Lights aren't on, it's all skylight. Power was shut off a few years ago when the maintenance guy was electrocuted to death trying to keep the power on.
The property was purchased by a Chinese investor and has been in and out of legal battles surrounding its development. Recently, security lapsed and it was completely vandalized and now likely impossible to turn into anything else.
I walked in because I could see it was easy enough to do so so I thought I'd give myself a little guided tour of my (46M) childhood. Ironically, ran into the Chinese owner who joked around a bit about the state of the place and told me to take anything I wanted.
Edit: guess I shouldn't be surprised that Reddit loves the mix of nostalgia, criminal activity, social commentary and dick graffiti that is an abandoned mall. Thanks for the interest. As your reward, here are more pics from my trip..
Edit 2: 1st.. typing Northridge Mall in YT will give you loads of videos from the explorers to the snowboarder, to the airsoft to the mini docs. Do this if you want to learn more.
2nd.. People really miss malls and people really hate malls. There's certainly a economics thesis to be written about how they changed the existing retail economy and how they've been changed since, but I think most who loved them and missed them are talking about the social effect they had. They were incredibly potent social hubs. I'd argue as many people went specifically to buy things as they did just to feed off of the social energy. If you're too young, you don't know just how awesome and positive that energy was for a kid. You can't overstate how big of a part they played in social exposure. More than the "mom and pop shops" before and certainly more than Amazon. In this way it's sad there's nothing like them anymore.
nathanimal_d on October 31st, 2021 at 18:30 UTC »
This is Northridge in Brown Deer, WI.
Lights aren't on, it's all skylight. Power was shut off a few years ago when the maintenance guy was electrocuted to death trying to keep the power on.
The property was purchased by a Chinese investor and has been in and out of legal battles surrounding its development. Recently, security lapsed and it was completely vandalized and now likely impossible to turn into anything else.
I walked in because I could see it was easy enough to do so so I thought I'd give myself a little guided tour of my (46M) childhood. Ironically, ran into the Chinese owner who joked around a bit about the state of the place and told me to take anything I wanted.
Edit: guess I shouldn't be surprised that Reddit loves the mix of nostalgia, criminal activity, social commentary and dick graffiti that is an abandoned mall. Thanks for the interest. As your reward, here are more pics from my trip..
https://imgur.com/gallery/C95PPFe
Edit 2: 1st.. typing Northridge Mall in YT will give you loads of videos from the explorers to the snowboarder, to the airsoft to the mini docs. Do this if you want to learn more.
2nd.. People really miss malls and people really hate malls. There's certainly a economics thesis to be written about how they changed the existing retail economy and how they've been changed since, but I think most who loved them and missed them are talking about the social effect they had. They were incredibly potent social hubs. I'd argue as many people went specifically to buy things as they did just to feed off of the social energy. If you're too young, you don't know just how awesome and positive that energy was for a kid. You can't overstate how big of a part they played in social exposure. More than the "mom and pop shops" before and certainly more than Amazon. In this way it's sad there's nothing like them anymore.
3rd.. People really value pallet jacks
Assidental1 on October 31st, 2021 at 18:47 UTC »
Reminds me of the mall used (loosely) in Stranger Things season 3
Camman1 on October 31st, 2021 at 22:28 UTC »
Will Power is an idiot for writing his name on the escalator