Dixie Square Mall to be Razed
For more than 30 years, Dixie Square Mall in Harvey has sat vacant and decaying -- a symbol of despair and loss of jobs and retail in the south suburbs.
But in two months, officials will begin demolishing the building and preparing it for a new life, said Gov. Pat Quinn. Today, Quinn announced a $4 million federal grant for what officials claim will be the first step toward revitalizing that area.
We knew it had been closed when Hollywood used it for filming, but we figured it had been torn down in the intervening decades. Nice to see $4 million appear just when Quinn is needing a boost in the polls
Labels: we got nothing
posted by SCC at 12:35 AM
51 Comments:
I read the article and the money came from flood relief in 2008. Smells like a mis-appropriation of funds in progress to me.
Do you think it would be possible that they might let someone go there and drive a car through it before it's torn down?
Just for fun?
Because if I can sign some sort of liability release waiver and go buy a shitty $800 Ford Escort off Craigslist to tear up, I'm totally, totally there.
$4 million just gets it flattened -- "There are no concrete, funded plans to redevelop the site." I see a lot of newly-built small strip malls and the like standing with the landscaping and wiring stopped in midair and all eight new stores vacant and "FOR LEASE."
This? This'll make a hell of a vacant lot.
Don't stop at the mall, finish off Harvey too.
Well like New Oldsmobiles Dixie Square Mall will soon be a memory.
Sort of like J Fed now that I think about it.
And Daley part Deux.
I remember the golf course that it was built upon....sneaking onto the course to grab golf balls.
Sledding down the huge piles of dirt covered with snow from the construction.
The newness of it all, the tropical fish section in Montgomery Wards. The center piece in the mall by Woolworths where the glycerin flowed down the floor to ceiling wires in a circle.
The brand new Jewel food store that was bigger than anything, and had everything!
The cool feeling of spending the day inside while shopping and finding anything and everything you needed.
The town of Harvey before it turned into a shithole.
Memories.
"Nice to see $4 million appear just when Quinn is needing a boost in the polls"
Yeah, it only took thirty years!
OT: FOP reached the minimum number of retirees who took advantage of the 55 and out for 2011. The number was 100, so we know we have at least that amount leaving, but who knows how many more. FOP never tells us, maybe 120, 150, or 200. Manpower shortage not going to get better anytime soon, with the City not giving a new test and the last list completely exhausted. Their might be 40 or so on appeal that would probably have their own recruit class. But after that, no one is in the pipeline to get hired! Makes no sense! At least give a test and have people 'ready to hire' when the new budget comes out or when
money starts coming in. This City never plans ahead!
Baby clothes...
This place has got everything.
Disco pants and haircuts.
Yea, lots of space in this mall.
More little handouts in the eleventh hour to make it look like Quinn is on top of things.
He had almost two years to show what he could do. The vote coming up in November is a vote that asks the question - Is this guy who you want in office the next 4 years?
Sorry but my vote is NEXT!! Let's see what Brady can do.
it is home to packs of wild dogs!
jake and elwood blues already got half the job done--- we're on a mission from god.....
Tons of video footage of it's deterioration on Youtube.
Vague memories of my family shopping there in the 70's. Was just old enough to be sad when it closed down, and how wierd it was seeing it used on the big screen.
Didn't see it again until outdoor range training in 06.
Couldn't believe it's still there almost 30 years later.
If only they could do that to 111rd/Kedzie...
Dixie Square Mall is in JJ Jr's district. Quinn is paying him back for his support.
Harvey is a pit of corruption. The murder of a police officer went unsolved for two years due to obstruction from a Harvey officer.
For more than two years, the fatal shooting of Thomas Cook, a police officer for Metra, had remained a mystery, but today authorities charged one of two suspects and alleged that Cook was killed for his gun.
Jeremy Lloyd, 20, of Gary acted as a lookout while an accomplice shot the officer in the back of the head at point-blank range and stole his service weapon, authorities alleged. Lloyd was ordered held without bail on three counts of murder. Authorities gave no explanation for why the alleged gunman was not charged today.
Yes, and Quinn gave harvey 4 mill that was intended for Federal flood disaster relief, not for tearing down shopping malls. Quinn is becoming one of the worst pandering governors that Illinois has seen in some time.
