Hot take: the 'before' photos at Lakewood Mall are more interesting than the decay

Everyone goes crazy for the moldy carpets and smashed skylights at Lakewood in Ohio. But for me, the real story is in the food court from 2012, right before they locked the doors. I spent 3 hours there last month just looking at the menu boards with prices still up - $4.50 for a combo meal. That's a snapshot of the last normal day, not just another graffiti shot. Anyone else skip the rust and focus on the stuff that was actually still working when they walked away?

2 comments

2 Comments

king.stella25d ago

The Santa Rosa Plaza in California had a RadioShack that closed in 2015 with all the inventory still on the shelves, price tags and dusty boxes and everything. I walked through it a few years back and the register was still plugged in, like someone just walked off mid-shift. That frozen moment is way more telling than the broken tile floors in the hallway. The stuff left behind when people thought they'd come back tomorrow hits different than the stuff smashed up for photos.

hayes.jake25d ago

Read something similar about a dead mall in New Jersey, same thing. The fountain was still running when they shut it down, water just going in circles for nobody. There's something heavy about that. The stuff left on autopilot tells you more than the damage ever could.