Eastview Mall – DragonFlyEye.Net

Whoa. Puff, puff, puff.

I’ve been working on my news feed this morning, and there’s enough news for the day that I almost won’t need to fill up the feed with anything new for a while. But here’s a few stories I’m watching right now:

Sad news for all those poor suckers who got taken in by the Gen-See Capital Corporation. They won’t probably be getting any money back, and if they do, it won’t be for years.
the D&C is reporting this morning that Wilmot owes the city $18 million that the mayor says they will need to find “options” to recoup. Sounds like a lawsuit to me. And here they are, also asking for money to renovate East View Mall. Ain’t that some shit?
Double-banger, here. While the stimulus package reaches a whopping $850 billion dollars, a recent WSJ/CBS poll shows huge, unprecedented support for both President Elect Obama and the stimulus package which has grown so gargantuan. Hey, maybe this president will actually ask us to ante up and kick in this time, instead of telling us to go shopping like on 9/11.
And just because I think it’s interesting, it seems that the recession is starting to hit the fine dining establishments of New York and Chicago. I find this interesting in particular because I suspect this wouldn’t have been the case twenty years ago. My suspicion is that The Food Network and Bravo have created a new “foodie” culture of middle-class food enthusiasts who now make up more of the customer base of such restaurants than they ever have in the past.

Of course, it’s being reported everywhere, but I thought this blog aught to make mention of the new plans for Eastview Mall: 57 million dollars in renovations and “more shopping attractions,” which I guess means paying high-end companies to move here? I don’t know. So, could this mean Rochester’s first Nordstrom’s?

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this plan. Eastview is definitely the mall in town best positioned for more expansion, being that they occupy a lot of land currently sitting vacant and get a lot of business. But I worry about the environmental impact (I’m sure there must have been an environmental impact study done, but perhaps that’s in the future). Eastview sits astride some wetlands – at least partially as a result of the previous expansion – which are bearing fruit in the form of migratory birds and presumably fish, since I’ve seen a few blue heron down there.

I also wonder if now is the right time for them to be investing so heavily in more high-end retailers when I suspect the more likely retail bloom will be in the Walmart and Aldi’s category? All projects eventually reach their Peter Principle, I don’t think that the midst of a serious recession is the optimal time to find oneself staring down the barrel of their own incompetence.

Late Update: Rachel Barnhart of 13WHAM points out in her Twitter that there are in fact very few details as to how the money will be used. That makes my concerns about the environmental impact much less relevant that I first thought.