I saw two stories in the morning paper on different pages that would have been more interesting if they had been put side by side. The bigger story, on Page 1, talked about the impasse between Glenbrook and county officials on the mall's tax value:
A court-ordered reassessment of properties in 2002 increased the mall's tax value from less than $50 million to $114.7 million. The move also increased annual property taxes for the mall by $1.4 million, to $2.3 million. [. . . ] According to the original appeal, Glenbrook argued its value should be $38.8 million.
The smaller story was on the front of the Living section. A popular and long-running program, in which seniors walked through Glenbrook, has ended:
The Power-Walkers program aimed at senior citizens, part of St. Joseph Hospital's Healthy Lifesteps initiative, was discontinued Dec. 15 when mall officials asked for payment for use of space, said Barb Schoppman, hospital vice president of community and adult services.
Too bad the stingy walkers wouldn't pay up. Sure, if there were only 100 walkers, they'd have to pay $14,000 each for Glenbrook to make up its $1.4 million tax deficit. But if each of those walkers recruited nine more walkers . . .
Seriously, though.
Does anyone out there think it's a good idea for a mall, beset on one end of the spectrum by Jefferson Pointe and on the other by Wal-Mart, to seem like a bad neighbor by frustating senior citizens' attempts to stay healthy and at the same time giving up the word of mouth by people who might say things like, "Oh, you know that dress style you've been looking for? Well, just this morning, when I was walking at Glenbrook . . . "?
