Lake Forest Plaza, the beleaguered eastern New Orleans shopping mall that has struggled for years and been completely empty since Hurricane Katrina, will be demolished to make way for a new Lowe's Home Improvement store plus another million square feet of adjoining retail space, owners of the mall say.
When I was growing up, the Plaza was still a major shopping mall with a movie theater, your major department stores, and an ice rink. When I came to New Orleans East as an adult to work across the street, the mall had fallen on some serious hard times. All but one of the anchor stores had closed. Most of the small stores in the mall were either vacant or largely unfurnished T-shirt kiosks. Entergy had a Customer Service Center in the building where I could often be found paying my electric bill a week or so late. The ice rink had been replaced with a food court which featured one pretty decent Jamaican place and three Chinese food stands. Daisy and I often made a lunch out of "flied lice" and "purples" (don't ask.. really) which we purchased from a lady who always wanted to talk at length about the library. Unfortunately we could barely understand a word she said to us so we spent a lot of time smiling and nodding until our food was ready. Nice lady though. I wonder what happened to her.
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