Craig, I don't usually post comments on the neighborhood blogs. But there is a first time for everything.
Regarding the MegaMall and it's past history - one of the reasons that the new fire station was located just a bit north of the MegaMall - not on the MegaMall site itself - is that RPCAN mounted an extensive "Save the MegaMall" campaign....
RPCAN raised the banner of "maintaining economic diversity"..... apparently, at the time, this retail outlet provided much needed shopping opportunities not available elsewhere in Rogers Park to the poor and downtrodden consumer population.
Also, taking the MegaMall site for the fire station would have "displaced" the merchants (who were also poor and downtrodden) and their employees (who I imagine were relatives of the shopkeepers for the most part).
I suppose that there were also at the time, no suitable retail spaces for these merchants to relocate into (forget about all the vacant storefronts on Clark and Howard)....the MegaMall was the only place for them.
Of course, these negative economic repercussions would pass up the supply chain to the companies providing merchandise for these shoppes....(I will not comment on whether or not these shoppes were vendors for merchandise that had "fallen off the back of the truck".)
Downsizing this particular retail niche would have resulted in increased "gentrification" of Rogers Park and god forbid that should happen. RPCAN protects our diversity.
I have been a Rogers Park resident for over 30 years. I believe that Joe Moore would have happily seen the MegaMall close and happily put the fire station in that location. For one thing, the project would have been completed about 3 years sooner.
The MegaMall controversy really slowed down land acquisition for the fire station.
I think this is a fine example of Dog Bites Man. Joe's political supporters sometimes deliver unto him something that he did not anticipate. RPCAN members generally deliver a fair bit of political support (votes and manpower) to our Alderman, who by reputation supports our diversity. I believe this episode put a wedge between Joe and the RPCAN leadership.
I expect your would find discussion of this in the Lerner archives - and perhaps also Sandy Goldman would have recollection and some pithy remarks.........I believe he is familiar with RPCAN and its efforts.
Regards,
Lorraine Dostal
11 comments:
I say get rid of the megamall and try to get a wal-mart to build in this location. How many of you really shopped at that sad megamall? It was over priced junk. People only shopped at the MM because of the lack of affordable everyday goods around that area.
The outcry over closing the MM was from the Mega Mall suburban shop keepers who didn't want to lose their situation. They were organized by the owner of the Mall, with the help of RPCAN. The Mega Mall operation and it's merchant base were primarily suburban Korean businessmen, many/most selling illegal knockoff merchandise. They were not local residents. If anything the Mega Mall 'merchants' actually took business away from the mom & pop stores on Clark street. At the time, I surveyed the rents that were being paid for 'space' in the Mall and they were at or above what could have been paid for the empty store fronts that lined Howard Street. With a concerted effort by DevCorp and the Alderman it might have been possible to relocate those merchants who were truly interested in 'growing' their businesses and begin to start stabilizing the Howard/Paulina retail strips. Within a couple of months of the 'Supermercado', ( a very viable, locally owned business) site being bought by the City for the new Firehouse, the Mega Mall was shut down and placed on the R. E. market. It's been sitting vacant and shuttered ever since!
A very similar story played out with regard to the 'Pivot Point' building at Clark and Howard. After years of meetings and final decisions regarding the plan for the Gateway Center, RPCAN was brought in by the owners of the Pivot Point building and hair styling school, to protest demolition of the building and the "displacement" of the school and students (few, if any, were local). As soon as Moore caved and agreed to change the plan for Gateway, and allow the building to remain, the owners of Pivot Point relocated the school out of the area, emptied the building and placed it on the R.E.market. So much for concern and interest in the local situation and the 'little' guy. That's our 'progressive' Alderman at work!!
Walmart. Yeah. There's a good idea.
Please.
I went in the Mega Mall about 2 years ago having been in similar type markets before. I expected the type of stuff mcl mentioned, maybe some wacky items, or even some antiques. I was once in a flea market where one of the vendors sold real dentist's equipment, which I thought was kind of odd and cool, I imagined scraping the plaque off of my own teeth!
