~2.10~

In the late 1950s, the city fathers of Jericho moved to address the growing decline of the eastern half of their city with an extensive, ambitious urban renewal project. This lofty and high-minded project, of course, inevitably ran out of steam… “steam” meaning “money.”

Once the city planners realized how much it would cost to revitalize and re-energize the entire east side, they ended up spending the bulk of the budget in a single small area just across the unofficial dividing line from the west side… one place they could point to as the crowning achievement of the sweeping initiative, in order to distract from the complete and utter failure of the initiative as a whole.

The Meier Mall, also known as the Mile Mall, was the jewel in that crown.

A pedestrian haven which ran for twelve city blocks of Meier Avenue, the mall was a masterwork of architecture and urban landscaping, featuring old storefronts refurbished with immaculate attention to detail and modern office buildings designed to both catch the eye and blend in.

Fountains burbled pleasantly in the warmer seasons, and in the winter the entire strip was lit up with literally millions of gleaming white Christmas lights. Bronze statues of prominent Jericho citizens of long ago, from politicians to playwrights, stood by the corners of buildings and in the middle of the broad cobblestone street over which no vehicles ever traveled.

The stores ranged from upscale department stores to faux-upscale mall outlets to authentic independent neighborhood book stores, antique and curio shops, and coffee houses whose continued presence in the Mile Mall was protected by rent control and other measures.

Everyone who ever visited Jericho made a point of planning a trip to the mall. Many of them actually went, and got their pictures taken with the statues, and shopped in the same stores as in their malls back home, and complained about the prices in the other stores.

Few people ever noticed the children.

Fewer still talked about them.