Editorial: Abandoned malls are monuments to blight
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There is something about ruins.
People love to look back on what was and imagine it in all its glory. That can mean historical sites of the ancient world such as the Colosseum in Rome or the Parthenon in Athens. It can mean relics of American history such as the Alamo in Texas or the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings in Colorado.
But for some people, the ruins that fascinate are much more recent. Websites, video channels and social media accounts are dedicated to the faded glory of more modern abandoned places. Crumbling mansions. Decaying amusement parks.
And the most ubiquitous: empty shopping malls.
Videos and slideshows posted by people who have gained access to these remnants of a 1980s cultural icon show the closed doors and broken glass, empty fountains and shadowed hallways that were once full of people and activity — and driving the economy.
That doesn’t even count the things that aren’t shared: the private explorations of people who just want to take a peek at what’s behind the “closed” signs. People have always been drawn to look where they shouldn’t. The Greeks in that Parthenon knew that from the story of Pandora’s box.
Century III Mall in West Mifflin is one of those shells, and it is drawing more attention. In April, there was a fire on the third floor. It was being investigated as arson. In June, a teenage boy fell through the roof, falling 20 feet on a Friday night.
The mall closed its doors in 2019. Four years later, it is becoming an attractive nuisance.
On Wednesday, District Judge Richard D. Olasz Jr. fined Century III Mall Pa. LLC and Moonbeam Capital Investments more than $240,000 for sanitation, unsafe structures, and weeds and high growth ordinance violations. A condemnation hearing will be held July 18 by West Mifflin Council.
Developers are happy to reap the profits of the benefits of a mall at their most profitable but seem to have no problem walking away and leaving the skeleton behind to rot.
The penalties for allowing properties such as these to become detrimental to the community and dangerous to individuals have to be significant. It needs to be worth the effort for companies to find solutions rather than abandoning their dismal monuments to blight.