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When downtown destruction is a good thing
Get a good look at the roof on The Mall in Downtown Redding. It’s about to undergo a major make-over that will begin with some long overdue demolition to begin its beautification.
As you might recall, the Redding Redevelopment Agency awarded the construction contract for Phase II of The Mall’s construction to J.B. Excavating, Inc.
Work should start in early July.
But first, let’s celebrate.
Mark your calendars for 9:30 a.m. Thursday to attend the Downtown Mall “Roof-Breaking” event, hosted by the City and Redevelopment Agency. (By the way, MarketFest also gets under way later in the day.)
The festivities will take place at the Butte Street Plaza, on the north - topless - end of The Mall, adjacent to the new Shasta College Health Sciences & University Center.
Seating and coffee will be provided.
Redding Mayor Mary Stegall -a tireless downtown advocate - and her fellow City Council member Rick Bosetti, (he’s also the Redevelopment Chair), will be hoisted skyward via bucket truck to remove the first piece of The Mall’s roof.
“Many of us have been waiting a long time for this to happen and we need to celebrate,” Stegall said in an e-mail.
“I think of it as the unlocking of our downtown!”
This will be a grand occasion, attended by city staff and officials, downtown stakeholder organizations, and anyone else interested in seeing history made in downtown Redding.
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“The White Elephant has left the City”
The mall was and is such a strange part of Redding. I do remember going there in the mid/late 1970’s and 80’s as a kid, my mom would shop there at Dicker’s. I remember when the mall worked, when there were shops that people frequented. I’ll never forget the creepy mannequins at Vivian’s, they were faceless metallic space-aged looking, clad in lingerie. The chartereuse sign just made it seem creepier. The mall could have been a good thing, but the planning and design was pretty bad and lacked many of the elements that would have made it feel like somewhere special. We’re lucky that the Redding Redevelopment Agency is once again heading downtown, to reverse its mistake made generations ago; demolishing 90% of our historic post gold rush era downtown to build the White Elephant that is known as the Midtown Mall Project. Viva Downtown Redding!
Doni…True, the mall in downtown seemed like a savior in it’s time but became a dark failure after the big box stores developed out in Enterprise. The Enterprise mall is even showing it’s age and who wants to drive out there in that traffic mess if you don’t have to? It’s been bought and sold many times and the big boxes just keep on coming including everyones fav grocery market.
Hopefully, the downtown will sparkle with new vitality and even Ward Gandy is selling his historic block along with the Clover Club which will become history.
I only wish we could replace those old buildings like the Temple Hotel but time marches on and we’ll get part of it back on old Market. Memories are the ashes of time we get when they’re gone.