Morning, y’all! (And yes, it will stay that way!) Does the golden age of the mall feel like a fever dream to anyone else? It kinda makes me sad, because no internet e-commerce scrolling experience comes close to the multi-sensory cornucopia of honest-to-goodness window shopping inside what amounted to a very fancy airport hangar. We’ve also got trial news and some much-requested updates on the immigration arrests situation today. But first, a walk down memory lane … Let’s get to it.
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THE DAY THE LIGHTS WENT OUT IN KENNESAW
Credit: Taylor Croft/AJC
Credit: Taylor Croft/AJC
Once upon a time, shopping malls presided over city centers like shining palaces of commerce ringed with asphalt moats. Everyone knew The Mall, wherever they were, and it was a place of skylights and whimsy where dreams could be bought and toted around and placed carefully on a food court bench. It probably had a really cool fountain, too.
Those days are long gone, and oh, it’s hard to see giants fall. Town Center Mall in Kennesaw, once a highly successful hub of mall culture in Cobb County, went literally dark yesterday.
The property is owned by Kohan Retail Investments, which posted signs on mall entrances yesterday saying the mall would be closed until further notice due to “unforeseen circumstances.”
Those unforeseen circumstances, it seems, were a mound of unpaid power bills. Georgia Power shut off power to the mall, citing “highly delinquent bills.” The company said it tried to work with the mall’s owners for several months and “provided numerous solutions to assist them in avoiding disconnection.” Alas.
Town Center Mall first rose from the fertile delta of I-75 and I-575 in 1984. With 1.3 million square feet of retail space, it was a mecca of Atlanta mall culture for more than two decades before it began facing the foes that have felled so many other shopping meccas: Big box stores, online shopping and, of course, the tectonic lifestyle shifts of the pandemic.
If you want a real blast from the past, check out these photos of Atlanta-area malls over the years. Fair warning: You will feel 8,000,000 years old. I’m only in my 30s, and I made it through about six images before I felt my bones coming loose.
Anyway, getting the lights shut off isn’t exactly a death knell. If it were, I would have never made it out of my first apartment in Smyrna. But it’s not great, especially if you’re a mall. Cobb County spokesman Ross Cavitt said county officials are “working with the mall’s property management to develop a longer-term plan to maintain security until the mall can reopen.”
Attention shoppers: What’s considered the oldest regional mall in Georgia? Answer’s at the bottom.
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ARBERY D.A. TRIAL IS UNDERWAY
Credit: Michael Hall/The Brunswick News via AP
Credit: Michael Hall/The Brunswick News via AP
The trial of former District Attorney Jackie Johnson is taking shape in Brunswick. Johnson is accused of violating her oath of office and hindering the police investigation into the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was shot to death in Brunswick in February 2020. Three white men were eventually convicted of murder in his death, and some of Johnson’s charges relate to their cases. Among them:
> Johnson is accused of instructing two police officers not to arrest Travis McMichael, who fired the shotgun blasts that killed Arbery.
> McMichael’s father, Greg McMichael, also stood trial and was convicted of murder in Arbery’s death. Johnson is accused of showing “favor and affection” toward the elder McMichael, who once worked as an investigator in Johnson’s office.
> The charge of violating an oath of office is classified as a felony.
Yesterday, a jury composed of nine women and three men was selected for the trial. Proceedings are expected to take two weeks to complete.
🔎 More from yesterday’s courtroom scene
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BUSINESSES AND COMMUNITIES RESPOND TO ICE ARRESTS
Business owners and workers in the Atlanta metro area are worried for employees, coworkers and their own livelihoods after Sunday’s ICE operations throughout the state. ICE made 956 arrests across the country Sunday, according to the organization’s social media.
Some people The Atlanta Journal-Constitution talked to said the issue isn’t the arrests, but the fear they’re causing among immigrant communities, regardless of status.
🔎 Mother of five among those arrested by ICE in Georgia
Some groups are trying to advocate for workers: The Georgia Restaurant Association, an industry trade group, said it would provide resources on “how to prepare for heightened immigration enforcement,” but stressed the group does not provide legal advice.
The Latino Community Fund has stressed its “know your rights” campaign to remind people that authorities still need judicial warrants to enter property and make arrests.
Certain industries rely a lot on undocumented workers: Unauthorized immigrants make up about 13% of workers in the construction industry, according to 2022 data from the Pew Research Center. That’s a place where local businesses — and their customers — could really feel the effects.
Ken Simonson, chief economist of the trade group Associated General Contractors of America, said his group is urging the Trump administration to create new temporary construction worker visas to keep labor from disappearing, and prices from increasing.
Did you know? Georgia has the seventh-largest undocumented population in the country. About 339,000 undocumented immigrants call Georgia home.
🔎 More of your immigration questions, answered
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FAMILY ‘SHOCKED’ OVER HOMELESS ENCAMPMENT DEATH FINDINGS
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
More information is being released about the death of Cornelius Taylor, the man who died as city workers cleared a homeless encampment ahead of the MLK holiday. The Atlanta Police Department released preliminary findings that include an inconclusive account from a police officer who interacted with Taylor before he died. An attorney for Taylor’s family said they are “shocked and disappointed” by the findings, which he says ignore other evidence at the scene, like the presence of Taylor’s blood. The attorney said his firm was also demanding the release of any existing police body camera footage to the family before the public.
Meanwhile, Mayor Andre Dickens recently announced his support for a moratorium on the encampment sweeps. A funeral service for Taylor will be at 11 a.m. Feb. 3 at Ebenezer Baptist Church.
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ARE EGGS REALLY THAT EXPENSIVE RIGHT NOW?
Yes, and that’s not going to change anytime soon as bird farmers have been forced to slaughter millions of chickens to prevent the spread of bird flu. In fact, the Agriculture Department predicts prices are going to soar another 20% this year. Awesome.
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NEWS BITES
Coke jumps on the nostalgia trend with ‘Orange Cream’ flavor
Maybe you can enjoy it while walking around your favorite mall [*sob*]
Here are 15 food and drink events to check out around Georgia in February
Some of them are super romantic, and some of them are a Hello Kitty food truck.
The fact we asked the question does not bode well. (Apparently a whopping 47% of them exceed safety limits for heavy metals, so check your stash.)
How Mark Wahlberg gets a ‘head start’ with 2 a.m. workouts
Is it a head start or a nightcap? Does he want a job as a morning newsletter editor?
Wait … do you not know about theee Savannah Bananas? You need to fix that now, and you’ll be glad you did.
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
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ON THIS DATE
Credit: File photo
Credit: File photo
From the Jan. 29, 2014, edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: THE EVENT THAT MUST NOT BE NAMED
I am so sorry to do this to you, but happy (?) 11-year anniversary to Snowpocalypse. Let’s never do that again.
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ONE MORE THING
It’s Lenox Square! Now, we could get pedantic about malls vs. shopping centers vs. festival centers, but the consensus from various sources is that Buckhead’s Lenox Square mall, which opened in 1959 and was originally an open-air concept, was Georgia’s first regional mall.
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Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact me at tellus@ajc.com.
Until next time.
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