Whither Kerr Drug, University Mall?

After I expressed my appreciation for the efforts to make University Mall more than "just a Mall," I learned that Ed Camp - the mall's manager, who's been responsible for all that - has been named General Manager of the Carrboro Arts Center.  As the press release says "Camp and his team were instrumental in changing the face of the mall to a community mall."Haven't heard anything about plans for Camp's successor, let alone whether there's sentiment for continuing efforts toward making it a "community mall." My original question stands, and the crystal ball is murkier still.

"I have trouble thinking of a shopping center as a gathering place."In the last few decades, that's pretty much what malls have become - replacing town centers as gathering places, particularly for teens and young adults - often to the detriment of more traditional "downtowns."  Most mall developers have tried to build on that trend, and "Streets at Southpoint" is a perfect example.  Some malls, in fact, have becme too much a "gathering" place for some more questionable activities, requiring beefed up security or even closing malls whose economic life has been gutted by intimidating "gatherings."   Perhaps what you're saying, Cat, is that you have trouble thinking of this particular mall as a community gathering place -- and I admit much of the time I'm there, except for Christmas and certain "sidewalk" events, it's often a little too deserted to feel all that communal.  Still, I enjoyed "Scrap-ple Hill" and hoped to see something else built on the same idea.  Similarly, the ping-pong drop sounds like it was a great event, as were the visits from fire-trucks and other sorts of big vehicles,  etc. The parking lot has certainly served a number of "communal" purposes, including tail-gating; the trick is to bring the public inside.   (Things certainly seems dependent, however, on adequate publicity and promotion, which brings us to the status of local papers and broadcast media, which is another blog.)

An employee at Kerr confirmed to me that they are leaving involuntarily.  The owners refused to renew the lease, period.  Can't imagine that Rose's won't be next when their lease comes up for renewal.  I still think it's short-sighted.  I believe the Mall management underestimates the value and volume of the foot traffic brought in by Kerr Drugs and overestimates the draw of the upscale boutique-ish places as stand-alone destinations.

Hadn't been to University Mall since December, but had reason to go to Dillard's this morning.  Of course Kerr is gone. Waldenbooks is gone.  The toy/craft store next to Cameron's is gone.  There's another empty space across the way, and one of the ?gift? shops appears to have been replaced by an upscale furniture/accessories store. I'm sure there are other changes I missed on my quick errand.I can't imagine Rose's surviving this trend (even if, or maybe because, it is owned by a Rove-style capitalist:  ;-) J.P.). I'm long since old enough to grumble about change, and maybe switching to a homogenous array of upscale stores would have made sense while we partied like it was 2006.  But now I'm wondering if the "honest" thing to do would be to make a mini-me mall out of the K&W, Rose's, and the refugee proletarian stores on the "po' side" of the mall lot  - call it 1955 Redux or some such.  I will say that the mall seemed like a very well-appointed ghost town, even for a Monday morning.