Have you been reading about Tallahassee Mall?
It's a loaded question. I do mean the Tallahassee Democrat coverage, of course. I have spent a lot of time the past week reading about the mall online, in Zing! and in our letters to the editor.
Many of the articles we print get a great deal of attention and discussion, but it seems the departure of Dillard's and a proposed $47 million effort to refurbish the mall is getting more than most. As a person who has spoken to the principals in the case, I can give my perspectives.
First, there has been a divide between those who have responded in the Democrat's online forums (mostly opposed to the idea of using public assistance to revitalize Tallahassee Mall) and other forums and blogs, where the discussion is the reverse.
Now would be the time for a disclaimer of sorts. I like Tallahassee Mall. It is most frequently my mall of choice, all things being equal. That may be because it is closer to my house than others. I have noted about myself that I fall into shopping patterns, tending to go where I know things are and can find them easily. Others I know view shopping as the Great Hunt. These people know no boundaries. They'll shop anywhere.
As a Tallahassee Mall shopper, I also see that there is room for improvement. Traffic patterns around the mall are horribly inconvenient with dead-end lanes taking you where you don't necessarily want to go. It really takes drivers who know what they're doing and where they're going to navigate to the right spot and home again. I agree with mall management, the mall's next generation must include traffic improvements.
I have been most interested in people's reactions to the idea of using public funds for the mall. I recall one reader in Zing! last week asked government for money to refurbish his or her house. A letter to the editor decries using public money because the mall causes urban sprawl and cuts down trees "turning our pretty, canopies town into a giant, blaring strip mall."
My perspective is a bit different. At my house, I don't attract the traffic that keeps dozens of businesses thriving, nor do I pay $1.2 million in property taxes every year or collect more than $6 million in sales tax annually. And although I love our letter writers, I must point out that the antidote to clear cutting trees for retail space is to maximize our current resources, including Tallahassee Mall. The disaster would be to replace a million square feet rather than recycle it.
We are many steps away from a decision about what we as a community will do, if anything, in support of Feldman Mall Properties and Tallahassee Mall. But as we move toward a strategy that could impact the Monroe Street corridor from Tennessee Street to Lake Jackson, as County Commissioner Bryan Desloge said Monday, the most important thing is for us to keep talking about it seriously.
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