EXPLORING the LONG ABANDONED Northridge Mall - Milwaukee, WI. IN PIECES IN 2021
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
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What a great video. I'm biased because I'm a Badger who remembers going here as a kid, but this is just a testament to how good these videos can be when someone takes the time to both record *and* edit them. Some folks get great footage, but then screw it up in the editing room. But the post work here is such a testament to patience, to careful scripting, subtle music choices and rhythmic editing.
Wow thank you! It means a lot to me to do right by people who personally remember these malls when they were full of people.
Well said. I don't think ever visited Northridge. We lived closer to Southridge but they were nearly identical and it's heartbreaking to see it like this. Such a well done documentary. The editing is superb!
Lkl
a moment of silence for our passing places of our youth. the mall was to GEN X what the internet is to generations after us. great job as usual!
And here we are watching tours of abandoned malls on...the internet.
Great video. I can still see the beauty of that building, those skylights/ceiling are incredible. This video shows even more damage and destruction than previous explorations have shown, so sad.
Sean, can you message me on my judge Judy cartoon series? I live in the Milwaukee area and would love to connect and get to know you.
This has to be the saddest installment to date. The whole time I watched I was thinking, why does this have to happen, why do we LET it happen? How did this once beautiful mall collapse like this. I did a quick Google street view of the surrounding areas and a check on demographic history, that told the tale. Almost without exception, if the income bracket around a mall begins to decline and crime, real or imagined, gets into the media malls are doomed. Same thing happened to Banister Mall in Kansas City. South East KC was once a strong middle class area and Bannister was the mall to go to, we loved it. But, a sudden influx of low income apartments sent the entire Southeast area on a rampage of white flight. Crime became a big problem and the retailers began leaving the mall in droves. Now the mall is entirely gone and the area around it is really bad and keeps getting worse.
For whatever it’s worth on a surface level drive around the area while I was waiting around it seems run down more than dangerous but unfortunately crime and poverty go hand in hand a lot. You want to hope, regardless, that whatever they replace the mall with will be something to help turn both around.
The NW side of Milwaukee is, in a word, problematic. Capitol Court, in the same general area as Northridge but closer to the center of the city, started circling the drain around the same time. It was demolished & replaced with a new shopping center in the "Town Center" concept, and it appears to have been a massive failure.
Jeff, you nailed it!! I was in my late teens living 3 blocks from Northridge when they built low income housing to the north of the mall. As much as people keep saying the guy shooting his wife was the demise of the mall - it was the new housing that brought it down. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh but I lived it every day and watched the decline.
The interior architecture of this mall is way better than the ones in my area. It's really a shame what has happened to it.
this is so cool!! there needs to be more female urbex explorers out there!! im so happy i found this video! great narration and detailed camera work :) absolutely loved it
I don’t know why there’s not more of us out there! Thanks so much for watching!
Awesome video and love the lounge version of the Shinra them from FFVII
My parents used to take me and my siblings here every year before Christmas as our tradition. We would walk around the mall, buy a bag of nuts, and eat them in the main fountain area. I would reach down and splash the water while wishing I could grab all the coins that were all far out of reach. I'd also stomp on those metal grates on the ground that used to hold the trees. They had lights underneath the grates as well. Sad to see what it's all become.
YAY PERFECT VIDEO FOR A LAZY WORK FROM HOME MONDAY!
Enjoy! I love longer videos to watch while I'm working. I'm glad I get to keep your company tomorrow.
@Paul Brower I beg to differ. That mall was my old stomping grounds. I've watched all kinds & colors of people flood that mall buying all kinds of things with no concern about money. Only one group brought a destructive element to the area with them. Stealing those cds, books, tools, cars out of the parking lot. Harassing people in the food court or robbing them in the bathrooms. My girlfriend made me pick her up after work each night because of girls being assaulted walking out of the mall. Dumpster fires, assaulting customers, fighting, gang fights made normal people (of all colors) afraid to go to the mall. Stores just couldn't handle the losses year after year. For some reason certain people work to better their environment...& other people have the need to destroy everything that is good around them. I don't know why. Just because you're poor it doesn't mean you have to conduct yourself like an ahole. Maybe the fatherless environment is to blame. Monkey see monkey do becomes the teacher. All it takes is a few bad apples.
