Train Gym Galleria Mall

[Arlyne Doepner]

Theysay community members are outraged that a racist train display showing a Black man being prepared to be hung was tolerated and allowed at the mall for hundreds of children, families & community members to see.

Las Vegas activists are calling for racial justice awareness training after an art exhibit that depicted a Black man being hung by a noose was displayed earlier this month at Galleria at Sunset Mall in Henderson.

Las Vegas Garden Railway Society, a volunteer group that makes large-scale model railroads, had shown a long, 3-D display of different railroad scenes in the mall. One section of the display showed a frontier scene of two white men about to hang a Black man on a scaffold from a noose.

Paula McDonald, an adviser with the civil rights organization National Action Network, said Black slaves and railroad workers helped to build the railroad during the late 1800s, and a display could have educated people about that instead.

Since I have been here at Tufts, I have been trying to find good places to shop at. I was nervous because I was going to school in an urban area there would be a limited amount of shopping options. However, that fear was put to rest this weekend as I went to the CambridgeSide mall in Boston and I explored Assembly Row in Sommerville.

On Saturday morning I woke up early around 8. Went through my morning routine and headed to Davis Square around 10 to hop on the red line T. I changed trains at Park Street to the Green Line and headed for North Station. When I got to North Station I had to hop on a shuttle bus to go to Cambridge side mall which is right near the Museum of Science. CambridgeSide mall has so much to offer. Right behind the mall there is a scenic fountain and plaza. CambridgeSide mall has so much to offer! It contains name brand stores such as Best Buy, American Eagle, H&M, Footlocker and Lids, just to name a few. There also is not a shortage of food places to eat while you shop. The food court has so many option to offer such as Panda Express, Burger King, Taco Bell and Chipotle. If you would like to sit down and eat Cambridge mall also has Cheesecake Factory. It might not be as big as a mall in a suburban area but it has some of the same stores and eating places that a suburban mall has. That is why I found CambridgeSide Galleria mall so unique. It felt like a full-size mall you would go to outside the city. You rarely have a mall with so much to offer inside a city.

The $650 million redevelopment two blocks from the Metro-North train station is also to include dining, retail and other commercial spaces, as well as underground parking. The location is bordered by Cottage Place, Hamilton Avenue, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Barker Avenue.

Planned amenities for apartment residents include 24-hour concierge, lounges, co-working spaces, a pool, game rooms, fitness studios, outdoor terraces, and shared public places, according to a statement.

"This is going to bring life, it's going to bring public space, dining and street life," Mayor Thomas Roach said at Thursday's groundbreaking by development team RXR and the Cappelli Organization for the first phase of the project referred to as Hamilton Green.

While Mamaroneck Avenue has places to eat, things to do, and a sense of the public square, the area where the former White Plains Mall stands doesn't have that same feeling of life, Roach said, adding that officials have been working on how to change that, and this redevelopment is one step.

Officials gathered Thursday at the demolished site of the mall, another example of a local trend in which longtime commercial properties are giving way to live-work-play developments. In a bit of symbolism, an operator of a piece of construction equipment used its claw to partially pull down the old White Plains Mall sign after officials spoke about the redevelopment.

The redevelopment also entails providing 55,000 square feet of publicly accessible open space, "For this community to embrace and enjoy," said Joseph Graziose Jr., RXR senior vice president of residential development.

White Plains Mall opened in 1972, and over the years had everything from stores to a Department of Motor Vehicles branch, according to personal recollections shared by officials who spoke at the groundbreaking.

"As we move forward in converting this functionally obsolete asset, the project will implement sustainable design features," Louis Capelli, founder of the Capelli Organization, said in a statement, including "smart-home technologies utilizing intelligent thermal controls, dynamic glass and high efficiency mechanical systems, further promoting health and wellness for the building and its tenants."

Stonestown station is a light rail station on the Muni Metro M Ocean View line, located in the median of 19th Avenue adjacent to Stonestown Galleria and the Lakeside neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It opened in 1925 with the first phase of the line and was rebuilt with a high-level island platform in 1993. The station is accessible to people with disabilities.

