I grew up in total greater Cincinnati suburbia, in a neighborhood that consisted of two cul-de-sacs and about 50 houses, all built in the late 70′s – early 80′s. It was nice because there were woods and farms and the random older house that still had a few acres around it that really made us feel like we lived in the country. Now of course every last bit of that is gone, with cookie cutter subdivisions wherever you look.

The Beechmont Mall was where my friends and I all used to hang out, and it was so pathetic that it didn’t even have a Benetton. Anyway, a few years ago they tore down the mall except for the Macy’s (formerly Lazarus, formerly Rike’s formerly Shillito-Rikes formerly Shillito’s in my lifetime) and made one of those malls that is supposed to have that small-town-square feeling. Yeah great, except all it did was reconfigure the parking lot so that the small town part is asphalt full of cars. Isn’t it ironic that malls as we know them started as strip malls that became enclosed, and now we are tearing them down to make them not enclosed anymore? Where do the mallwalkers go? Certainly not, heaven forbid, OUTSIDE! Anyway, I went back to visit a few days ago, and I noticed that at the center of this thing is this hideous clock tower that looks like it’s made out of the some leftover old Butler building materials. I guess with all of Cincinnati’s German heritage, they were going for a glockenspiel effect:

Note that wonderfully quaint old small town building on the right. It looks like a freakin’ Paramount movie stage. This is seriously the most tragic thing I’ve seen in a long time, and I just had to share.