Amen brother
Sad. It's amazing to me how much and how fast the vandalism takes to places like this and abandoned centers. It's strange.
It’s like vandals can smell it from miles away when a place isn’t being cared for
@@UniCommProductions Exactly. Super weird because it's almost universal. Some place goes untouched for a while.... boom graffiti everywhere.
It's mainly down to the foreign buyer (that being US Black Spruce Enterprise Group) in this case. This mall is being treated no different from one of many ghost houses in China.
Why foreign nationals or financial institutions of any stripe are allowed to own American land or housing (especially when they'll only care for making money on it) is beyond me.
@@Code7Unltd Agreed, foreign investment should be limited to 49% but oh well.
@@Code7Unltd They should at least have someone local to keep an eye on it...it seems a lot of the problems here have been a result of no one being available to hold accountable for its current condition.
This place should be demolished ASAP. It’s in such terrible condition now.
It's what they would call an "attractive nuisance" in the insurance industry. Someone else is going to get hurt.
It would probably be for the best if it were. Problem is, part of that process is to market the land for future use, and it would be VERY challenging to find anyone willing to develop it, outside of possible industrial use.
When I was five, we took a field trip out there somewhere to pick pumpkins, before the mall was built. Maybe it can revert to that lol.
I have lived in the area my whole life and haven’t been to the mall since I was a kid. So crazy and cool to see what has become of it. Alderwoman Lewis probably won’t respond for comment ever as she’s been charged and found guilty of embezzlement. Thank you for doing the video!
I got the story about the alderwoman in my inbox the other day; I keep google alerts for the mall I cover. What a crazy story. I think she was in the right when it came to the mall but as someone who lives a few states away I don't really know much about her beyond her comments in the news stories you saw in the video.
I used to go up to Northridge when I was in middle school back in 1991 & 92. It was a past time hobby to walk around in Northridge.
Loved the video, especially the slowed down video game music!
If the music is your thing, check out RiftiBeats on TH-cam; lots of very similar stuff over there from all kinds of games!
Oh cool at 20:53 that's the news story clip from 2011 that I recorded and uploaded lol. I really wish I could have gone to this mail but I've only ever been to its sister mall, Southridge.
Ive been watching dead mall vids for quite sometime now and kinda fell off course in interest. However you can suck a person back in with your editing/audio skills. Nicely done 🙏
it was good when they had security there but when the new owner took over they didnt keep it secured any longer
I can confirm they began to demolish Northridge Mall about two months ago.
The end of American Affluence? Something about people reminds me of a short story I read in highschool or first years in college called The Destroyers, I think written by Graham Greene. Anarchy seems to have taken deep root in our society , it's frightening!I have been to places just as bad, even very much worse, but I was armed and reenforced, I much admire your courage when creating this footage. Great Video❤, thanks.
...I can assure you I took every precaution to protect myself from whatever I may have encountered, and wasn't entirely alone. :). Thank you for watching!
I grew up across the street from Northridge mall. It was so fun being able to walk there as a teenager and hang out with my friends. However it seems that there is a lore that has built up over what ended the mall.
I've never heard someone say that "new suburbs cropped up" because that didn't happen. They built a HUGE low income apartment complex in the area. That coupled with the crack epidemic was enough to ruin the whole neighborhood including the mall. Jesse Anderson just made it so our parents wouldn't let us walk around the area for a few weeks. It certainly didn't have much to do with the whole mall closing. I'm sure Mr. Anderson would be flattered to think that blaming his wife's murder on a couple of black guys could bring down an entire mall. 🙄 I get so sick of hearing this blamed as a main reason when it literally had nothing to do with it.
How did you get in foresay? Id live to explore this myself!
All I really can say is I know a guy who was friendly with the guards they had working at the time.
1:06: omg Connie shoes.
