It'd be interesting to see more ideas like this take fold (not specifically startup related, but just "rethinking what this space could be used for") The Silve

It'd be interesting to see more ideas like this take fold (not specifically startup related, but just "rethinking what this space could be used for") The Silverdome (former home to the Detroit Lions) was a skating rink on the weekends for a year or two. I've heard ideas of turning malls into senior living -- which would be a little funny[0]. As a guy who hates cold weather, I'd love to be able to walk to a restaurant without walking outside in February. I'm not sure if that would really work "in practice" (that was kind of the idea of the mall in the first place -- adding my bed to it doesn't really make it better and has a lot of downsides for the small upside). I'm not really sure what the answer is[1]. I look at the 80s mall by my home and it's surrounded by 50 restaurants, on an intersection of an 8-lane and 6-lane road with thriving businesses all around it. Were it not in an excellent location -- the businesses bordering it area all doing very well; it helps that it's a mile and a half away from a brand-new, modern, mall and and a bunch of other popular retail/restaurants -- it would be abandoned like the rest. But it can't be doing anywhere nearly as well as a Walmart, Ikea, Meijer, Costco, BJs, or any other indoor retail establishment that would take that much property. In its current state, it hurts the businesses around it and abandoned -- all the same and its, at best, losing a lot of money. [0] Aside from the two 80s malls in my area being surrounded by 2-3 retirement homes already, anyone who's arrived at one of these places in the 90s prior to the stores opening will remember the middle-aged and elderly men and (mostly) women "mall walking". [1] Well, aside from the market answer -- which is, "abandon it because we can't make money on it" and "let the taxpayers deal with the blight". I have no problem with the former, but the latter frustrates me