Big shop on the hill

<p>Wow! We are on the verge on the final stage of cultural shift to a new semi-virtual world -140,000 square feet of waterfalls, an archery range, a laser arcade, general store, fudge shop, restaurant with Disney-scaled aquaria filled with &amp;quot;colorful native fish&amp;quot; (according to the press release), and lots and lots of stuffed animals! 

Apparently there will be $1 million spent on taxidermy alone. There are a lot of happy taxidermists out there somewhere, along with the 300-400 employees planning on working in Spanish Fort. We’ll be happy too, since the grand opening will be preceded by an "Evening for Conservation," free and open to the public – whoopee-doo! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against hunting as sport and a source of food. I hate to be picky, but it was just a lot more appealing to think about slaughter of large animals when every part and piece was eaten or used. The big game fisher people have it right, substituting pictures and catch-and-release protocols for stuffed trophies. The places like the one in Spanish Fort really are temples to the outdoor gods, but the Bass Pro Shops also seem to represent every excess that critics of our culture dwell on. It’s more than a little "over the top." I don’t know why they don’t combine the archery range and the stuffed deer so you wouldn’t have to get up early to get the thrill of that killing shot at all! They’d have to supply some semi-realistic blood at some point however, if this was the kid’s first "kill" and the rituals are to be maintained. This way the "outside" is air-conditioned too. You can bend over and kiss the neighborhood hunting and fishing vendors good-bye. I guess even Wal-Mart is about to be out "big-boxed," and it’s a safe bet that they’ll feel the hit in their sporting goods section. McCoy’s can’t be thrilled with the new super-store, but it should survive for at least another generation of hunting and fishing Mobilian families who have traditionally shopped there even after they left Government Street. I suppose I should be grateful the construction is nearing completion. The exposed and erodible red clay soils are at least covered with impermeable concrete, asphalt and turf that can’t wash into Mobile Bay. But we can indeed also bend over and kiss 200 acres of natural land cover good bye – to see it replaced with the so-called "town center" for Spanish Fort. I don’t know how many driving I-10 noticed the absolutely remarkable sight of the power pole standing alone on a pillar of Alabama dirt that must have been 60-100 feet high in the early stages of earth moving at the site. But the power line had not yet been replaced and was still providing service north and south over (way over) the site. The image profoundly demonstrated the extent of the alteration of the natural land form by the developers. This project tried hard to wrap itself with the mantle of new urbanism and modern town planning by referring to the whole abomination as a "town center," evoking the images of Celebration and Seaside in Florida and playing on the legitimate principles of sustainability and the return to traditional town design. The concept supporting most true town centers is the context surrounding them. The best are renovations of blighted inner town sites that encourage mixed incomes and uses within walking and public transit distances – not the total annihilation of green space. The transportation problem across the Bay has been described and overblown by ALDOT, but a lot of people commute to work in Mobile from the Eastern Shore – but they both worked and shopped to the west. Now a lot of people are being lured by the exploding retail sector along I-10 in Baldwin County – headed up by your friendly outdoors-indoor store! Roadway runoff is the largest source of untreated waste water in this country and it can only get worse with this lack of regional planning! As a kid I remember being told the really big pill or the medicine that tasted bad was the most likely to work – the implication was somehow the sugar or honey diminished the therapeutic effects of the real stuff. It didn’t convince me then and the cure for this growing plague of big box over-development may very well be the bitterest of medicine – $4.50 per gallon gasoline! We might think twice in west Mobile about spending $20 on gas to go visit the stuffed menagerie and buy some new tackle. It might be closer to go to McCoy’s. By the way, doesn’t it make us proud to know that this project is being guided by Staubach Retail of Dallas,Texas? After all, if it’s the spawn of a great football star, it can’t be all bad – can it? Well, yes, maybe! Staubach claims expertise in areas of automotive, service and convenience, restaurant and entertainment, anchor and junior anchor, food and drug, and fashion and lifestyle retailers. Noticeably lacking is any consideration for nature or conservation! The most "unkindest cut of all" ("Julius Caesar," William Shakespeare) may be the very juxtaposition of this retail behemoth, purporting to be a portal to nature and conservation, with the head of Mobile Bay and the Mobile-Tensaw Delta! It’s good vs. bad, dark vs. light, brown vs. green! The store/town center is a virtual stone’s throw from the Five Rivers Center, a real gateway to the Delta. And Five Rivers has only a huge feral pig, called "Hogzilla" and an unlikely "native" buffalo stuffed to compete with Bass Pro Shop’s stuffed zoo and million dollar dioramas. It doesn’t seem like a fair marketing competition and I fear we are approaching "midnight in the garden of good and evil." The last child in the woods is right across the Bay in Spanish Fort!