great location. Maple Grove isn’t all about Arbor Lakes, you know .  Isn’t it all about location, location, location?

When the Maple Grove store opened in 1998, Target had no plans on putting SuperTargets in Minnesota.  Target was hell-bent to continue opening regular stores and Greatlands in the late ’90s/early ’00s, which resulted in a lot of remodeling projects later this decade. In the ’90s, the concept of a SuperTarget was puzzling to most Minnesotans. A store where you could buy baby wipes, Nair, Honors sweatpants,  Mossimo flip flops, ground beef, a bag of apples, and a jug of orange juice— all in the same trip? Blasphemy!

In 1997, some of my geeky Target friends and I took a ROAD TRIP to Des Moines, Iowa for the sole purpose of going to Super Target. We took pictures, toured the store, and shook hands with the manager — it wasn’t even a work-sanctioned trip!  We just wanted the chance to buy sunglasses, mascara, and grapes and have it all on the same receipt.  Yes, I was that much of a nerd. A Super Target as a tourist attraction is laughable now (fuck, I shop there 3+ times/week now), but back then, Target-as-a-Grocery-Store concept was full of mystique and wonder. To me, anyway. Why am I admitting this? Fuck.

The hustle & bustle of the area

What’s so great about a Greatland? Well, not much. The Greatland stores were larger than your traditional Targets and carried a bigger selection of goods. That’s pretty much it. They did not carry a full line of groceries. They did sell a good amount of junk food, a sparse selection of canned goods, boxed dinner mixes, and cereal. You know, the kind of hoard-able food with a long shelf-life you could keep on-hand in case of Armageddon, like some screwball cat lady.

As I’ve mentioned before, Target no longer opens new stores under the “Greatland” name — it’s either a SuperTarget or a regular Target. With the uptrend in opening new (or remodoling old stores into) SuperTargets and stocking regular stores with more grocery goods, Greatlands are no longer relevand and have gone the way of the pager, WebRings, and Limp Bizkit, although there are still Target Greatland stores out there.

Today, the Maple Grove SuperTarget is up and running in its new location, right next door to a closed Slumberland store. No surpise there. Home Depot and Office Max are also in this area and both sport empty parking lots, even during prime shopping hours.

Just what Maple Grove needs...MORE STORES

The Grove looks like a ghost town — over 75% of the store fronts are empty. The stores that are there aren’t anything to write home about — Great Clips, Chipotle, and a Subway.  So much for all that high traffic, huh? The whole area is kind of spooky. It’s neatly landscaped, lots of park benches, hanging geranium baskets,  dancing fountains, pewter statues of kids playing leapfrog…but there’s no one around to enjoy any of it. If it weren’t for the gurgling fountains and the occasional giggle from customers eating burritos at Chipotle’s outdoor patio, the area would be completely silent.

One of my readers had this to say regarding this entire area in the comments of the Coon Rapids abandoned Target store post:

The new digs

“Target in MG closed west of 94 because Ryan(the developer) promised them prime site and new Arbor Lakes storefronts along with a hospital to get them to move east of 94. It will be a big deal and good location once the hospital gets going in Dec 2009. However, the economy has changed the face of real estate (especially retail) for the next five to seven years — it takes that long to plan, permit develop and build-out centers… Big box Slumberland has already opened and closed at “The Grove”. The ghostly empty storefronts are just an indication of too many retail stores and an exhausted consumer.”

Thank you, Mike!

Will anything become of The Grove or was this just a pie-in-the-sky daydream by a starry-eyed developer? If anything, I suppose we can expect a bunch of smoke shops, perfumeries, a cheap buffet restaurant, and a DEB to move in soon.

Photos taken June 2009

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