Welcome to The Dark Side of White Flint, an ongoing series about the not-so-wonnerful,
wonnerful, wonnerful side of urbanizing the suburbs of Montgomery County.
BuzzFeed, Gawker, British newspapers and other outlets horning in on the demise of White Flint Mall will be interested to know - White Flint Mall has closed its doors. Literally.
The mall entrance doors are now locked. P.F. Chang's was celebrating its final night of operation last night, but no one could enter the doomed mall itself. Lord & Taylor remains the sole operating business now on site, and one can expect demolition of the mall to begin at any time.
It's the end of an era, as the unique and impressive architecture, crowded parking lots and restaurants, and a destination that defined a space between Rockville and Bethesda give way to nostalgic memories, and the risky unknown of replacing a successful mall with an urban "town center." How will Lerner's entry stack up against the 8 or 9 competing "town centers" that will be operating nearby, and vying for the same limited number of wallets? We're about to find out.
"It's like a ghost town in here!"
1. You do not own the news. Others are allowed to write about the same topics.
ReplyDelete2. You act like there were crowds of people outside conducting a candlelight vigil. No one cares anymore. Bring on Wegmans.
5:10: I never said I owned the news. But when I published the original photo galleries of the mall, people like you said "no one cares." Turns out people all over town and the world care, and media outlets large and small had to run the same type of photo galleries to meet the demand, and collect the web traffic they saw I was getting. The majority of public reaction to the mall closure was negative, which along with the numerous photo galleries vindicated the premise of the Dark Side of White Flint series.
DeleteHow do people shop in Lord & Taylor if the mall is closed? Or did it close also?
ReplyDeleteL&T has separate entrances.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of web traffic do you get Robert?
ReplyDeleteThe candlelight vigil starts at 7.
ReplyDeleteI seriously doubt British newspapers rely on a basement reporter for news. Yippee giving yourself way too much creditability.
ReplyDeleteNotice how Dyer never sheds any tears over Landover Mall.
ReplyDelete6:01: Landover Mall is not in Bethesda. Personally, I would have been opposed to replacing Landover Mall, as well, but do not have as much knowledge of that specific situation as I do of White Flint Mall.
Delete"the numerous photo galleries vindicated the premise of the Dark Side of White Flint series."
ReplyDeleteWhat, pray tell, is this word salad supposed to mean?
6:02: It means the greater public was unaware of the White Flint Mall plans, and were surprised to find out it was closing and the area was being urbanized. Photos of the decline and demolition on my site drew web traffic, even as other media outlets tried to keep it quiet. Eventually, they were forced to run their own photo galleries. What inspires more passion and interest, malls or urban town centers? Consider, have you ever seen BuzzFeed or a British newspaper run photos of Pike & Rose or downtown Silver Spring? Hint: No.
Delete"Consider, have you ever seen BuzzFeed or a British newspaper run photos of Pike & Rose or downtown Silver Spring? Hint: No."
ReplyDeleteHint: Dyer, you're sounding like an uneducated idiot again. Downtown Silver Spring's renaissance has been profiled in REAL newspapers (not freakin BuzzFeed and a tabloid), e.g. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/realestate/commercial/13silver.html?_r=0
New York Times>Daily Mail UK...by about a gazillion.
8:29: It's you who sounds like an idiot again. I'm not talking about a serious article about land use. I'm talking about photo galleries that are of great interest to the general public locally, and internationally. There is no such "click-bait" photo gallery on popular sites like BuzzFeed about the urban town centers of Montgomery County. International newspapers are not publishing stand-alone photo galleries of Silver Spring Town Center or Pike & Rose.
ReplyDeletePHOTO GALLERIES ARE THE TRUE NEWS. PHOTO GALLERIES. WITH PHOTOS TAKEN BY CELLPHONES.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how American conservatives read the Daily Mail and imagine themselves to be "cosmopolitan".
ReplyDelete"even as other media outlets tried to keep it quiet."
ReplyDeleteWhat "other media outlets" tried to suppress the story of White Flint's demise?
The Post reported the decision to close the mall in late 2011, several months before Bloomingdales closed.
6:13: All of 'em. Nobody other than me reported and published photos of the Phase 1 demolition, or of the ongoing closures as the owners struggled to divest a fully-leased mall. I also reported on where the businesses that could find new spaces relocated, so their customers could find them. Only after the Jen Chaney piece in the Post a year ago did the floodgates of "OMG!" photo galleries open across the internet. Most of the public was unaware the mall was being demolished.
Delete"Nobody other than me reported and published photos of the Phase 1 demolition"
ReplyDeletePlease. You're just not as important as you think you are.
9:19pm
ReplyDeleteBob has the most widely read blog covering Bethesda, which is the most affluent and educated city in the country. He's an important voice.
9:19: Never claimed to be important, but did have the only coverage of the wind-down and Phase 1 demolition of the mall.
ReplyDeleteRobert's Little Fanboy wrote:
ReplyDelete"Bob has the most widely read blog covering Bethesda..."
Easily proven wrong.
Alexa ranking for BethesdaNow.com:
Global rank: 208,860
Rank in United States: 40,514
Alexa ranking for RobertDyer.blogspot.com:
Global rank: 814,350
Rank in United States: 168,504
Quick web analytics lesson for 7:10AM:
ReplyDeleteAlexa generates their "estimates" using toolbars on PC browsers. Problem is that the majority of web traffic today is from mobile devices, not PC browsers!
Bob has a great mobile optimized site and reaches young, educated, influential affluent Bethesda residents who I suspect are accessing his site on mobile devices.
Alexa doesn't capture mobile traffic in their "estimates". Therefore you haven't proven anything quoting Alexa stats.
Here's what Alex says are their own site:
"Since we do not offer a mobile version of our toolbars, mobile/app traffic is not included in our toolbar panel and will not be reported in the traffic estimates and ranks"
So, 7:10AM is saying his blog wins with folks with Alexa toolbars installed on their desktop PCs?
ReplyDeleteDo people still install spammy questionable browser toolbars? I know that was a thing like 10-15 yrs. ago. Around the same time AOL was mailing everyone CD-ROMs.