I can't get to the article, but I have to laugh, just a little, having lived in Elmira for a "few" years.

The mall you talk about is in horseheads, not Elmira, also Tommy H. was originally from Horseheads as well.
I dated him a few times.

Elmira has been on the decline since 1972, when the flood went through and wiped out many shops along the river front. Elmira choose to spend the flood money in none productive ways.  Corning also in the same boat ;)
Spent their money wisely and is still doing well today.

The "brick and mortar sales" ( I collected 2 degrees from E C from 1981 to 2001,)  The students rarely went shopping in town, and there was not a very good bus system to the mall, so few were able to get to the mall.


If you take a look at all the medium to small towns in America, they are all declining, including Ithaca ny.
The cornell students in Ithaca want Ithaca to look like NYcity. Yippy skippy! So we get a TON of living spaces, no parking, and losing all the mom and pop food places, including one that has been in Ithaca, the 9's for 40 or so years.
My fav pia place :(

All the malls except the Syracuse one, are all going downhill due to Amazon and mail order.

It is an end of an era for America, it is very sad.

So as far as I can tell, the reporting for this article was very poor.

Just my 2 cents from experience in Elmira.

Jules


-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Twain Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Matthew Seybold
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2017 2:29 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: depressing article about current economic downturn in Elmira

I have problems with many of the economic presumption underlying this account, but that aside, the most depressing line is definitely perhaps best known as the hometown of American fashion icon  Tommy Hilfiger Poor reporting.

> On Sep 28, 2017, at 2:11 PM, Steve Hoffman =
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>=20
> Don't know if folks will be able to access this or=20  whether it's 
>behind Wall St Journal's paywall (I=20  subscribe to it) but there's a 
>big article in=20  today's edition about how our beloved Elmira NY 
>is=20  hurting from decline in brick and mortar sales.=20  see link 
>below. The huge area shopping mall is=20  just one large anchor-store 
>closing away from=20  going out of business.  Sales tax revenue is 
>way=20  down, depriving the city of revenues and forcing=20  cutbacks 
>in municipal services.  And so on .....=20  As the article describes, 
>with Elmira having lost=20  its manufacturing base, the large shopping 
>mall is=20  one of its major employer, and now those=20  
>brick-and-mortar retail jobs are disappearing as=20  well. T
>=20
> There is no mention in the article of the College=20  or the Twain 
>connection ....
>=20
> Btw, during this summer's conference in Elmira, I=20  went to that 
>mall and it was depressing as hell!
>=20
> =
https://www.wsj.com/articles/retail-stores-made-elmira-n-y-an-unlikely-suc=
cessnow-theyre-gone-1506525802
>=20
> Steve Hoffman
>=20
> Takoma Park MD