After a minor dust-up of the mall's decision to replace its popular kids' play area right at the busiest time of the year, the Streets at Southpoint appear to have brought the project to re-do the amenity to a close just before one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year.
As the N&O's Mom2Mom (hey, what about those working dads?) blog reports:
The Duke Medicine Kidzone features sports-themed soft-play equipment and soft seating built into the play area for parents to keep an eye on their kids. It's part of a new partnership between Duke Medical Center and Southpoint, which also will allow the hospital to host some community events at the mall in the future.
A ribbon cutting ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday. A face painter and balloon artist will be entertaining kids near the play area from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The new site is adjacent to JC Penney on the megamall's lower level.
No word on what happened to the creepy bronze statues that had been standing there. Certainly mall owner General Growth Property must know that if you don't smelt them down, they come to life on the full moon and break out of the storage room where they're being held and rampage through crowds of horrified shoppers. Everyone knows that.
Yea, we checked it out today. It's about half the size of the old play area. The big problem, however, is that the closest bathroom is all the way at the back of JC Penny -- and there is only one of them. That's one toilet for all those potty-training kids. When we rushed to go to that bathroom, there was a line, and my kid had an accident while we were waiting. This was a poorly conceived, poorly executed change. I understand that they plan to put a big store in the location of the old playground. That mall is so full of vacancies, do they really need another empty storefront?
Posted by: Kenny | December 21, 2008 at 05:15 PM
I thinks it's really rude of you to say those statutes are "creepy" just because they are REAALLY ugly (and make me want to vomit.)
Posted by: shane | December 21, 2008 at 07:59 PM
They are beyond creepy.
They should just melt them all down and make one big Dinosaur out of the bronze, kids would like that especially a T- Rex
Posted by: fritz | December 21, 2008 at 08:17 PM
It's not just the statues that are creepy. The whole "Main Street" section is just really bizarre. They created a fake "downtown" with fake children playing on fake streets for the benefit people who wouldn't dream of going shopping in a REAL downtown business district. They just want the sanitized, Disney version. I think of it as our own little piece of Celebration, FL.
Posted by: David McMullen | December 21, 2008 at 09:23 PM
I don't know about a T-rex... I'm voting for a stegosaurus.
Or a dinocorn (the mythical half dinosaur, half unicorn).
Posted by: Rob | December 22, 2008 at 07:57 AM
Triceratops's!
Posted by: fletchfoto | December 22, 2008 at 08:09 AM
Dino-Corn ...that works for me
Posted by: Fritz | December 22, 2008 at 02:19 PM