Abundance at the Mall (but not the kind you expect)

Today I was at the mall a few miles from our house, returning things (I get so much satisfaction from returning things; it's almost perverse). It's not the biggest mall in our smallish city, and when we first moved to the area, I found it depressing, because it seemed like a lot of stores had recently closed, and I couldn't imagine/believe that we had managed to move to a city that was more forlorn than Cleveland. The economy was going down the tubes, and what is sadder than an empty mall? Plus, there was a branch of the library at the mall, which depressed me even further. Shouldn't the library be in a grand old building in the town center? Apparently we had moved to a city with no soul, or, at least, no town center.

But little by little, over the past 3+ years, a whole wing of the mall has become something new. As I walked along today, I realized most of the spaces are now occupied, and lots of them seemed quite busy. Here is a partial list:

• Niki's Party Place: bounce houses
• Black Mamba (indoor) Skate Park: today they were having girls' beginning roller derby, as well as skateboarding and scootering
• Buff Body Works: kickboxing
• Central NY Chapter NRHS: huge model railroad display
• CNY Boxing
• CNY Triathalon
• CORE Fitness
• Home Run Softball: people were actually in there batting
• Pools Brook Driving: golf
• Rhythms of Syracuse: after school music lessons
• Salt City Improv Theatre: classes and $5 performances
• Syracuse Kung Fu
• Syracuse Martial Arts Academy
• Syracuse Musketeer's Fencing
• Syracuse Project 4 Our Teens (The SPOT)
• CNY Gym Center: huge gymnastics place
• Branch's driving school: cars; not golf
• CNY Artists.com

These are in addition to a children's play area, the library, and a movie theater. The mall has really become a busy place, with people taking classes, bringing their kids to classes, walking the mall, meeting people at Dunkin' Donuts, etc. I love how the mall now feels like a town center, and since it's Syracuse, its being indoors probably isn't a bad thing. It turns out the town does have a soul, it just happens to be at the mall.

The mall took an economic difficulty and turned it into something that makes me feel rich: so much to do so close to home, all in one place. Talk about turning austerity into abundance.