This place shut Down before I began my dead malls research in 2005 and it’s still standing. I can’t say that too often.
there were some real blast from the past storefronts in here, especially Gantos and the signless Garden Botanika upstairs.
How were you able to get into the building? Did security let you in?
Without giving away all my secrets, I know a guy who knows a guy who is tight with the guards at the time.
There was a Gantos! I worked at the one in Kenwood Towne Center in 1991.
I have a lot of fond memories going to the Gantos at Kenwood Towne Center with my grandma, a very glamorous lady, when she shopped for evening gowns for cruises. They were gone before I was old enough to buy my own fancy dress, unfortunately.
@@UniCommProductions my Grandma bought me a dress at a Gantos in St. Louis. It was one of my favorite pieces of clothing ever! We saw Jerry Springer at the Kenwood store when he still worked in Cincinnati.
Amazon & the pandemic are what killed most of the shopping malls.
Thank you for the Great video
It really is amazing the amount of waste around the world in these massive abandoned facilities. Think of all the other things that could be made from the materials in these buildings if it could be reclaimed and reused.
And all the different ways the buildings themselves could be reused. It really is a tremendous waste and repurposing what we have means we don’t have to level a forest to build the next new thing
Damn they don't secure the area? That's crazy
Oh no, there’s absolutely guards. It’s an enormous building and they can’t be everywhere so things happen but there’s 2-3 guards on duty
The cartoon cat mall...
Nice lofi ff7 ost
How did you get a permit to even be in there ?
Basically I know a guy who knows a guy who knows the security that was working there at the time
Great video Kristen!! Love seeing the design of the ceilings being contrasted with how bad the mall has been trashed since.
Question about the Chinese company that owns the company. What reasons do you think they have for not selling it. Dodgy tax scheme? Or is this just their way of saying f**k you to the city and just letting it rot. I’m just curious why they are just letting it fall apart.
Thank you very much---the ceilings are so odd when you compare them to the rest of the mall because they're virtually impossible for someone to vandalize unless they got on the roof...so they're basically pristine while the rest of the mall is crumbling under them. As far as the Chinese investment firm, I don't think they think about it at all, to be completely honest. I'm sure they're one of those groups that have a ton of investments all over the place and they just sit back and collect their money, unfortunately. It sounds like they have a pretty sleazy group of lawyers at their behest if anyone asks any questions.
Fun fact- Prange is pronounced Prain-gi. Also, I was locked up for a bit with the guy who killed Anderson & Dahmer. He was set for life as far as his books went.
grew up here. This was THE mall to go to. Brookfield Square was too far (didnt exist in those early days) since Capitol Court was already a ghetto by about 1988-89. By 1991 gangs were causing so many problems that Terry Anderson stabbed and killed his wife at TGI Fridays (edge of mall lot) and blamed it on black gang members, everyone believed in it at first. THATS how bad it was. Nothing but overpriced shoe stores, cap shops, pager kiosks (few had anything but bagphones then, even carphones in mid 90s), and crappy jewelry stores was the final nail in the coffin for Northridge.
$81,000.00 ?!
Sheesh. Knock it down
For less than the price of a hovel starter house you can own an enormous, dangerous mall!
I'll purchase it &.... I grew up a Wisconsinite I promise 😆🤔
If you can get it done, we will all heartily salute you. Anyone would be better than the owners they've got now.
Mako Reactor Mallsoft? Now I've heard it all.
You should look up RiftiBeats-they have two entire albums of FFVII remixes and they SLAP. When I watched my footage I was making my way through Final Fantasy VII Remake and the “burned out city” vibes matched perfectly with the game’s score, so I took a risk.
@@UniCommProductions I will def check that out. By the way I was a Northridge commoner in my younger days as you might have guessed and this vid was as you speculated tough to watch. As there have been many other videos over time thankfully it wasn't unbearable but really just interesting. You did an awesome job and I have to imagine this might be the last video of this magnitude about this place. But who knows? It's been around this long?
@@cacarat53089 I can completely relate as one of the malls I was a regular at as a child was Forest Fair in Cincinnati-and I have the worst feeling it will be this one day too.
