Community

October 20, 2009 | University Village

This is our UV. It is small, very small, and not very fancy. It's very popular for the "international food court". The food isn't bad. It's like the Ave, except in a food court and with much fewer food options. I also like to come to the UV because there is the Dollar Dollar Store and Elegance - a cheap clothing store with very interesting things. Also, there is a grocery store. And a sketchy bike shop and a military recruitment center and a cheap movie theater and Starbucks! and Baskin Robbins and a tiny pharmacy and a tobacco shop and a Sprint (or possibly some other cell phone company) store.

They (USC?) are planning to take down this place and rebuild a big fancy one. The problem is: the community and the shop owners have been here for years. With the current development plan, there is good chance that these people will not get leases in a new facility. Furthermore, our UV would look more homogeneous with other UVs or malls because I would bet the new stores would be chains. It's a great "benefit" for students, but it's really not fair to the community. And as our school develops more and more, making housing more expensive, too, which will push out the residents, we should instead be thinking of ways to minimize our destruction. This is becoming an essay/rant. Must stop. Okay, bye.