Monday, July 31, 2006

Dixie Square- Symbolic of Disinvestment in the First Suburbia

I recently went to Dixie Square.com to see what is all about. And what I saw was unbelievable, but not surprised, for I live in an inner suburb in Ohio. Dixie Square is a symbolic of the disinvestment of poor, working, and middle class first suburbs that are home to many people of color. I think corporations and institutions deliberately encourage disinvestment in the communities mentioned.

Here are several links to this depressing mall in America. I'm sure that there are many

Wikipedia: Dixie Square Mall

Dixie Square: The Movie

What are your thoughts?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here in Houston the structure formally known as Gulfgate Shopping City stood for years before it was re-opened as Gulgate Mall.

Here are some links to the progress of the mall redevelopement from demolition in 1997 to the grand-opening in 2005:

chron.com/content/chronicle/.../97/12/03/gulfgate.2-0.html

www.bizjournals.com/houston/stores/199909/13/story2.html

www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2002/5/20/newscolumn3.html

The old original mall has been completely demolished and a new "cookie cutter-type" mall has been erected in its place.

Gone is what would have been called the traditional mall anchor stores such as JC Penny's, Joske's (now known as the department chain store Dilliards) and Sears. Even the unique stores such as Weingarten's (a grocery store), Newberry's (a clothing store) and the Winkler Drive-In movie theater are all long gone.

It is now basically just a "survival set-up" mall, just your basic food (HEB), clothing and hardware stores, banks, and a few restaurants.

All that is left of the original Gulfgate Shopping City is the pedestrian bridge which traverses IH-610, acting as a connection to the mall and what was the theater acoss the freeway, and the revolving neon sign that advertised the mall location. The sign does not revolve anymore probably due to too much of an expense to power it electrically.

But, business is doing great by all accounts.

Just the same, it was a traditional mall in Houston like so many older malls that have now fallen victim to the wrecking ball.

La Reyna said...

To Joyce,

Thanks for the links. The mall in my neighborhood in North Dayton is going through the same transformation as Gulfgate Shopping City was in 1997. The new shopping center is called New Towne Center. So far, I haven't heard any stores planning to open there yet. It's two years away from now. I hope to hear from them in the papers, but given their biases against Northwest Dayton, I doubt it. But I still hope for the revitalization in my part of the city. It's a very integrated area, with diverse socio/econmomic classes, races, ethnicities, and religions. It's an economic goldmine and it's a darn shame that corporations and business have written us off the way they've done. More on this later.

Anonymous said...

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La Reyna said...

No more annoying spam, thanks

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