What was the first music track that played in the intro walkthrough
Most of the music in this video came from a creator called RiftiBeats who made an excellent remix collection of music from Final Fantasy VIO
@@UniCommProductions awesome thank you. Loved the vid by the way, I was just there and it's gotten even worse since you uploaded this.
The thought that keeps coming to me when watching this video is the idea that its very possible that this isn't just the future of all malls... but all of society. The wrong virus in a lab gets spilled, or the wrong country presses the nuclear button and this could just become planet earth.
I think what shocks and almost offends me most about these videos is the impermanence of everything. When you were a kid going through malls, the smells, sights, and "officialness" of everything just gave this vibe of invincibility to human society, this will be here forever. Watching this structure that created underlying childhood emotional belief, built up through your foundational experience crumble into into not just something that's abandoned, but torn apart, drenched in sewage and torn out of your deepest nightmare or best horror novel is amazing.
So heartbreaking. The mall that I patronized as a teenager now looks like something out of a low budget horror movie.
I used to go to Northridge, too. Always sad when one of your stomping grounds turns out like that.
I don’t understand people’s need to vandalize! So sad to see this old mall in such bad shape. I enjoyed the content as always. Keep up the good work, Kristin.
The vandalism is so bad. This really needs to be a cautionary tale for owners of closed malls that they have to be proactive in keeping people out early-as soon as word gets around that no ones watching, it’s over. Thank you for watching!
Human nature, knowing that the property is left behind which means freedom to do anything.
Right, even when I was young and running the streets, I saw no need to destroy things or spray paint anything.
Concur with the others, but it does point to a cultural "rot" that has been slowly metastasizing for years! What leads one to loot and vandalize isn't that difficult to understand, but it's been dismissed and overlooked for such a long period of time that it has become common place.
I never found graffiti interesting or necessary. They all suck. Not sure if you can really call it art but does anyone stop and notice a graffiti tag and think “wow?” It’s mostly, “man everything sucks.”
Love the weaving of narrative here. Your channel is total comfort food. 🌈
Wow, thank you! That is always how I hope people see my videos--other peoples' mall videos have been that for me!
I used to shop there. Buying books either at B. Dalton's or Walden's. Sometimes I would go to the theater and see a movie. It's a crime what the place has become.
B Dalton, Babbages, gadzooks, ahhh the golden days of retail. Did you expect the mall to hold up after being shuttered though?
All across are nation
the place has become the way that it is because of CRIME. same with Mayfair and soon Bayshore. Population of Milwaukee Co has proven they dont deserve nice things
I've seen so many dead mall exploration videos over the past few years, and this was so well done, my new favorite.. so informative and respectful. I'm really glad I discovered your channel and can't wait to watch more!
Thank you! Welcome aboard!
@@UniCommProductions My pleasure. Thank *you* for taking us to all these amazing places!
This is the best dead malls channel yes. Glad people are documenting the end days of what was an important part of American life. These must have been some of the world's largest buildings.
did whoever ran it charge high rent and not take care of it so stores left
It’s a combination of a few things-the reasons are different between different properties but it’s often that the area the mall is in can no longer support what is offered there. That can be because a big employer closed, the mall isn’t upscale enough because the area has improved, people don’t have the sort of time they had in decades past because their lives are more scheduled and most families require two incomes to survive, nationwide bankruptcies of standard “mall staple” retailers (Payless, Sears, Radio Shack, etc)
This is one of the eeriest abandoned malls I have ever seen, I can only imagine how spooky it is at night. I have always been obsessed with the way structures that were once full of life can end up just sitting silently and rotting away. The skyridge part almost seemed like a modern cathedral in a way. Keep up the awesome work.
It's even more eerie when you walked those halls as a teenager, and remember it brimming with life. Really sad.
Yeah I get creeped out easily over abandoned places, especially huge abandoned places. No way would I walk into one of the big, dark empty anchor stores getting no sunlight.
@@mikewillett5076 Same, I honestly would just be too creeper out, that scares me more than any horror film could ever.
