Southgate Mall

Would the Southgate Mall serve our area better by renovation into offices, perhaps a complex of medical offices? We understand that Muscle Shoals Mayor David Bradford doesn't think so.

A current Yahoo blurb for the mall states: Shop the many unique speciality shops and major department stores. Located near many fast-food and fine restaurants.

One has to wonder if Bradford himself was responsible for this purple prose. Of course, any municipality earns more revenue from retail sales than other businesses, but what if the businesses aren't there? Apparently, there is not enough rented store space to pay for taxes and upkeep on the Southgate building. Surely converting this space to offices is preferable to tearing down an edifice that once served to put Muscle Shoals on the map.

For those of you who live within the Muscle Shoals City limits, I suggest you contact Mayor Bradford to make your wishes known. You may write the mayor at Post Office Box 2624 or e-mail him at mshoals@hiwaay.net

When the economy rebounds, retail outlets will return to Muscle Shoals, building new stores as they come. For now, the citizens of Muscle Shoals would do well to consider the bird in the hand.

What's up with this: A loyal reader informs us that Steve Wiggins has not added new content to The Catfish Wrapper in some time, asking us to remove it from our list of "must reads." We're sure Steve has been busy with other projects, but we are removing the link to this site for the time being.