The El Con Mall
Announced today, Sunday, in the Arizona Daily Scar newspaper, the El Con Mall will be de-constructed. I'm not sure how I feel about that. About thirty years ago, I worked there as the de-facto mall manager. They called me everything but that, but that is what I was. They paid me peanuts to do a $90,000 job, and I got a monster of an ulcer for it, removed just one year ago by a prince of a doctor at the Kino Hospital, a Dr. Hanna.
I digress. It was by my account, one of the worst jobs I ever had. Cynthia Lippert was my able assistant, a better friend and right hand, you could never have. There were at it's zenith, 126 stores, the 7th largest mall on the globe, owned by two families that fought each other constantly, sometimes physically. Leon Levy, now dead, once told me in his office, he stepped in to separate the Kivels and Pappanikoli. The Papp attorney once told me, he had to keep John the surviving brother, after Gus died, away from contracts, " John will sign anything," he told me.Thirteen Kivels had to sign a contract before anything was committed. Otherwise, no deal. I answered to EVERYBODY, developers, all of them, merchants, all of them, big and small. By the end of three years, my nerves were shot, my marriage was shot, I had a drinking problem, I dug my heels in and created enemies everywhere.
I would not give in, because at that point, I could please no one. Cynthia once told me - wise woman - ' you could hand out hundred dollar bills to the merchants and they would bitch at you that you were blocking the registers.'
I was the Manager of the Mall when we covered it, made it into one mall, had a grand opening, hosted the 'Ball in the Mall.' I couldn't even get agreement from all of them as to how to close the mall, start the ball, for the big PR event.
So, I hired 50 armed guards, and shut it down.
"You can't do that" they said. Oh yeah. Well, I just did it. After all, if everybody is pissed off at me, what do I have to lose. Six months later, I was Vice President at Evergreen Air Center in Marana, a CIA cover company.
And now, they are stripping away the skin of a dead whale lying on the edge of Broadway.
Who cares? Good riddance. Walmart is coming. Valdez is coming. When I ran the place during the construction thirty years ago, I managed amidst the dirt and banging around, to keep everyone in business, nobody went bankrupt, "hard-hat" sales and everything. A minor miracle in the making. What did I get for it? I got $36,000 lousy dollars a year and a Grand Canyon ulcer.
I digress. It was by my account, one of the worst jobs I ever had. Cynthia Lippert was my able assistant, a better friend and right hand, you could never have. There were at it's zenith, 126 stores, the 7th largest mall on the globe, owned by two families that fought each other constantly, sometimes physically. Leon Levy, now dead, once told me in his office, he stepped in to separate the Kivels and Pappanikoli. The Papp attorney once told me, he had to keep John the surviving brother, after Gus died, away from contracts, " John will sign anything," he told me.Thirteen Kivels had to sign a contract before anything was committed. Otherwise, no deal. I answered to EVERYBODY, developers, all of them, merchants, all of them, big and small. By the end of three years, my nerves were shot, my marriage was shot, I had a drinking problem, I dug my heels in and created enemies everywhere.
I would not give in, because at that point, I could please no one. Cynthia once told me - wise woman - ' you could hand out hundred dollar bills to the merchants and they would bitch at you that you were blocking the registers.'
I was the Manager of the Mall when we covered it, made it into one mall, had a grand opening, hosted the 'Ball in the Mall.' I couldn't even get agreement from all of them as to how to close the mall, start the ball, for the big PR event.
So, I hired 50 armed guards, and shut it down.
"You can't do that" they said. Oh yeah. Well, I just did it. After all, if everybody is pissed off at me, what do I have to lose. Six months later, I was Vice President at Evergreen Air Center in Marana, a CIA cover company.
And now, they are stripping away the skin of a dead whale lying on the edge of Broadway.
Who cares? Good riddance. Walmart is coming. Valdez is coming. When I ran the place during the construction thirty years ago, I managed amidst the dirt and banging around, to keep everyone in business, nobody went bankrupt, "hard-hat" sales and everything. A minor miracle in the making. What did I get for it? I got $36,000 lousy dollars a year and a Grand Canyon ulcer.
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