🚀 go-pugleaf

<sjohnson1010@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ac410029.0306051940.babca32@posting.google.com...
> Walnut Square Mall (Dalton).  I wonder how this mall is doing in a
> city that is largely Hispanic.

"Largely Hispanic"?  The longtime residents have fled the city and forgot to
get the flag on the way out.

It's my hometown, but I would never consider living there again.  It's
difficult to watch when your parents have saved and scrimped their whole
lives just to be able to afford to live decently in their retirement with no
mortgage (on top of having lived through the depression), and with a decent
new car that they can use for the rest of their lives.  Then, across the
street, where a $350,000 house sprang up (only to be moved out of by the new
owners at a loss from the rapid encroachment of Latinos into the
neighborhood), 5 families are living and splitting costs. (Whitfield County
supposedly has zoned areas where only one family is allowed to live per
dwelling.)  They drive current year model cars with permanent temp tags,
wear only new clothes, buy only the freshest meats and vegetables (no frozen
or canned stuff here) and procreate as if on a mission.  The homeowner of
record pays very little taxes while the others send American dollars back to
Mexico.  Our schools are being overrun with no tax dollars available for
expansion.  Our recreational areas are ruined from extremely high traffic,
with no funds for repair.  Cinco de Mayo and New Years are terrible places
to be outside our homes because of fear of stray gunfire and bullets
literally dropping from the sky.  Our mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters
are killed, maimed, and terrorized by drunk drivers high on tequila.

Oh, yeah.  Malls.  Walnut Square to be exact...

They were bought by Simon also.  It is still doing well, with Sears, JC
Penney, and Belks as anchors.  The vacancy percentage is never more than
10%.  I see many people there shopping, however many also go there as mall
walkers or to people watch.  I am one of the people watchers, and I see many
people walking around empty-handed.  Of course, this is not a good way to
judge, as I would see only those people who came in to browse and happened
to buy something, and browse some more with bags hanging in their fists.  I
wouldn't see those who came to expressly buy something and leave by one of
the store doors and not one of the mall doors.

Many of us who want different and/or higher quality items will go to Atlanta
(Phipps, Lenox) or Tennessee, to Hamilton Place (I have no idea why, with
outrageous 8+% TN sales tax!).

In Dalton, Walnut Square is not exactly thriving, but it's a good long-term
investment by Simon.  It's one of those 30-40 year investments that makes
more profit than expense over an extended period.  I wouldn't call it a
dead/dying mall...far from it.