Just asking, but since when is tearing down a derelict shopping mall a FEDERAL responsibility?
Anonymous said...
"I remember the golf course that it was built upon....sneaking onto the course to grab golf balls..."
Stop it now, asshole.
Makes me think about buying clothes @ Chess King on the lower level of Ford City.
Makes me think about all the good times and good people I met / knew / hung out with on the Southwest side.
All gone now. Just like our innocence. And our kids' innocence, too.
"You got us into this Motorhead...You get us out ! "You want out ??? "Okay" (start the music) and laughs!
Wow. So they're finally going to raze the place. I remember going there when I was kid with my grandmother and parents. I was actually out there the night they filmed the famous mall scene chase. My grandmother lived behind the mall. When we saw all the lights on we thought the place had re-opened. What I fine strange is that the money for razing Dixie Square Mall was in place years and I do mean Years ago. Every time they got ready to do it a business offer was made for the mall itself and land. Go figure.
I remember the golf course that it was built upon....sneaking onto the course to grab golf balls.
Sledding down the huge piles of dirt covered with snow from the construction.
The newness of it all, the tropical fish section in Montgomery Wards. The center piece in the mall by Woolworths where the glycerin flowed down the floor to ceiling wires in a circle.
The brand new Jewel food store that was bigger than anything, and had everything!
The cool feeling of spending the day inside while shopping and finding anything and everything you needed.
The town of Harvey before it turned into a shithole.
Memories.
9/24/2010 01:04:00 AM
Great Memories....Like "The Ave." in Roseland.....gone because of you know who.
interesting website
http://deadmalls.com/features.html#IL
Yeah, more of my tax dollars for the Harvey non tax paying residents.
Demolish Harvey along with the mall! That is the only way to change the area and make it liveable for human beings.
SCC, anybody know a lieutenant who wouldn't mind making $160,000 a year with unlimited overtime, take home car, big office, no furlough days and have complete control of the Traffic Division, which includes all the motorcade escorts, Sox, Cubs, Bears and Bulls games, The Loop Traffic section and the Lake Shore Drive radar cars, please have them look into that opening per the teletype for the bid to unit 145.....Oh yeah, He/she has to be a decent person unlike the asswhat the unit has now....Check the C.O. Book.
OT: FOP reached the minimum number of retirees who took advantage of the 55 and out for 2011. The number was 100, so we know we have at least that amount leaving, but who knows how many more. FOP never tells us, maybe 120, 150, or 200. Manpower shortage not going to get better anytime soon, with the City not giving a new test and the last list completely exhausted. Their might be 40 or so on appeal that would probably have their own recruit class. But after that, no one is in the pipeline to get hired! Makes no sense! At least give a test and have people 'ready to hire' when the new budget comes out or when
money starts coming in. This City never plans ahead!
9/24/2010 01:31:00 AM
Supposedly a new test will be given towards the end of the year and new class will start in mid- 2011.
Votes please keep me in Signed the Jelly fish Quinn.
Quinn = Daley more of the same machine
Do you have this in the Miss Piggy?
We have 4 million in tax money to tear down a mall. Yet can't hire cops, fund pensions and the state is in debt and cries broke. Unbelievable. Politics at its finest. Oh wait ...its "grant money" appropriated from floods...
Drive through the area and look at all of the other abandoned buildings. Like tearing this down will help? What a messed up State.
Makes me think about all the good times and good people I met / knew / hung out with on the Southwest side.
---------------------------------
Me too. I recall shopping with my parents at Dixie Mall, Ford City and Sears at 63rd and Western. In my late teens, I made the scene over at Marquette Park.
Great times and wonderful people.
New Oldsmobiles are in.
This mall has EVERYTHING.
They should keep this mall around and preserve it in its present condition.
It will serve two purposes. One, as a caution never to build a mall in Harvey ever again.
And two, it can be used as a location for anybody that wants to make a movie about the apocalypse.
It's 106 miles to Chicago. We've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it,**shortshanks and jfled!
o'v(r)
** = artistic license
"Just asking, but since when is tearing down a derelict shopping mall a FEDERAL responsibility?