@@brentmartin1981. Yeah. Even smaller abandoned places creep me out. Looking into tens of thousands of square feet of a windowless huge store would drive my imagination wild and not in a good way. Lol
i went here at night once. it was super creepy at night but mostly because of the fact that EVERYTHING is pitch black
I think I remember an 80’s teen singer called Tiffany performing at this mall, I remember the ceiling and sky lights of the main atrium. For the life of me I can’t remember her song 😂
Her big hit was a cover of “I think we’re alone now”
@@UniCommProductions THATS RIGHT!!!! Oh no!!! Now it’s in my head and it’s Sunday night 10 pm New Zealand 🇳🇿 time!!
Havent found one thing online about tiffany performing any parts of vid "i think were alone now" at northridge in mke😵 maybe some scenes in the vid but i dunno im not subjecting my self to anymore scratchy "into the nights" ty
She usually lip-synched at her mall gigs. Man that girl had a husky voice for someone her age.
@@UniCommProductions its not really your fault but i feel terrible how ive conducted myself towards some of your replies. Im scrolling through all comments to delete my dang harsh comments fme. Im just real passionate about whatever i try to do sometimes as seen here to the point of outdoing doing myself
"Viewers, don't let you dead malls grow up to be Northridge" hurt to be honest. I still remember how much I loved the fountains when I was a young kid. The Easter display hit me too. My parents have a photo of me meeting the Easter bunny at Northridge when I was about 3
Same. This makes me want to cry. It was bad before Casey Neistat was here, but thanks to the attention he brought... it got monumentally worse. He didn't even clean up after he left.
This video was great, absolutely fantastic. One of the perks of being a Petreon member. Lots of detail, and lots of decline from the past few years! Awesome job!!!
Thank you, Scott! I'm glad you got to watch it early before I had to lock it down before the premiere!
The mall was place you could meet up with your friends, buy a birthday present, get your nails done or whatever your mood was. The sounds, bright lights, and smells. Christmas time was a hustle and bustle. But beautifully decorated with a giant Christmas in the middle of it all. Having a soft pretzel and cruising to see who had the best sales.very fond memories .❤️✌️
As an older millennial born in the late 80's, gotta say malls were a big part of my youth too. But yes the internet and internet gaming cafes really took off after about 1996.
I was born in the late 90's and malls were still apart of my life until 2010 when Amazon took off. Now I think Malls are struggling to find ways for my generation to use them.
So sad to see the destruction. This was a beautiful 90s looking mall
I'm amazed it still stands. When I was finally on my own, getting out of college, going to work, my getaway was Collin Creek Mall in Plano, TX. Now it's gone, completely demolished. It's nowhere as old as this mall. Sadly, I think by the time I reach retirement age, there will be very very few malls left anywhere. Even 100 malls left in 30 years is really stretching. And it's our own fault. We've become too fat, cheap and lazy to get up and go anywhere. We don't want to even set foot in a mall when Amazon or some other online site sells what we want. That's also contributing to the permanent drop in the number of malls each year. There are only two malls within a 50 mile radius of where I live and one of those malls is literally dying: it's two stories and the entire second floor is abandoned and boarded up. Funny thing is the elevators work but the escalators haven't run in 2 years. JC Penney is one of the anchor stores and it has been reduced to half its size and turned into a clearance store. Even Burger King packed up and moved out of the food court along with a really good Asian wok restaurant. I don't see that mall lasting another 5 years.
Those ceilings are just spectacular. You featured the architecture of this abandoned mall beautifully.
This is amazing thanks once again for your time and efforts. The production level is par excellence. I can't help but see a building that in its heyday would have been a beautiful monument to modern architecture and culture. I always find it such a shame to see so much money hard work blood sweat and even a death go to waste. I absolutely love this work its like you guys the DMOD team are modern historians documenting this part of our culture. Cheers.
Thank you Michael! This video was so awesome to film and I am so glad to finally share it with you and the other viewers.
I remember seeing the Easter Bunny here in the early 80’s - My mom loved shopping at the Gimbles and the Marshall Fields. I remember my mom walking the mall at such a fast pace and I was always rushing to keep up with her. I just thought it was the most beautiful mall. I also have memories of the Northridge/Southridge Mall commercials, especially for the holidays. It’s always so strange to see it in it’s current state.