The station is also served by bus routes 18, 28, 28R (a limited-stop rapid service), 29, 57 and 91 Owl (an overnight service) plus the M Bus which provides service along the M Ocean View line during the early morning when trains do not operate.[3] Additionally, SamTrans route 122 stops at the station.

When the M Ocean View line opened on October 6, 1925, it ran along the west side of 19th Avenue; a second set of lanes was added later, placing the line in the road's median.[2] Several stations with small side platforms were located along 19th Avenue, including one at Winston Drive; it became more important after the adjacent Stonestown Galleria opened in 1952.[4]

In the early 1970s, Muni began planning an extension of the J Church line over new track to Balboa Park station, then over the M Ocean View line to the high-ridership San Francisco State University and Stonestown Galleria stations. A Final Environmental Impact Statement for the new track was released in 1983; it was opened for non-revenue moves in August 1991 and began revenue service in June 1993.[5][2] Original plans called for the two existing stations to be rebuilt with high-level island platforms, and a pocket track to allow J Church trains to turn back. After objections from neighbors, the pocket track was removed from the plan.[2]

The first phase of the 19th Ave. Platform & Trackway Improvement Project required the line to be replaced by buses south of St. Francis Circle from June 19 to October 23, 1993; the new platforms at the two stations were opened when service was restored.[2] The second phase required full bustitution beginning on July 30, 1994; rail service was restored to Stonestown on November 19 for holiday shopping, and on the rest of the line on January 28, 1995.[2] Some weekday J and M service was through-routed from 1995 to 1998, but full through-routing was never implemented.[2]

On a 4.9-acre lot at the corner of Smith Road and Galleria Drive - about half a mile from the Middletown-Town of Wallkill train station - Pyramid Management Group, owner of the Galleria at Crystal Run, has applied for PRD approval on a town center district-zoned property.

A public hearing at the town's January board meeting spilled into the February board meeting. It was closed Thursday after hearing the last bit of public input, and Town Supervisor Frank DenDanto said the board would take some time to let the ideas and feedback from residents marinate with the board before a decision is made, which could be as early as Wednesday's planned work session at 7 p.m., pending the town attorney's approval of the amended town code.

Several residents railed against the project, and high density build-outs in general that require amendments to town codes. DenDanto himself ran for the town supervisor seat against what he described as irresponsible high density projects in the town.

Pyramid's plan is to build between 100 and 250 one- and two-bedroom apartments aimed at young professionals, possibly New York City commuters because of the proximity to the train, and empty-nesters looking for a low-maintenance, walkable living setting, according to a presentation at Jan. 23's town board public hearing by David Aitken, a spokesman for the mall and 18-year Pyramid employee.

Aitken noted during his presentation that the mall used to be known only for shopping, dining and entertainment. The mall is looking to do what it has done with other properties, similar to its Albany project, Crossgates Mall, by adding a hotel and apartment complex into the mix.

Several stores lowered their security doors or locked entrances as at least 200 protesters sprawled onto the floor while chanting, ''Stop shopping and join the movement,'' at the Galleria mall in Richmond Heights a few miles south of Ferguson, Missouri, where Officer Darren Wilson fatally shot Brown, who was unarmed, in August.

The action prompted authorities to close the mall for about an hour Friday afternoon, while a similar protest of about 50 people had the same effect at West County Mall in nearby Des Peres. It didn't appear that any arrests were made. Later Friday, the appearance of several dozen demonstrators led to the early closing of the Chesterfield Mall.

''We want to really let the world know that it is no longer business as usual,'' Chenjerai Kumanyika, an assistant professor at Clemson University in South Carolina, said at a rally at a Wal-Mart in Manchester, another St. Louis suburb.

Monday night's announcement that Wilson, who is white, wouldn't be indicted for fatally shooting Brown, who was black, prompted violent protests that resulted in about a dozen buildings and some cars being burned. Dozens of people were arrested.

In northern California, more than a dozen people were arrested after about 125 protesters wearing T-shirts that read ''Black Lives Matter'' interrupted train service from Oakland to San Francisco, with some chaining themselves to trains. Dozens of people in Seattle blocked streets, and police said some protesters also apparently chained doors shut at the nearby Pacific Place shopping center.

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