Longtime readers may have noticed that the site recently had a major technical issue, where all comments on all stories–a huge share of our overall content and part of the reason people come here to begin with–had disappeared completely. They were never deleted, but there was a serious issue with the database where comments weren’t being called to display, and we had to have someone help us repair it. An unfortunate reality is that maintaining this site sometimes means we need skills that we don’t possess ourselves, so we had to find some outside help. The past couple years have been much worse in this regard, with some significant spam attacks.
Everything should now be functioning as normal, and we’re sorry it took so long to repair. We have a new post or two coming for you this week as thanks for being so patient!
Also, there may still be some weirdness working its way through the system (like the right sidebar issue). We’ll clean that up as we find it.
@Caldor, Sorry about what happend, there were some articles I saw over the past few weeks I wanted to post, but wasn’t able to do so. Glad to see the site is getting back to normal, since I use this site as a research portal for both work & personal enjoyment.
Thanks for all the great work you & Prangeway put in here, the quality really shows.
Please keep this site going! This is a unique place, it’s not just about dead malls but celebrates retail history in general.
So if the comments are back, I’m going to make a comment now 🙂
I love visiting here. I never want to see this page end. I am glad it is continuing. this site already has quite a significant amount of information and it can only get better from here 🙂
So that’s what happened, I was like WTF? Thank God the site is still up and everything is back to normal, it’s in my favourites!!!!!
I would like to contribute sometime. Being in socal we do have some dead malls unique malls and plain old malls.
@jeff, we do actually have photos of every existing mall in southern california and a few of the dead ones, so even if they haven’t been posted yet they may appear, someday…
Glad to have things back to normal. Always sucks when a server or some database code decides to hiccup.
I need to contribute more entries at some point. Life gets in the way. With a lot of the smaller enclosed malls basically being weeded out in my neck of the country, it’s high time they get documented properly. Rather than separate articles on them though (since most were just small regional affairs), probably a city / regional profile like what you and PrangeWay have done in the past would work better in those instances.
Ah, but we do have our share of big ones too that have fallen, though they were mostly in the Milwaukee metro area. Between here, Deadmalls-dot-com and Mall Hall of Fame though, pretty much all the big names that have fallen in that city have been covered already (Grand Ave, Capitol Court, Southgate, Northridge, Mayfair, etc). All that’s left are the ones that are still around and thriving, or are (in the case of Southridge) being given a full-blown renovation (its last being about 20 years ago with its then-new food court) to breathe some new life into an otherwise stagnant property. Also a new mall getting developed between Brookfield and Waukesha to be anchored by Wisconsin’s first Von Maur, is beginning development and will open by sometime in 2013.
Exciting things sure are happening on the retail side up here, that’s for sure. Just don’t want the past to be left in the dust.
I love this site and am so glad you have not gone anywhere.
Good! I though this site wasn’t compatable with my computer.
Hi, thx for the update. Did the problem pertain to my rec’g an email from labescar.com and then when I went to follow up a screen came up saying, “oops, the door you were trying to open” is not here?
In any event glad that things are hopefully squared away – technology and systems intergrations are a beast to keep in order. Like to read about all this past history, etc. Where I live now (Montgomery Cty, MD) there was an affluent shopping mall, rather unique – it was smaller than most typical malls but it is scheduled to be demolished (called White Flint) in order to update to the supposedly pedestrian community. Feel bad because it’s still in good shape (35 yrs. old) they’ve maintained it and quite a number of senior walkers take advantage of the enclosed building. Nevertheless, it’s progress – the owner of the property will get much more bang for their buck w/ mixed residential, business, retail and restaurants. You’ll have a much more dense area
w/ parking meters of course and hopefully inclement weather won’t deter people from visiting. IMHO, I prefer the protection of the enclosed shopping experience. Whateva…if you can’t be part of the future then you gotta get outta the way – that’s what the John Mellencamp song says and it certainly appears that’s the way it is! Cheers!
I just found this site a few days ago and was wondering about the seemingly-missing comments. After ruling out improper webpage design by trying it in a few different browsers, I assumed it was just a problem on the server end that would eventually be fixed. Good to see things working now. 🙂
Great site. A celebration of everything retail. Especially love the history and personal memories.
Some of the most interesting contributions come from your visitors.Thanks for the email and glad you’re still around.
Phew! I was like damnit! I love this site and have spent countless hours reading articles and comments. I got sad. I tried everything under the sun. 3 diff browsers, checking the settings. I’d hate to see this site go.