Compared to the Jamestown Mall here in St. Louis (closed in 2014), this mall is in great shape...especially since it has been closed for so long. Awesome video!
I agree there
Yeah, but it must stink to the point you start physically suffocating because he mentioned asbestos and leaking sewage. Ugh.
Two words : Tragically Beautiful
Accurate!
Your videos are among the best from both content and production quality. I like the subtle humor in some of them, but this is your best video yet. Super smooth camera work, perfect musical and background sound theming, (Reminds me a bit of the Aperture Science ambience in Portal 2).. and perfect narration. Great work.
Thank you so much-I always am super happy when I don’t have to be looking over my shoulder to see if security is about to have a conversation with me about my camera! This was a once in a lifetime experience and I was so honored to share it with all of you.
So sad I can remember running thru that mall as I child and when they would hold trick or treating for family who worked there. Great video
This was Amazing.
The large skylights gave off old industrial exhaust fan vibes
I am truly amazed at how this video turned out. So many have already documented this mall, but your take has been one of the best I have seen. It is amazing how the mall was able to stay mostly intact and secure up until a few years ago. So many malls start getting ripped apart as soon as they are closed.
Thank you! Coming from a fellow creator that means a lot.
I grew up at a time when malls were still striving but now my children are growing up at a time when malls are at their last feet. It makes me sad to see them disappearing and your video just hit a spot in my memories. Very will done and narrated. Thank you!!
Growing up in the 80’s I really enjoy your channel. The editing, commentary and music is always top notch. Watching this one makes me nervous and hopefully you enter these structures not alone or with someone who can provide security if you run into someone who would do you harm. Be safe.
I wasn’t alone…in the building. The people I was with kind of did the divide and conquer thing but I was carrying things for my safety in case I ran into trouble. My fiancé is Mr Safety so he made sure I was prepared! Thanks for watching!
The style of the mall actually looks luxurious compared to some dead malls I’ve seen. Quite impressive.
Came here to give props to the low key FFVII background ‘mall music’
Nothing says you gangsta by putting your tag inside a building 99.99% of people in the area won't see. hahaha
I shopped at this mall as a young adult for years and years. It was so much fun and had anything and everything you needed. Clothes, nails, hair salons, eyeglasses, toys, videos, food court, even a store of just candles. I even lived in the area in the 1980s and my husband bought my engagement ring at Shaws Jewelry. It’s so sad seeing it now. I miss those days.
News Anchor: "Guys, there's a fence, don't go in here, it's obviously not safe"
*fence only covering the road entrance and easily walked around*
News Anchor: "Definitely don't walk 10 feet due-East and find this great pathway into the mall!"
He’s out here doing a service but not to the people he thinks he is. Teenagers getting CLOUT. On their PHONE!
Having grown up, and even working here, it just freaks me out to think that what we once held as a viable community or establishment is obsolete in our lifetimes. And, as for the "legal" issues involved in bulldozing this place, you have to wonder what they can possibly do with this location. It is now in a less than desirable area (low income housing in the immediate area in the 1990's certainly did not help). Even if you were to convert all 100 acres of this land, it would be a risk to think that it would be a destination anymore, where people would be proud to live. There is not even a shopping store for miles around anymore...they too, were abandoned.
Agreed, the area is totally effed. 💯
This is amazing! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 I love the music and the background sounds too. Wonderful job!
I'll never understand why people have to break, destroy and vandalize everything and feel the need to spray paint their names or obscene messages everywhere. If places were just left to decay naturally it would be nicer.
2:11 Scratched my head for a moment on where that music was from, and then *DING* Makou Reactor!! Pretty sweet renditions of FFVIIaporwave used throughout here, especially that remix of Flowers Blooming in the Church near the end. As always, a somber yet enlightening exploration! Hope you bring an air-filtered mask next time.
