How Mother Nature Can Save Hamilton Mall in Mays Landing, NJ

I figured it out -- this is it! This is how we can turn around Hamilton Mall in Mays Landing.

We've long kicked-around ideas on how to save the struggling Hamilton Mall. Over the past couple of years, Sears left, followed by JC Penney, and then Shoppers World. It's kinda desolate inside, even during the recent Christmas shopping season. And it was even more desolate Wednesday night and Thursday morning with the mall temporarily closing for utility issues.

Now, first things first. There are some issues with this idea. I'll get to those in a bit. But before you dismiss these ideas, read the whole thing.

Mother Nature can save Hamilton Mall.

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Well, at least in the winter.

And when there's a foot of snow on the ground.

Here's my idea: the next time we get a ton of snow, the mall needs to put it to good use and not just push it around.

What if they took all of that snow and turned it into South Jersey's largest sledding hill?

Pile it all up into one huge mountain -- I mean, a couple of stories tall. Turn it into the biggest sledding hill anywhere around here, charge people a couple of bucks to use it, and make money off of it.

Or -- what if all of that snow was piled up and all of South Jersey was invited out to what would be the world's largest snowball fight. Just imagine hundreds of people over by Sears and hundreds more over by Macy's and they all meet in the middle for an epic snowball fight.

It. Would. Be. Epic.

I mean, we have to turn the mall around -- it's a huge part of Mays Landing. The mall needs something big and out-of-the-box to get people there, right? Admit it, you would at least watch the world's largest snowball fight at the mall. Think of the media exposure it would get.

Now, as I said before, there are some logistical (and financial) issues with my grand ideas. First, I can't imagine the liability issues the mall would face with either a three-story-tall sledding hill or thousands of people chucking snowballs at each other. I can only imagine what the insurance policies would cost on those ideas.

Secondly, building a giant snow mountain might be logistically impossible (yeah, and a bit dangerous, too).

Third, we don't exactly get a lot of huge snowstorms. The foot that we got the other day was the most snow we received from one storm in four years.

But -- you gotta admit, it would be fun...