Comments on: Carousel Mall; San Bernardino, California

By: Jonah Norason (Pseudo3D)

Jonah Norason (Pseudo3D) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:49:47 +0000

Umm…Metrocenter Mall was/is a real mall in Phoenix, Arizona with everything mentioned.

By: dylan

dylan — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:26:38 +0000

@Boogie Town,
What are there leasing rates

By: J. Thomas

J. Thomas — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:33:06 +0000

I lived in San Bernardino most of my life. as a kid running between our house ( my Parent’s & us kids), I remember when Inland Center was built. Then a number of years later the Central City Mall.
As a young man in High School, I really wasn’t thrilled when Central City opened.
I grew up going downtown to walk up & down “E Street” & go to the diffrent stors.
Woolworth had a small burger/soda shop in it bthat had honest to goodness “Cherry Cokes” with cherrys, cherry syrip in a large glass & then the coke from the fountain sprayyed on top of it. We had National Dollar store north of there abour half a block & half a block north of that was JC Penny.
Then the Mall came in & distroyed the fun of downtown.
Then a few years later the Gang problems hit downtown. At first the PD did a little to keep it under controll, but that ended quickly & nothing was being done. After all the Gangs had more rights to take over the city then the honest citizens had to enjoy downtown.
In so taking over downtown the mall was also taken over, larger stores left & so did the smaller ones.
So here San Bernardino is now known best by it’s frequent mentiones on TV shows like “COPS” what a thing to become famouse for

By: Highland-Rialto Native

Highland-Rialto Native — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:58:25 +0000

I grew up in the San Bernardino area and the Central City Mall was always the ugly step sister of the Inland Center Mall. But it has great bones and a pretty interesting distinguished pedigree. Downtown San Bernardino had been in decline since the 50’s as busnisses fled the downtown core for outlying areas, The mall is built right over third st. which was the retail street in SB. It basically replaced a dying downtown business district to begin with. Plans were drawn up in the 1960’s only to be beaten to the punch in 1967 by the Inland Center. The Inland Center from the start was always the “nicer” mall, it was closer to the freeway and easier to get to. Central City opened in 1972. It was designed by the firm of Victor Gruen and Associates, the firm that basically perfected and spread the mall throughout the country. In the late 1960’s they were concerned how their earlier projects isolated the shopping experience from the surrounding community and so by the time the central city mall came around they were trying to be sensitive (in a 1960’s sorta way) to the adjacent uses, so the central city mall incorporated 1920’s buildings and included a skywalk that connected to the new convention center/city hall/hotel site across E-Street. It was fairly sophisticated for a backwater like San Bernardino. But dispite these ambitious plans they always seemed to be a day late and a dollar short. To be fair though it was a fairly busy place until the department store consolidations of the 1990’s. While there were percieved safety issues that established its reputation as the seedy SB mall it didnt start to dry up until the anchors packed up. The bankruptcies of Montgomery Ward, and the merger and closure of Harris are what doomed this mall, not gang members or the inland center. Without anchor stores a mall will cease to be viable or thriving it is only through “mixed use” solutions like this that keep these places alive and open. Many areas had malls to serve multiple department stores, as the department stores have consolidated or faded from the scene they have taken the malls with them. The Carousel Mall facelift worked for a while, (hence the pink and pastel colors) but it simply could not survive without anchors, they should have put in a Wal-Mart in place of the Wards and that might have saved the pennys(which ended up moving to Redlands) but there really was too much redundancy in tenants between Carousel and Inland Center.
The architecture is great vintage 60’s though with those suspended clocks and wooden veneered beams, such a rich contrast to the pseudo victorian wrought iron post modern greenhouse malls so poular in the 80’s and 90’s.

By: Boogie Town

Boogie Town — Thu, 07 May 2009 19:30:30 +0000

Im moving my business which does very well online in to this mall… Great lease rates, and because people seek out my type of store I hope it will bring more business to the mall. I also have such good memories of that place from the past. I was manager or Jarman shoes, then Champs for awhile… I miss that place. Watch for Boogie Town in the main entrance.

By: Joe

Joe — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 03:23:20 +0000

I’m from the san gabriel valley and happened to be in the neighborhood today, so I popped in for a looksie. And man, I have to say, that might be one of the spookiest places I’ve visited in the last ten years. You’ve got this huge mall and it has maybe a dozen shops…maybe…and then office spaces along the perimeter? I even noticed that the San Bernardino City USD has an office in there. WTF? And everything is in pink and blue pastel and it’s empty. A ghost town, surrounded by an enormous empty parking lot. It actually depressed me, because you can see the desire to attract families and there’s practically no one. I haven’t seen anything like it.

Out of curiosity what’s it like living out there right now? Particularly for you other young people around high school age? I hear that the violence and racial tension puts L.A. to shame. Is it as bad as it sounds?

By: Dylan

Dylan — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 17:54:59 +0000

THE MALL IS NOT CLOSING DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: cindy rivera

cindy rivera — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:25:16 +0000

its a shame it will be torn down
im 18 & i grew up in these mall
i moved to a diff state an went back this summer
and its so empty and the caurasal isnt ever one
and so many shops out of buisness
i love this MALL
and the INLAND CENTER MALL is not great at all
its like one block sux ass
at least this mall at 2 floors
inland center u go up and u go down and in less then 3 minutes u seen it all
im gonna miss you MALL!!

By: Brent

Brent — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 09:22:29 +0000

Gee whiz I loved that mall. We used to ditch class and catch the Omnitrans bus across the street from San Gorgonio and we’d ride it to the Central City Mall and hang out all day. We’d go into the Carl’s Junior and order 1 thing and some cokes and we’d sit there refilling the cokes over and over, and then when that got old we’d maybe go see a movie or go watch that old guy play the piano. Once we started stage diving off of his little 8″ high stage and then we did a mosh pit (4 guys) right in front of his piano. I guess maybe it’s idiots like me who are responsible for the mall’s failure.

I remember we’d go there late at night on Fridays and Saturdays to go to movies because it was one of the only things in SB that kids could do late at night. First the knocked over the Pussycat Theater and Lier’s Music, now this. San Bernardino is dead to me.

By: Dylan

Dylan — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 20:27:59 +0000

I have contacted the mall and they are not closeing it down!!! They are just going to re furbish it.. LOL Nevermind this is your lucky day i am a detective and the San bernardino Police Dpt. is trasing what you said to yuor computer!! HAVE FUN IN JAIL