Comments on: South Park Mall (Summer Grove Baptist Church); Shreveport, Louisiana

By: Chuck

Chuck — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:36:43 +0000

Allow me to contribute my two cents regarding
Shreveport in general. Having attended Woodlawn
High School, 1982-1983 marked my senior year.
There was still a vibrant economy in Shreveport then but after 1983 the economy tanked very,
very rapidly. Personally, in 1981 at age 16 I started with a small restaurant chain that had 7 or eight stores throughout North Louisiana and worked my fingers to the bone for them. Promises of future
“part ownership” failed to materilize because the
owners would place relatives and long-time
outsider buddies into such positions. I left this chain of stores in 1987 and trying to make end meet with the very low wage often part time jobs that could be secured truly made for a long nightmarish chapter in my life. I have a photo album
taken in 1990 when I drove around town with a camera. It documents the vast number of service stations, restaurants, deaprtment stores, and strip malls that were literally boarded up with sheet plywood. In a nutshell there was zero opportunity.
I finally managed to get to college in Texas from 1992 to 1997 and today my wife and I are solidly
upper middle-class in the Dallas area. Today when we visit my last relative in Shreveport, my 97 year old grandmother, I am reminded of all the pain
and heartache endured in Shreveport during those years. Today despite some revitalization on Youree Drive and on the Riverfront, I still see Shreveport as a backward area. Unfortunately I now hear that GM will close its Shreveport plant and pull its 1200 jobs by 2012. More lost opportunit for Shreveport
young people.

By: LC Porter

LC Porter — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 04:24:42 +0000

Mr. C. Walker Jr., It’s troubling that you would comment that “all blacks are in gangs and poor” and that they are “gibberish-talking brown people” . That simply is not true. You sound like you are true racist and God don’t like ugly. I am a white female married to a black man with two beautiful, wonderful daughters and extremely proud of my girls and their accomplishments. I am exposed not only through my family with several different cultures but through my employment and can assure you that your comments are far, far from true. There may have been activities that led to the downfall of South Park Mall but be rest assured, it wasn’t from just blacks alone.

By: Jonah Norason

Jonah Norason — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 22:50:10 +0000

It’s puzzling why the church left the Burlington Coat Factory sign, still half-lit, inside the mall, complete with windows looking in! Why not just keep it a blank wall, and decorate it with maybe a mural or something?

By: Anne M.

Anne M. — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:03:59 +0000

I grew up in Shreveport and spent MANY an hour at South Park Mall with my kids–the good old days. I attended Sunset Acres Elementary, then Southern Hills Elementary, Oak Terrace JH and Woodlawn HS. Now I wouldn’t go near Sunset Acres/Oak Terrace/Woodlawn areas for they are high crime areas due to the lower income/drug/black saturation. I am not racist, but the facts are the facts. My parent’s first house and even my first house was in Sunset Acres. My parents even moved from Hyde Park because it was declining in the same respect.

I can add to why South Park Mall declined (including the rampant gang behavior of the young black people). The Shreveport PD didn’t ramp up their presence to protect the patrons and run off the negative forces like they should have and they still are lacking all over Shreveport. Bossier City, on the other hand, enforces the law and will not tolerate lawlessness. That is why I have lived in Bossier City for the past 13 years . I feel safe and it is because Bossier PD makes it clear that they will do everything to not allow Bossier City to take a powerless position like Shreveport has, pertaining to law enforcement. Go Bossier!!

By: Jackson

Jackson — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:27:22 +0000

Wow…. the floors, benches and plants are still the same. I miss South Park Mall. I graduated high school in ‘98 and lived about a mile from the mall, so countless hours were spent in that mall as a kid. I know that it’s not politically correct to say it, but the others who blame it on the blacks are correct. Everyone in this area, white or black, knows it. I’ve heard black people say it, too.

By: Pat

Pat — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:02:26 +0000

I’m glad to see that Summer Grove Baptist Church is getting a lot out of this former mall. They’ve done a lot of great work turning the mall into a tremendous chruch. I’ve also noticed that since the church took over, the crime rate in that area has dropped tremendously and it’s now safer than it was ten years ago. I know all the crime and the mall’s decline pretty much happened over night in the 1990s sometime. I know in the early 90s it was still in pretty good shape and the mall closed in 2003 I believe. I know drive-by shootings and things like that started taking place in the area and the shootings in the parking lot. When exactly did the crime start taking place and why wasn’t mall security increased when that was going on?

By: C. Walker Jr

C. Walker Jr — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 00:19:50 +0000

Yes. Darn those negroes. Alas, it’s just as well. A few years later those gibberish-talking brown people from May hee co would’ve done it in.

All blacks are in gangs and poor.

Noted.

By: anonymous2

anonymous2 — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 02:29:41 +0000

You are so right about the demise of South Park Mall due to thug activity. Tight security is what made Louisiana Boardwalk stand out as a good place to shop; we could take the kids there and it was like downtown Mayberry and I loved shopping again. The Youree corridor is such a hassle traffic-wise that I seldom shop there. I have heard that there have been challenges to Boardwalk’s security and that they will go downhill like South Park did if they don’t tighten back up. It is a shame that public places in general have become such a horrible place to have to go.

By: Jenkins McGraw

Jenkins McGraw — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:42:47 +0000

100% correct on the mall closing Anonymous. The news reported the troubles and danger at South Park Mall and word of mouth was rampant. Gangs of youg black people wandering the corridors, daring anyone to stop them.
I remember going to the Montgomery Wards store every year for school clothes shopping. I also remember caroling in the center court and working the Salvation Army angel tree in high school. Great memories of the mall and it is so sad that a certain population feels that the world owes them something and they can do whatever they want!

By: Shawn S.

Shawn S. — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:23:47 +0000

Replying to Anonymous’ post from July 9, 2008. : You are so right. Whether anyone wants to admit it or not. Those are the very core reasons why all malls fail eventually. Not just in the South either. You can replace black with lower income people in areas of the US that do not have a large black population. Its mostly class divide rather than racial divide. Even though the two often are interconnected. Middle and upper middle class want to be separate from lower middle and lower class. There are of course exceptions to this rule as there are exceptions to all rules. For the most part it is 90%+ true.