A Day at Two San Francisco Malls, One That Died and One That Thrived
The downtown mall was long considered a thriving retail anchor, while the suburban-style one was an afterthought. They had a surprising role reversal.
The downtown mall was long considered a thriving retail anchor, while the suburban-style one was an afterthought. They had a surprising role reversal.
Heather Knight spent six lively hours at Stonestown Galleria, while Coral Murphy Marcos spent the same six hours observing the decline of San Francisco Centre.
For years, San Francisco Centre was a destination, an anchor of a buoyant downtown that seemed destined to keep on booming. Shoppers rode circular escalators up to Nordstrom to buy expensive shoes while a musician played a grand piano.
When an even fancier Bloomingdale’s opened there in 2006, California’s first lady, Maria Shriver, cut a ribbon carried by aerial dancers.
A few miles west and another world away, out toward the ocean and low-slung single family homes, Stonestown Galleria sat forlorn. It was your typical suburban-style mall, though still in the city limits, with a run-down movie theater and unlimited breadsticks at the Olive Garden. If the first lady ever went there, she did not brag about it.