9/24/2010 09:48:00 AM"
whenever a state, county or municipality can get them to pony up the do ray me.
what's the current Illinois ratio of our federal tax dollars paid out to the federal government to those tax dollars paid to Illinois?
"Hey look, the new oldsmobiles are in."
"This mall has everything."
What a classic movie!
were on a mission from god
To memorialize 31 years of Democratic and community ineffectiveness, the decayed mall should constantly remind Harvey voters what Democratic leadership is all about-nothing!
Bringing up Ford City really takes me back to truly good times. Anyone remember going to the Ford City theater on Sat. mornings for the Pepsi bottle cap shows in th summer. 7 bottle caps got you in and you could usually find them along the street on the way there. Then hang out in Peacock Alley afterward. House of Lewis had the coolest clothes at the time. The smell of incense from the head shops...taking dates to John's Garage in high school.
What's an Oldsmobile?
Makes me think about all the good times and good people I met / knew / hung out with on the Southwest side.
All gone now. Just like our innocence. And our kids' innocence, too.
9/24/2010 10:30:00 AM
********
And why did we let it get that far? Shouldn't we have stopped the animals before they have taken root and now cannot be removed? When does it end? When Edison Park looks the same way and the only thing close to being safe is someplace out near Rochelle, IL?
"Yes, and Quinn gave Harvey 4 mil that was intended for Federal flood disaster relief, not for tearing down shopping malls. Quinn is becoming one of the worst pandering governors that Illinois has seen in some time."
--9/24/2010 09:47:00 AM
Now we get to see who gets the contracts for creating this latest useless vacant lot, and what the connections are -- whose campaigns they donated to, who's employing who's no-good cousin who'd otherwise be in jail, etc.
As Walt Whitman said, "I am the grass. Let me work." Plant life is about the only thing that's going to be happening out there -- that, and a gradual accumulation of burned-out cars and old sofas and refrigerators.
Steven Good -- son of Sheldon Good, biggest commercial real-estate guy around -- drove his Jaguar out to the forest preserves and blew his brains out. Take a hint.
Explanation of the whole thing here --
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages
/frontline/warning/view/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_
medium=grid&utm_source=grid
Great Memories....Like Meig's field.....gone because of you know who.
Great Memories....Like portions of Bensonville's residential area.....gone because of you know who.
Great Memories....Like St. Johannes Cemetery .....gone because of you know who.
Stupid jackasses. Could have gathered up all the southside hose draggers and thrown a couple road flares and some gas in there and got rid of the place for nothing! It's Harvey, who's gonna give a shit?
4 million dollars?? Who the fuck got their paws on that money? What a crock of shit.
Makes me think about all the good times and good people I met / knew / hung out with on the Southwest side.All gone now. Just like our innocence. And our kids' innocence, too
######################
Hey ace holes I still live in midway. Don't give us the banana yet.
It looks like the garbage that spread about along the Ike X-way. The closer you get to the ghetto, the more trash you see blowing around.
"Just asking, but since when is tearing down a derelict shopping mall a FEDERAL responsibility?
9/24/2010 09:48:00 AM"
..great question. This blight was caused by humans, not a mother-nature natural disaster. It's part of the the dumbing-down of our society. No one race or culture is repsonsible for their actions, big brother FED has to take over for the idiots who don't clean up their act.
Anonymous said...
"I remember the golf course that it was built upon....sneaking onto the course to grab golf balls..."
Stop it now, asshole.
Makes me think about buying clothes @ Chess King on the lower level of Ford City.
Makes me think about all the good times and good people I met / knew / hung out with on the Southwest side.
All gone now. Just like our innocence. And our kids' innocence, too.
9/24/2010 10:30:00 AM
Chess King wasn't on the lower level guy.
And why did we let it get that far? Shouldn't we have stopped the animals before they have taken root and now cannot be removed? When does it end? When Edison Park looks the same way and the only thing close to being safe is someplace out near Rochelle, IL? 9/25/2010 09:04:00 AM
When a once viable neighborhood goes down, one can't do much but move. It will probably never end, until maybe the Democrats are kicked out of those areas.
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