Opry Mills is [edited], please bring back my childhood. (Green Hill: amusement park, crime) - Nashville - Tennessee (TN) - City-Data Forum

lala27poodles · 10-19-2009, 11:56 PM

This topic may have been brought up before, but I just wanted to say:

Now that it's been over a decade since the closing of our Opryland Theme Park, and the opening of "Opry Mills gigantic Mall", I wonder if our chamber of commerce is happy?

I wonder if they are making what they had hoped, and if it was worth it? I know I don't shop there unless I have some distant relative visiting and I need some place to take them that they haven't already seen. I don't spend money there, except to get a Cinnabon. They have nothing that Cool Springs and Green Hills doesn't offer a better quality version of. Unless you want to try out a "Snuggie" without ordering it on TV....*rollseyes*

There is a certain walkway from the mall parking lot to the hotel where you can see part of the Old Grizzly River Rampage......it feels like I'm walking through a graveyard of my memories. So sad.

So many wonderful summer spent there, I would give up TWO malls to get it back. PLEASE Nashville, correct this mistake!

iloveastnashville · 10-20-2009, 12:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lala27poodles

This topic may have been brought up before, but I just wanted to say:

Now that it's been over a decade since the closing of our Opryland Theme Park, and the opening of "Opry Mills gigantic Mall", I wonder if our chamber of commerce is happy?

I wonder if they are making what they had hoped, and if it was worth it? I know I don't shop there unless I have some distant relative visiting and I need some place to take them that they haven't already seen. I don't spend money there, except to get a Cinnabon. They have nothing that Cool Springs and Green Hills doesn't offer a better quality version of. Unless you want to try out a "Snuggie" without ordering it on TV....*rollseyes*

There is a certain walkway from the mall parking lot to the hotel where you can see part of the Old Grizzly River Rampage......it feels like I'm walking through a graveyard of my memories. So sad.

So many wonderful summer spent there, I would give up TWO malls to get it back. PLEASE Nashville, correct this mistake!

Yeah, Nashville really needs a theme park. It is very sad. As far as dangerous, I would not go that far.

lala27poodles · 10-20-2009, 12:14 AM

Evidently there has been a huge rise in crime over in that area.

People are getting mugged, car jacked, and what not.

Sounds to me like a future Fountain Square. Started out nice, ended up bad.

Tunky · 10-20-2009, 05:48 AM

We haven't lived here long and never saw the theme park; but, we mention it all the time when we are out that way. "They tore down a theme park for this?" That mall is a dump.

Opryland is a nice tourist attraction...but doesn't have much to offer kids or teens. I'd think Nashville would want something for that demographic. Parents spend a ton of money to keep their kids happy/quiet on vacations...not to mention the locals. Was the theme park nice? Why did they get rid of it? Was it starting to turn into a hangout for gangs and the like? Malls do that too...

IngleDave · 10-20-2009, 06:07 AM

When Opryland opened, in '71 or '72 or so, it was everything a theme park should be. I was just out of high school and during that first summer, a season pass could be had for 9 bucks. I went 57 times. It was extraordinarily clean, wholesome entertainment (like us). It was everything to us for years afterward. When they closed it, I hadn't been in a decade or more, but in the years since my first visits, generations behind me share the same memories. No, it wasn't bad. It never approached bad anything. The tearing down of the park was a profit scheme from people I'm happy to say are no longer involved in such decisions for our city. The present Gaylord folks, for the most part, weren't around during that decision making. In fact, Gaylords owns nothing of the Opry Mills mall. They even sold the land.

Sure, you feel like your memories are being torn down. But get used to it; there will be a string of them in your life, sadly. I agree we need something for the kids. Nowadays, is that even possible? The Unrulies always take over, no matter what. I'd as soon keep my kids bored, and my money in my pocket than expose them to much of what's out there. (easy to say for me since I have none).

mad fiddler · 10-20-2009, 07:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lala27poodles

They have nothing that Cool Springs and Green Hills doesn't offer a better quality version of.

I've heard of more crime at Green Hills than at Shopryland.

In the past several months there's been a murder at the pizza place, an older man beaten with a baseball bat at the parking garage, and a young man mugged and put into his car trunk.

vivelafrance · 10-20-2009, 07:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mad fiddler

I've heard of more crime at Green Hills than at Shopryland.

In the past several months there's been a murder at the pizza place, an older man beaten with a baseball bat at the parking garage, and a young man mugged and put into his car trunk.

yes malls are centers for crime no matter where they are located.

I miss Opryland but Nashvillians didn't attend in great enough numbers for the park to remain viable. Also, there was no room to expand.

Big TR · 10-20-2009, 07:35 AM

I agree with France.

I'm here less than two years, and all I hear from the locals is "woe is me, no theme park." The fact is there were 1M people in the surrounding area that wouldn't give it enough support.

I guarantee that Nashville/Davidson county is making substantially more tax revenue from the Mall than the theme park was generating.

yank283 · 10-20-2009, 12:47 PM

It's really a shame that they tore down the theme park. Funny thing, just a little over ten years since Shopryland was built it is already so outdated. As far as being danderous, well if getting hit by a car is the criteria, sure. There's bare landscaping, no sidewalks coming in from the parking area (huge sea of concrete) or the hotel. The outdated building is so indicitive of it's era, no planning, sprawlish, and no heart or enduring qualities and built soley to make a buck...oh yeah, while were at it...THAT adjacent building is NOT the Opry, it's is and always will be The Ryman...

jabogitlu · 10-20-2009, 02:11 PM

I've wondered for a while why Nashville doesn't try to attract or build (not sure how they're done) a Six Flags or a developer to build a similar theme or amusement park. There's a big population there...