Which Mall Is More Haunted: Mall 205 or Lloyd Center?
by • Monday at 10:24 am
[Happy pre-Halloween! All week long the Mercury will be publishing classic tales of local Halloween horror from our archives, as well as brand spankin' new (and spooky) pieces... such as this one!—eds]
Looking down on the empty ice rink, an irrational fear grips me. Tears I can’t explain run down my cheeks. Below, surrounded by the darkened maws of a dozen deserted storefronts, a single ice-skater glides, graceful and lonely. The tinny, haunting melodies of top 40 hits from another decade echo through the empty canyons of post-capitalist collapse. I’m no expert on the paranormal, but I know damn well when I’m surrounded by the spirits of the damned.
If Lloyd Center is haunted, Mall 205 is unquestionably haunted as well. Both taken by evil in their own unsettling ways. But which place is more haunted? Before we can quantify their undeath, we must first understand how they died.
The collapse of the American mall has been both faster and more cataclysmic than you probably expect. Remember buying cargo shorts at the Gap? Would it surprise you to learn that there are no Gap stores anywhere within Portland city limits? The Gap we used to “fall into” has become an empty chasm, a massive echoing tomb—and it’s far from alone. It’s been estimated that one-in-four malls that existed in 2017 will be gone by the end of next year. Nine thousand retail stores closed in 2019. Remember 2019? That was BEFORE the pandemic—if you believe such a time even existed. I personally have my doubts.
So-called “experts” claim dead malls (also known as “ghost malls” and “zombie malls”) are caused by more than just the rise of online shopping. Sure, the skeleton-with-skin that is Jeffrey Bezos has an icy grip around the throat of America’s consumer economy, but things like big box stores and rental services such as Rent the Runway, Netflix, and Spotify have carved out their share of the spoils. And looming behind it all is the true mother of all dark curses: the dramatic rise in income inequality. But I know better than some know-it-all economist. I know that something deeper and more sinister than the mere economic forces of the mundane world is at play—these malls are super fucking haunted.
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