Three more malls in the Twin Cities?

It's being discussed that there could be as many as three more "regional malls" built in the Twin Cities in a short period of time. With Rogers, Maple Grove and Chanhassen being discussed by developers in talks with city officials and land owners, it may be a reality in short time.

Does the 2.5 million population Twin Cities actually need even one more mall? With the Bloomington-based Mall of America doubling its size, that should put the screws to nearby struggling Southdale Center in affluent Edina as well as do further damage to Burnsville Center to the south of the Mall of America.

On the north side of the Twin Cities, Brookdale Center is a ghost town and is far from an attractive place to drag the family to. It's that typical mall that only certain white folks frequent but I don't live near there so what does it matter to me?

Of the three towns proposed for new shopping malls, Chanhassen and Maple Grove sound to be the dumbest. Chanhassen sits immediately west of Eden Prairie and its oh-so-cleverly named Eden Prairie Center which has sprung back from its dark days when it was featured in the movie "Mallrats" as a virtual ghost town of empty storefronts and shady retailers. Another "mall" already sits nearly empty to the south in Shakopee so Chanhassen would be doomed from the start.

Maple Grove would be an extremely dumb choice due to one fact. It has no nearby competition but is home to a sprawling "lifestyle center" which has nearly every mid- to large-scale retailer one could imagine and how much replication and sameness can us truly unique and original Minnesotans stand?

Rogers, approaching half-way to St. Cloud, would be a logical choice and would spur additional development as people might actually flock to this outpost a good 45 minutes from downtown Minneapolis just because there are shopping options where there weren't any before.

Do Minnesotans actually need even one more multi-level, climate-controlled box containing the exact same mix of dull and unoriginal chain stores that are in every other damn mall in the entire nation? Probably not. Have you actually met someone who buys their clothes at Express? I don't know that I have ever seen anyone in there fawning over an $80 pair of jeans only an anorexic could squeeze into. If the tiny city of Rogers did become home to a "regional" mall, it's good news for the few tweens and teens in the area. They could become instantly hip as they piss away their earnings from the local McDonald's and snap up fake rock garments at Hot Topic to sport how cutting edge they are because they listen to Panic! At The Disco.