9/12/16 Barton Mall Is Turning To Shit?

    I hate to say it, but Barton Mall is going to start circling the drain and its recovery may be a hard one.  There are too many people first of all in this city now, and no new malls to  head to.  Lakeline Mall is newer but it is pretty far and not even as big as Barton.  Northcross Mall is long gone, a Walmart replaced it, but it was tiny and centered around an ice rink.  The one mall we didn't know we needed to continue existing was Highland Mall which was more centered in town and honestly, kept the riff raff out of the way.
    I hate to sound racist, as I am not, but the last time we tried going to Highland Mall it was uncomfortable.  There were black kids everywhere, just leaning against the safety rails, taking up space in the food court without eating, and running around from one group of friends to another.  There was also the high energy of unnecessarily yelling indoors, of guys trying to get girls attention.  This might have been five to seven years ago, I told Wife, well, we don't need to come here anymore.  This mall is becoming 50% shoe stores anyway, how many varieties of Jordan's does one kid need, anyway?
    Highland Mall is now associated with higher learning, as ACC took over the property, so where is a young person without much money and a bus pass going to find refuge from the heat?  Yup, Barton Mall, and this after all their efforts to gentrify it by bringing in Nordstrom's a couple years ago.  They were doing a fine job, that whole arm is now packed with stores too expensive for our fat asses, other than the candles at Bath & Body Works. 
    I have been going to that mall since I arrived to Austin in 1991, it has always been a good mall for us.  Whether we need clothes for the boys, Dillard's, Macy's, Buckle, A&F, maybe a shirt from Nordstrom's, now and then, or AE, or even Old Navy.  I've bought refrigerators, microwaves, washers, dryers, at Sears.  Not to mention all the jewelry and junk at Spencer's (1 of my favorite stores), and other fun stores.  I have been a good solid customer to that place.
    It has begun, I told Wife about six months ago.  Barton was predominantly upper middle class, rarely did I ever notice groups of kids walking around, but there they are now.  Just about every weekend.  Yesterday was just obnoxious, I kept wondering where the security people were at.  Groups of young black kids taking over sections of seating areas in the food court yelling at girls on the other side of the food court, then different girls taking off running like they were at the 100 meter relays, what the fuck!  I don't need that kind of uncomfortable shit going down.  There is the skanky wear some of these girls insist on wearing, saw one young mama with the side of her blouse so open, there should have been an undershirt, you could see the boob bouncing around as she walked.  That I don't mind seeing, but it is the mall at 4:00pm, not Sixth Street at 2:00am.  I'll probably just end up doing what other smart people are doing, and that is shopping online.