I love Final Fantasy VII and after playing the remake this place really brought those “destroyed city” vibes of Midgar. I had a respirator however there were parts of the filming for which I wasn’t wearing it. After that close call in the old Gantos I put it on!
@@UniCommProductions *Phew* glad you had your respirator. Sometimes I even feel like holding my breath whenever I see urbexers venturing into spots with heavy mold and powdered glass in the air!
Were you able to finish Remake? Tried getting into it again with my Bro playing but I felt a sense of wanting, especially with the music. When I heard the boss battle theme again, it just didn't hit as hard without the electric guitar.
@@Eufranco I have a couple times actually! I’ve been muddling my way through Hard mode the last couple weeks. I had probably played through the original once a year since it came out so I was super stoked to try out the new one.
@@UniCommProductions Once a year since?? Is that 100% with side quests every time? Haha, well glad to hear. If you're enjoying the Remake as much as the original, then perhaps you've got twice the gameplay per year to look forward to!
Great job. I grew up in Wisconsin, but was 4 hours away from Milwaukee so I never went to any of the malls down there growing up.
It looks way worse than when the proper people were there. Sucks cause it was clean for so long before Casey filmed there.
The Proper People shot their video in spring 2019 so it’s been about two years. It’s gotten much worse
It's always enjoyable to see these places and learn about the history but it seems once a place gets explored or publicized the bad behavior comes out. The Japanese sites are always so cool because there's very little vandalism.
On second thought, bring a wrecking crew in the middle of the night and tear it down _now!_ [Use dynamite if necessary.] Then offer to pay out the insurance on the mall (which can't be much more than that last appraisal of the mall), before telling the owners to go to hell!
Great video. I've seen malls in way worse shape that was abandoned for less time. Love the fountains in this mall.
Grew up in the Milwaukee area. This place and Memorial Mall in Sheboygan were my hangouts. This hurts my soul, but thank you for this video. Very well done.
Awesome video.Brings back some memories.I remember going there a handful of times between 1997 and 2001 and it was just eerie seeing more and more storefronts boarded up everytime I went.People used to hide under cars and slash your ankles as you were getting in so you drop your keys,I didn't think that was true until the last time I went I saw someone laying under a car waiting,just the weirdest thing.Sucks to see this once great mall in this condition,but great video .Keep up the excellent work
Holy crap that's scary, especially as someone who drives a vehicle with hella ground clearance. Thank you for taking the time to share your memories and for watching!
I really appreciate the KEY footage you showed that demonstrated for practically the first decade of it being abandoned, the mall was actually still in very good shape!!
Man !!! I know you don’t do Urban Exploration but that was the best Urban Expo video I’ve seen outside the Proper People. You didn’t use click bait. You took time with your shots not just focusing on one thing for 10 minutes like many seem to do. You use news footage to help us along. The music was used at the right times & last but not least your tone of voice wasn’t as upbeat as usual it fit the sadness of the video great freakin job !!!!! If you ever wanna start doing Urban Expo videos I’m so down for that hahaha !
Wow thank you very much! I really admire the Proper People’s work and watch it often. I am always interested in telling an interesting story about spaces like this whether they’re abandoned or still open. I definitely would love to start doing more “urbex” type videos if the opportunity presents itself
This is an amazing vid, 9/10. I will reccomend some urbex videos from shiey, his videos are amazing as well (and better than the proper people imo).
Kristin, you are a fabulous wordsmith. Thank you for adding dignity to the inevitable demise of the Northridge Mall. I think it is much like a great sunken ship wreck that resides above ground. It is almost inconceivable that this could happen in our society today
It feels VERY much like a wrecked ship-I remember seeing some of the post-wreckage photos of the Costa Concordia and it felt very similar. Excellent analogy.
Northridge mall at zip code 53223 two large and expensive to demolish.. too large and expensive to renovate.. what to do with it now a portion of this massive structure could be converted to condominiums or shelters for the homeless and the poor if the city would ever understand and get their act together
why does this sound like sarah connor doing a voice over for the next terminator movie lol
It’s so stupid the malls are gone. They were awesome in bad weather, and a good source of exercise. It was exciting to go shopping at the holidays, there was always so many nice decorations, and it just made life so much fun. We are a sad country these days, no place for your children to go and see wonderful things. iPads and computers and phones have made them lazy, and an
There are still many, many malls. They were wildly overbuilt in the 70s and 80s and what we are experiencing right now is a market correction to the number there probably should have been to begin with. You seem very upset by technology; are you posting your comments from a phone?
