Deserted shopping mall bleak symbol of Fed bailout

Reuters/YahooNews ^ | 10/21/09 | Alister Bull

[Kartographer]

A $29 billion trail from the Federal Reserve's bailout of Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns ends in a partially deserted shopping center on a bleak spot on the south side of Oklahoma City.

The Fed now owns the Crossroads Mall, a sprawling shopping complex at the junction of Interstate highways 244 and 35, complete with an oil well pumping crude in the car park -- except the Fed does not own the mineral rights.

[Kartographer]

WELCOME TO:

OBAMAVILLE

Gett’n a head fake,
watchin’ msn’s take;
All of their pundits oozing foul oil.
Clean’n my six gun on my front porch swing.
Felling my blood—
It’s beginnin’ to boil.

Wasted away again in Obamaville,
Searchin’ for a job so I can earn my salt.
Some people claim that Bush is to blame,
But I know it’s Obama’s fault.

There’s no rhyme or reason,
They are all commitin’ treason
With nothing to show but a brand new tax or two.
But they are real beauties,
Despotic duties, how they got passed
I haven’t a clue.

Wasted away again in Obamaville,
Searchin’ for a job so I can earn my salt.
Some people claim that it’s Bush we should blame,
Now I think,— hell with them it’s Obama’s fault.

[Focault's Pendulum]

DeadMalls.com

[pyx]

Yet more of ZERO's squandering of TAXPAYER money. I can almost hear the field crickets from here for this empty mall.

[Never on my watch]

“...a partially deserted shopping center on a bleak spot on the south side of Oklahoma City...”

When I lived out there that was not a ‘bleak spot’. It was kinda out on it’s own and a really nice place. It seemed like a lot of retail development was going on around it.

I guess I did see some signs of urban decay to the north and west that must have creeped down. I haven’t been there for a while. I guess a lot has changed.

[Angry_White_Man_Syndrome]

I went to this mall many times when living in Shawnee, OK. It was actually a very nice mall, with a lot of retail development around it.

In Ft Smith, a developer has turned the old mall into a commercial building. They have torn down some of the retail buildings on the property and are fixing up the remaining buildings. It was a total blight in the middle of town. Now it is starting to see new life. This also was all started before the stimulus was started.

[pepperdog]

It was a fine mall, but the gangs started using it for their private gathering place and people started to avoid it. The mall made some good adjustments to the problem but not in a timely manner. The rent was increased and forced out all the local shops, not that there were a lot but there were a few and that made it more interesting that so many malls. Instead of reducing the rent the owners choose to let the stores stand empty (stupid! stupid!) A sad ending, and it leaves the Southern part of OKC without any upscale stores which is ridiculous for a major metropolitan area.

[US Navy Vet]

You can read the sad saga of this and other Deserted Malls at “deadmalls.com”.

[Ditter]

The malls will all die if they are waiting for me to come in and shop. I want to drive my car as close as I can to the door of a store and walk in. No more browsing down the interior going from shop to shop. I don’t like mall parking lots where there are thugs waiting to accost you or worse or creeps waiting to break into your car when you walk away from it. No thanks.