You have to remember that I was always a mover. Our family picked up roots every three or four years and replanted ourselves in some new town. So now I have finally lived in one town long enough to see change, and decay...well, sort of.
When we moved here almost 20 years ago we were part of the opening of the new Superstition Mall. It was a marvel of stores, theatre, fountains, that spawned a whole shopping area around it with car dealers, strip malls etc. Food Courts were new back then and the whole thing was a shining marvel, a cheap date every weekend....you get the point. Now I have moved to another part of the east valley.
I no longer shop here weekly.
Yesterday I did my hour walk before opening and I observed that they had several major remodels, the floors, the former gathering place in front of the theater is now a Borders books, the Theatre closed years a ago and a second attempt to revive it is about to open. Inside about 20 percent of the stores are closed, especially down at the end where one of the anchor stores closed. Former retail stores are now offices for services like lasar hair removal. You get the feeling that this former magnet of activity is trying to figure out how to survive until people start spending money again.
It made me kind of sad. Ive seen worse when I travel home to Mississippi in the hurricane battered cities, but somehow I sense that our country may never return to that early 90s level of economic prosperity, and wonder if we should.
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