╨╧рб▒с>■  ')■   &                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                ье┴7 Ё┐bjbjUU "7|7|       lиииииии╝ $ ╝g╢<<<<<<<<цшшшшшш$ = z и<<<<< иии<<!иии< и<и<ци<ци>ицииц<0 `Щ+С╔─╝\F цц70gц╖ PX╖ ци╝╝ииии┘As I drive to work everyday on I-240 south lately, I have been watching the slow destruction of the once, proud Mall of Memphis. The demolition has now made the mall totally unrecognizable from its original, sparkling beauty. I have been to many cities and can not ever remember seeing or reading about the destruction of a huge, shopping area that was less than 20 years old when it stopped functioning. We are talking about a site on one of the main interstates going through the US that is heavily traveled everyday. The tax revenue loss alone is staggering! What about the jobs in the Mall, distribution jobs getting products to the Mall, the other businesses around the mall that did well when the Mall was doing well, etc., etc. What happened? WhatТs the problem? How can this be stopped from happening again? Does City Hall, the Chamber, Memphis VisitorТs Bureau, whoever, even care?! You, as a taxpayer, should care. If this lackadaisical attitude continues, Hickory Hill and other shopping areas will be next in line. Southaven will soon join in with bigger shopping venues that will continue to cripple Whitehaven. The City and County want to jack up your taxes and meanwhile they turn their back on revenue producing venues. The Pyramid, Coliseum (again, tell me why the River Kings and the indoor Football league are not playing in either facilityЕthey do have УMemphisФ in their names), Fairgrounds, and countless businesses closed in Memphis, have all suffered in large part to total indifference by the so-called city and county leaders. There is little or no vision in turning privately owned and publicly owned facilities into community shopping and entertainment venues. No extra dime of tax should be collected until these issues are addressed and it can be determined if revenue can be derived from restarting a currently, dormant facility. But, back to the Mall of Memphis. I have been in another city where the Mall closed down on Saturday at 7:00 PM. Can you imagine?? Can you imagine why? УParentsФ, and I use the term lightly, were dropping off their children and the mall became a huge, day/night care center for these roaming, hordes. They were disruptive, rude and, in some cases, criminal. So, when you canТt control the brats or the УparentsФ, you do the next best thing. Lock down the facility and keep tax paying, good behaving citizens out. Where is the logic in that? The Mall of Memphis suffered from one murder but the day care center stigma was the bigger problem. Hordes of unsupervised УchildrenФ roamed this mall as well and no one did a thing about it. The City of Memphis, Mall ownership and store ownership should have all worked harder in providing a pleasant, shopping experience for everyone. The main point though is it is up to the suspect УparentsФ to raise their children better and when they are out in public to act with respect to their elders. They do not need to drop off their children totally unsupervised so that they can go party or whatever. If they canТt or wonТt do this, then stay at home and shop online.  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