Garret Byrnes can bunnyhop

I remember the angled roof gap photo of him, thinking, "No fucking way!"  That was Garret, wasn't it?

Rabbit Hole #1

More stats on Mallpocalypse from March 2017

I'm always a bit leery of videos that use electronic voices, unless maybe it's Stephen Hawking.  In any case, here's a look at our current wave of store closures in the U.S. and the horrific outlook for most American malls.  Electronics retailer HH Gregg filed for bankruptcy on March 6 and announced the closings of 88 stores.  They plan to keep the other stores open. 

The theme in all these store closures is that traditional bricks and mortar retailers have been struggling for a variety of reasons.  Some have gone out of business, and several major stores are closing dozens of locations and trying to keep their businesses going.  This is happening at a time when the stock market is near all times highs.  What happens to all these retailers if we topple into a pretty good-sized recession? 

This report says about 1/3 of malls are expected to close within about five years, and another 300 or so will probably keep struggling.  I'm 50 years old, and I've never seen anything like this in my lifetime.  This is a big deal that the mainstream media seems to be shying away from for now.  It appears this issue is going to simmer under most people's radar, but it shows no signs of going away right now.  Things are getting more and more dicey.

Another recent Tv spot about closing stores and dying malls

Here's a clip from Michigan about local Sears stores closing, and the continuing pressure on malls as brick and mortar stores close. 

Empty Rhode Island mall turned into micro apartments

This clip goes back to 2013, but it shows another good use of America's oldest mall.  The second and third floors of this small mall were brought back to life as micro-apartments.  This is one of many things we could do with  some of today's abandoned malls and other buildings. 

Bonds tied to shopping malls could be the next Big Short

Any other economy geeks out there?  If that horribly boring title means anything to you, here's the article.   

Apparently the writer of the article hasn't looked at the student loan SLAB's very closely.  

Would you buy a mall for $100?

THIS MALL SOLD FOR $100 AT AUCTION.  REALLY.

Should you buy one? What would you do with a whole shopping mall?  Do you think there's a way to make a mall worth going to again? The more I look into this issue, the more I see that there are dead malls all over, and a lot more dying out with the rash of retail store closings this year.

OK, Pittsburgh Mills Mall sold for $100 at the bankruptcy auction in January to Wells Fargo, who is owed $143 million in back payments on the mall.  So now the bank is sitting on a million square foot mall running at 55% occupancy.  The J.C. Penney anchor store IS NOT one of the 138 Penney's scheduled to close this year, so that's good for the mall.

Will Wells Fargo get their $143 million back from this mall?  I guess time will tell.

The Concrete Monster: DIY Skate Spot in Vienna

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum from the last post, here's The Concrete Monster in a Vienna cellar.  In that last post, we learned that turning old R.J. Reynolds cigarette factory in Winston-Salem, NC into the Wake Forest Biotech place took 20-some years and $350 million.  This DIY (Do It Youself) skate spot took Philippe Schuster and a handful of friends two months of hard work.  It started with an idea that morphed into a plan.  As they say, there was no initial budget, no focus groups, no city council meetings, no permits.  Just a bunch of guys with shovels and determination. 

The term "DIY" started getting thrown around a lot in the late 70's and early 80's punk rock scene.  Nobody wanted the punkers to play in their clubs, so they found their own places to play.  No one wanted to make their records, so they learned how to record and make records on their own.  No magazines wanted to cover their scenes, so they self-published Xerox zines to cover their own scene. 

But as the old skater explains, skateboarding was a Do It Yourself thing from the start.  The first skateboards were old boards with roller skate wheels nailed on, hand made by Southern California surfers in the late 1950's.  "Sidewalk surfing" was something to do while the waves were flat.  Within a few years, sidewalk surfing evolved into its own thing, skateboarding.  There has been a DIY ethic in skating, and all the action sports, since the beginning. 

This project is a great example of what a handful of friends on a mission can do with an unused space in an old building, an a lot of sweat and determination.  I love this video, brought to you, of course, by Red Bull, who's been backing weirdness since the 90's.