Debbie and I had a long delayed getaway weekend starting the day after Thanksgiving. We went to Minneapolis and stayed at a nice hotel across the street from the Mall of America (MOA). A recent story in the news reminded me that I wanted to share our MOA experiences. Here is the excerpt from the news item: “Authorities arrested at least nine people after a “series of fights” at the nation’s biggest shopping mall sent chairs flying and caused after-Christmas shoppers to flee, officials in Minnesota said Tuesday….Witnesses described a chaotic scene.” Reports stated that up to 200 were involved in the fighting.First of all, we did not go there to shop. After all Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year and frankly there are no special shopping destinations anymore. We live four blocks west of Jordan Creek Town Center in West Des Moines. Within a few miles of our house, we have about one of every store and restaurant chain t (albeit no IKEA). Additionally, the Internet has made it easy to have anything from anywhere delivered to your doorstep. We did go to MOA to watch people and have a break from our routine back home.
We checked into our hotel and decided to walk to the mall rather than wait for the shuttle. As we approached the main door on the south side of the mall, there were numerous empty bottles and cans that once contained alcohol. Next, we found a pile of vomit that had been walked through with tracks leading to and from the mall. About this time a wiff of stale tobacco smoke hit us like a dead skunk in a crawl space. The sides of the building were coated in a brown gooey nicotine residue. So while the mall itself is a non-smoking environment a ransom is required to enter.
The shoppers were out in full strength as evidenced by their full bags. However, there also was a large contingent of young people not shopping and had no obvious destination in mind. Typically when people walk through a crowded area there is a subconscious awareness of others and we move left or right, speed up or slow down as needed to allow an orderly flow. I think it is called “manners”. Not these kids. It was “in your face” attitude. They seemed to want to control the benches in certain areas and it finally occurred to me they felt they had turf to defend. I didn’t feel threatened but it just pissed me off that the lowest common dominator is given so much power.
Later we heard a noise from outside our hotel. We were on the sixth floor and looked down at a bunch of “kids” – about 15 of them, hanging out on the edge of the parking lot and along the main road south of the mall. Suddenly one of them bolted across eight lanes of traffic over the light rail train tracks and into one of the MOA parking structures. Two more from the group followed, or more accurately, chased the first one. The rest stayed by the road for another hour or so making a lot of noise for some unknown purpose. Then they went to the light rail station and that was the last we saw of them.
Then it clicked – light rail was the problem and it will take MOA down. Any jerk with a few coins can ride to the mall and cause trouble. Without the light rail the “barrier to entry” would be getting and keeping a job that generates enough cash flow to maintain a car. This also explains the abundance of out-of-state license plates at Jordan Creek Town Center – people just want to feel safe and vote with their wallets. Maybe the IKEA will move here too!
We did have a great weekend. We went to a tree lighting ceremony in St Paul’s Rice Park and saw a play at the Guthrie Theater. We just did not go back to MOA.