I'm certain that if our government bans law abiding adults from possessing knives, as the British government is now headed in the direction of doing due to the enormous increase in violent crime in that sad nation, that teenagers, as they totally lack ingenuity and resourcefulness, won't find another method of acting out the mindless violence our pop culture fills their heads with all day every day.

You can always do what the Hells Angels do, carry around ball peen hammers. Can't make them illegal.

Lloyd Center really does attract more than its share of problems. Whenever I am there, which is as rarely as I can manage, the place feels like something is on the verge of going terribly wrong. Architecturally the space just feels like a giant pass-through, like an airport terminal, a public restroom or a high school cafeteria (or the suburbs, for that matter). Obviously steps have been taken to make it a calmer, slower space—the plants, comfortable chairs, etc.—but I don't know if the vibe can ever be fully corrected.
I think the new MAX line through downtown will have a similar effect on people's behavior. It denigrates a specific living place for people into a non-specific, transitory staging area for a mass function and people act accordingly: worse.

I work at Lloyd Center and have never felt threatened, but it seems like most of the bad things that happen occur when I'm not there. Though Thursday night when I left I noticed three police cars in the lot, and couple blocks away they had a few blocks blocked off with officers standing at every corner. I heard there was an assault at the mall and that the person ran into the neighborhood but they apprehended the suspect in someones backyard. I was never able to find anything about it in the news.

I agree with ep. The atmosphere in there just feels wrong. I always tell my wife that the place looks like it has cancer and is dying slowly.

I still would shop there before I ever go downtown, however. At least I can park in a manner that if I have to make a run for it, I can.

I stopped going to Lloyd Center about 18 months ago, just too many problems and kids up to no good hanging around. I agree with ep, something is just "off" at Lloyd Center...

I expect when they build tyhe baseball stadium that all of this extra-legal activity will stop. Baseball and soccer will untie us all.

"untie"

I think I meant unite.

All my teen needs to do to ramp up my blood pressure and anxiety level is tell me he and his friends are going to Lloyd Center, even in the daytime.

My kids are not allowed at Lloyd Center, and I havent been in there since that guy was attacked outside the movie theater a few years ago.

Oh, face it. Malls are just unnatural environments and I'm very unhappy about the fact that way too much of my teenhood and young adulthood were spent in malls around the country.

Malls do not replace vital neighborhood shopping districts. And I'm sorry my generation ever thought they did.

One of the things that I love about Portland is that I rarely have to step foot into malls to buy things. I prefer buying from local merchants.

And when I do step foot into a mall, it's because I have a specific destination (in Lloyd Center, those destinations are Nordstrom's, Macy's, the ice rink, Barnes and Noble, the theater and, very occasionally, Sears.)

Lloyd Center has never been the same since they enclosed it. Back then it had some charactor. Now it is just another bleak, faceless, shopping venue.

Much of what made the Lloyd Center attractive to our family is gone. When the theaters were added, a loud, rowdy element quickly made them useless as places to enjoy a movie. Fortunately the cinemas across the way are good alternatives.

The last time I stopped by the Lloyd Center it was to meet someone from Craig's list who was selling a piece of electronics at a very good price. I'm still not sure it wasn't hot.