Lately, I’ve been having trouble figuring out what day it is, and this heat wave has made me question what month of the year it is. The 90-degree days in mid-March have completely knocked any sense of time off the tracks.
Last weekend I was able to dodge the heat with a quick day trip to a beach in Santa Cruz—where I found one of our sister papers, Good Times, in a cute ice cream shop.
A weekend getaway isn’t always feasible, so I began to think about where I could escape the heat without having to do an hour drive.
I immediately thought of a cool sanctuary, but was reminded of its unfortunate fate as of late: NewPark Mall.
Growing up, NewPark Mall was like an oasis in the summer heat, a place where I had my first slice of independence as a pre-teen and the most convenient stop to find a last-minute outfit.
Now, it almost feels like breaking and entering when wandering around the seemingly abandoned mall. A few months ago, a friend of mine who was visiting from San Francisco wanted to go inside the mall. I told her the only store where she could do the shopping she wanted was probably H&M. But when we walked in, the first thing I saw was a completely empty storefront where H&M once stood.
In late February at a Newark City Council meeting, experts got together to brainstorm a plan on how to bring people back to the mall. It seems like this sort of meeting would have been more useful a few years ago when at least a few of the larger stores were still anchoring down the mall.
Although I’m happy that they’re finally giving the mall some attention, their solutions didn’t quite make sense to me. Among their suggestions were paths in the parking lot to help people feel safer to shop at the mall in the evening.
I think a path to get into the mall is the least of the issues when there are no stores in the mall for people to even want to go. It doesn’t seem like anyone’s reason for not going to NewPark Mall is because there are no designated walkways in the parking lot.
As third spaces are getting more difficult to come by in a world of working and shopping from home, a mall isn’t just a place to shop but a place where life can happen. Where meetups, first jobs and conversations can be had.
If we could save the mall, I think people in the Tri-Cities would be happy to come out of their shells, away from their screens and enjoy the life that a third space like the mall can create.