Anyway, the Mega Mall was approximately 75% vacant, there were like 2 other people walking around besides myself, not including the "vendors". All the merchandise I remember consisted of very poorly crafted children's toys, tons of synthetic fur throws with everything on them from tigers to religious figures and gym shoes in plastic bags instead of boxes, and you were not allowed to open the bags. There seemed to be absolutely no point to it's existence for either the vendors or consumers.
Yeah, Morelia was a loss, a great supermarket and deli. Rogers Park Fruit Market smells and doesn't compare. I believe Morelia has reopened in the strip mall at Western and Chase; I saw signs if anyone is interested. The furniture store there went out of business... hey wait a minute, now the supermercado is in the 50th WARD! Hmm...
Screw Walmart-put the new Wrigley Field there. The new owners of the Cubs would be all over it like been there at a free buffet.
I went to the Mega Mall too about two years ago. It was a weekend and there was only me and another customer besides the merchants. I remeber it being kind of dim without any good natural lighting. Merchants were in sectioned off space in an industrial-like environment. It was bunch of low quality items that were over-priced. A budget-conscious shopper would have shopped elsewhere. There were toys, clothing and shoes made of synthetic materials, and other wacky tchotchkes. Now that you mentioned it, I do remember seeing blazing tiger figure prints. There wasn't much benefits to the community and merchants from what I can see.
I too have been to flea markets that had professional dentist tools years ago. My sister bought the mirror wand for a good price. I bought professional steel hair cutting scissors for cheap.
I thought the Math and Science Academy were attempting to relocate into the Mega Mall space, which in my opinion would be a great improvement.
I only went in the place once, and finding there was nothing to buy but crap, never went back. I'm glad it's closed.
P.S. I have never once in my life stepped foot into a WalMart.
===P.S. I have never once in my life stepped foot into a WalMart.===
Oh, you don't know what you're missing. You can find all sorts of cheap crap that will fall apart in that place. Kinda like the old Mega Mall, but with friendlier workers in blue smocks.
Walmart has done a wonderful job of convincing folks that it's delivering bargains when what it really offers is cheap garbage in ugly, badly organized stores.
I hate these stores because Walmart is a spectacularly bad neighbor. If you get a Walmart store, it WILL be their standard blue and yellow oversized barn with the stupid smiley face and a parking lot the size of some small towns.
Then, three years or so after the taxpayers have funded the construction of the store with a TIF district or tax abatement- which Walmart won't build without- they'll hustle another tax-funded "gimme" off gullible local pols and build another, bigger barn a mile down the road and abandon the one they built on your dime.
Target and Best Buy will go with what the neighborhood wants. The Target store on Peterson Ave, easily accessible from this area vi a the 155 Devon bus (get off at Artesian and walk south 3 blocks to the backside of the Target store that fronts on Peterson), is an architectural jewel that fronts on the street, with concealed parking. The Best Buy store in Lincoln Park is scaled to the small scale of surrounding fine-grained retail and is on the ground floor of a mixed used building.
Given the rate at which big barn stores are failing, we needn't hope for any expansion of them into this neighborhood, and we really ought to consider if this is what we want. Retail analysts are predicting that 30% of all retail outlets will close in the next couple of years, and the suburbs and small towns are beginning to be blighted with shuttered shopping malls and big box power centers. There was too much redundancy in retail already, thanks in no small part to the willingness of municipalities to toss tax funded incentives at these places to get them to locate in their jurisdictions. Now these municipalities are blighted with oversized, empty buildings that are good for no other use.
If there's anything we don't need in this area, it's an empty, abandoned big box store, and we REALLY don't need another TIF to divert our tax dollars from lifeline services to the coffers of Walmart, Target, and the rest.
Is an empty, abandoned big box store that much more of an eyesore than the many empty, abandoned former "neighborhood grocery stores", hair saloons, African restaurants, athletic shoe stores, Megamalls, fast food establishments, etc. that already litter Rogers Park? Stop acting like this is an urban Walden Pond. I'm not a Walmart shopper/supporter, but I highly doubt that they're scouting Rogers Park for locations. With few exceptions (shout out to Charmer's Cafe), Rogers Park is where businesses come to die...
In the current market I can't imagine what you would put in the Old MegaMall location. The only thing that comes to mind is a rec center but Pottawatomie Park isn't far up the road.
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