For generations, the Westminster Mall operated akin to a town square for central Orange County — a place to socialize and be seen.
It’s where teenagers strolled hand in hand on first dates, where parents took their kids to catch the latest box office hit and even the most frustrating day of shopping could be improved with a giant pretzel or cinnamon roll from the food court.
When it closed last year, there were tears and even a funeral for the Orange County relic. But that was just the beginning of the indignity for the beloved mall.
In recent days, videos have circulated on social media showing rampant vandalism and destruction inside the massive structure. The images, which have angered and saddened locals who spent their youth there, have become a symbol of how many malls end their lives — not with celebration but with years of decay and, ultimately, defacement.
“There’s still a legacy and respect that these spaces deserve,” said Alexis Malatesta, who frequented the Westminster Mall during her youth in Huntington Beach. “Just because it’s going to be torn down doesn’t mean you should go in there and just deface it and annihilate it.”
The Westminster Mall, which first opened in 1974, was most recently home to big department stores like JCPenney and mall staples such as Victoria’s Secret and Auntie Anne’s. The mall, like many others across California, is expected to eventually be transformed into a mixed-use development with retail space and housing.
As malls have closed due to shifting consumer shopping habits and a desire for more lucrative development opportunities, the expansive empty buildings have taken on a new draw as a kind of post-apocalyptic wasteland, much to the chagrin of local officials. Leveling such large structures and building something new in their place often takes years because of the complexities, leaving the malls vacant and ripe for abuse.
Videos on social media and YouTube show people tagging empty storefronts, skateboarding or riding bicycles indoors and urban explorers touring the abandoned spaces for posterity or to look for signs of paranormal activity.
After the Hawthorne Plaza closed in 1999, it became the eerie setting for music videos for artists including Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Travis Scott. Graffiti, trash, trespassing and safety issues at the sprawling mall vexed L.A. officials for so many years that they secured an injunction forcing the property owners to redevelop it or demolish it by August.
Valley Plaza in North Hollywood, once touted as the largest shopping center on the West Coast, had been abandoned for nearly a decade, becoming a hot spot for fires and criminal activity before it was demolished last year.
In San Bernardino, the Carousel Mall had become a center for criminal activity, fires, a shooting and even an electrocution in the years after it closed in 2017. The mall was demolished in 2023.
Karen North, a USC professor who specializes in digital social media and psychology, said it’s not surprising that people would be drawn to these vacant spaces. For one, many of those seeking to go inside the shuttered structures may have spent some of their youth in malls. There’s also the desire for notoriety and social media engagement, and vacant malls provide a large canvas for content.
“Obviously there are people who love the celebrity, or more to the point, the notoriety of seeing their name or their artwork in a public space — both the physical space and the digital space,” North said.
In 2021, the so-called devious lick challenge prompted students to vandalize and damage property at their schools and post their misdeeds online. The viral TikTok trend left California schools with thousands of dollars in damage. Other vandals have targeted abandoned picturesque Hollywood estates or downtown L.A. high-rises.
“There’s this fascination with doing bad deeds and trying to get away with it,” North said. “It’s just inherently a part of human nature.”
Not every mall has faced an inglorious death. The Westside Pavilion, famous for its prominent appearances in film and television including the 1995 movie “Clueless,” closed in 2019 and was later purchased by UCLA, which is transforming it into a research center.
The Westminster Mall is expected to be razed to make way for a mixed-use development that will include shopping and residences. As envisioned in a plan adopted by the City Council in 2022, the new development could contain at least 600,000 square feet of retail space, up to 3,000 residential units and roughly 9 acres of parks.
But it’s not clear when the buildings will be demolished. Kaiser Permanente, Shopoff Realty, True Life Cos. and Washington Prime Group each own portions of the 100-acre property.
City officials and the Police Department have been working with property owners to better secure the buildings to keep trespassers out. Since it’s private property, it’s ultimately up to the owners to ensure it’s locked up.
“We are aware of the recent vandalism at the mall and are working closely with local law enforcement to maintain a safe and secure environment,” Shopoff Realty, which owns the property, said in a statement.
Since the mall’s closure in late October, the Westminster Police Department has received 302 calls for service at the property — roughly double what the department received during a typical two-month span when the mall was open, Cmdr. Andy Stowers said.
The majority have been reports of trespassing and vandalism, he said.
Between Friday and Monday, the department spent 41 hours responding to 57 calls for service at the mall and arrested 30 people for a mix of reasons including vandalism, trespassing, outstanding warrants and drugs, Stowers said.
“That’s a lot of resources to take away from serving our community,” Councilman Carlos Manzo said of the police response. “It’s unfortunate. It seems to me like these folks are just doing it for social media, they’re posting it and getting their kicks out of it, but they’re not taking into account that if our PD has to get out there it’s really negatively affecting our community.”
The property owners have added fencing and boards in an attempt to better secure the mall in the past week. But the lure of an empty mall has still been attractive for explorers.
Inside the mall, the 1990s-era carpet is littered with shattered glass from people busting through store windows and smashing partitions that encased the second story. The leg of a disassembled manikin — marked with graffiti — is strewn among the chaos. The empty storefronts have become a canvas for tags and graffiti. Nothing seems to be untouched, even the escalators and directories are covered in lettering.
The marble facade of what was previously a jewelry store is covered in bubble letters and other tags. Inside, the glass display cases have been shattered and graffiti mars the mirrored walls, as seen in a video of the shuttered mall posted on YouTube.
The colorful walls that once welcomed guests to John’s Incredible Pizza are filled with graffiti. The glass of an abandoned arcade game has been broken and a coin-operated kiddie ride offers a glimpse into the space’s past life.
Teens have been seen on video riding their e-bikes inside the structure, jumping on trampolines in the shuttered Sky Zone and emptying fire extinguishers.
“This is not safe,” Malatesta said. “If people were just going in there and drawing and exploring, that doesn’t enrage me, but the blatant disrespect and these children that are going in there and putting themselves in harm’s way is, you know, that’s what really upsets me.”
The scene that she’s seen online inside the mall is a world away from how she remembers the place where she spent so many hours of her youth in Orange County, taking glamour shots at JCPenney and grabbing a bite with friends at the food court.
Before it closed, Malatesta started a mall fan account on Instagram and threw it a funeral, singing “Unchained Melody” beneath the giant Westminster Mall sign that for decades welcomed customers and window shoppers alike.
“I love you Westminster Mall,” she yelled as the song concluded. “I’ll never forget you.”
Malatesta has kept the spirit of the mall alive with a satirical character, mall manager and unofficial spokesperson Patricia Patterson (actually Malatesta in a brunette wig). Patricia has an Instagram account to provide updates on Westminster Mall happenings even after the building’s official closure.
Suffice to say, Patricia is not pleased.
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