Lost in the funhouse
-
bill emory
If any family members go missing this weekend, it is a good bet they are burning in new neural pathways, trying to find the front door, trying to find their car, trying to find their way in and around Stonefield and its new Regal 14-screen multiplex that had its soft opening on Monday, November 5.
~
Commentator Bill Emory puts up a new photo nearly every day at billemory.com/blog.
Read more on: Regal Cinemas
5 comments
Why don't you just come out and say what you really think, Bill.
don't know what I really think yet, still taking it all in.
Sure you do, quoting your blog referencing another Stonefield photo it's not hard to read between the lines of "A riot of light, color, and modern building materials assembled to resemble legacy forms. A laying down of cataclysmic money. Many new McJobs.
Instead of these McJobs, how would you like to see the City and County grow their tax bases, both commercially and residentially, without new development? How do you explain your usage of 'cataclysmic money'? Is this money equal to a devastating flood, or a violent shift in the earth's crust? I've seen your photos with snarky comments before, usually having to do with things you don't like about C'Ville.
I just don't understand the general air of the NIMBY philosophy, all the while wanting to continue to gloat over the accolades of this awesome city. The whole idea that Stonefield is some blight on C'Ville is incomprehensible to me. Is it not an improvement on a mostly ugly commercial corridor that exists from 250 Bypass up to Airport Road?
Maybe I've gone off topic, but I'd just love to get a real opinion and not a photo with a sarcastic comment.
still taking it in. I have been there once, at night, only a small percentage of stores are open. I'd be happy to get back to you in a few months if you'll provide real contact information.
" The whole idea that Stonefield is some blight on C'Ville is incomprehensible to me. Is it not an improvement on a mostly ugly commercial corridor that exists from 250 Bypass up to Airport Road? "
Yes, its bigger and newer and shiny still. But so were each of those other developments you call 'mostly ugly'. Each, in their day were the next big thing or maybe just incremental improvements to a commercial real estate aesthetic that seems increasingly devoid of sensitivity, permanence and uniqueness. Stonefield makes one feel like a mouse in a toy car (because its completely car-centric) trying to navigate a maze of cardboard refrigerator boxes. All while contributing to speed the decline of those already blighted retail centers that don't have the newest and hippest stores. Shopping centers aren't or shouldn't be disposable, just building a new one when the old one outlives its anchor tenant isn't sustainable long term.
Also, both Stonefield and Wendell Wood's complex @ airport rd. were marketed as 'new urban' developments, more akin to comfortable and pedestrian friendly spaces like the downtown mall where people want to congregate than the 90's era upmarket suburban shopping sprawl with an apartment building and some townhouses strewn about. It fails terribly. They both do.