This is where that cartoon cat image was taken.
It's almost as if after seeing the memories of a better time, the response is to obliterate and defile it- to tear it open to the elements and watch it rot. While it's not the worst example of mall-to-blight I've seen, it's obvious this mall is a well-rotted corpse.
Props on your writing! Beautifully phrased at time...poetic.
Wonderful vid Kristin! Thanks for all the time and effort put into making this, definitely amazing to watch and your great narration made it even more so!
It was a labor of love to put together. Exciting to film and a challenge to edit. Thank you!
Good heavens. For those who had pleasant memories of this mall, it must seem like a visit to a haunted house…..
This was fantastic!
Exploring an abandoned mall is now on my bucket list! (I went to the mall to see Santa as a kid in the 2000s)
This video was very well done!
Effort was put into this and it shows, thank you!
RIP MR DIAZ
As someone who once broke into this mall we all know this place was bound to be razed and torn down, which is why we all went and explored (never destroyed, goes against urban exploration rules). None of us got to experience it and knew we never would with malls dying out nationally, but we still wanted to have a part in and leave our mark while it was there, and saw we did it. Dumb, yes I know, but this place is unsafe regardless if it was demolished to shreds, and needs to be torn down and has from the start. Asbestos, mold and flooding, mass destruction from even before people got into it and destroyed everything.
Not only that but the area is awful and nobody wants to be in that area of Milwaukee, it was bound to happen with it’s location, sadly. It just needs to be razed and officially torn down.
Great job on this mall documentary Kristin!!! 🤗❤🤗❤🤗❤ I love this video your video is by far the longest on I seen here on TH-cam and the most enjoyable video too!!! ❤❤❤ I live in Rockford, Illinois for the past 15 years I grew up in Chicago and lived in the Elgin, Illinois area for 21 years before moving to Rockford. I heard of this mall I never been there even when I was a child growing up in Chicago and many trips I took with my stepfather at the time to Milwaukee. I heard of the mall and seen the footage about this mall after that Casey Nastead made that holiday video for the boys and girls club. As a TH-cam Urban Explorer I been visiting this mall in many videos and I love your long video documentary on this mall!!! Great job and keep them coming I love it!!! ❤ ❤❤
Both my grandparents and several relatives lived at Northridge Lakes across the street and I worked at that Hardees by Dennys in HS. Man such memories!
How many homeless now? And places like this sit empty.
On a HUGE plot of land.
Amazing video, love that you have the history of the mall and it's slow demise documented here as well. I also like that you speak clearly, so I don't need subtitles to watch this. Thank you!
You’re very welcome! Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment!
A very creepy mall. With broken glass every where .what a sad day for this to happen to a once beautiful mall. 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱
I explored the mall in Aug 2021. Vandalism is crazy there. It was well sealed and hard to get in, once in the broken glass makes it hard to explore.
I hope you were wearing heavy soled shoes. That glass is no joke; I was wearing motorcycle boots and I was still worried I was going to find a nail or something
Steel toe shoes, It was after work that day (so Lucky!) Wisconsin has some cool places to explore
Went there a few times in the early/mid 90's with the restaurant company, 1 Potato 2. I traveled from Minnesota to both malls to visit those locations owned by franchisees. I feel old thinking back how far back that was and how things have changed. great video. thank you
Loved this video! You & Ace's Adventures did the best videos of this mall! We just subscribed to your channel! This mall is less than two hours from us. How did you & other vloggers get to tour this mall? We would love to tour it sometime but we are a little nervous because the neighborhood just south & southwest of there is a little tough. Thanks!
Basically without putting anyone under the bus, I know a guy who knows a guy, basically.
@@UniCommProductions Cool!