I don’t want to dwell too much further on the Trolley Square shootings. Not to sound insensitive or cold-hearted, because I’m absolutely not, but I find all the public wailing and gnashing of teeth after these random acts of violence overblown, and all the new-agey, namby-pamby talk of “healing” especially annoys me for some reason (I guess I’m a “climb back on the horse and keep riding” kind of guy). Nevertheless, there are a couple of articles in the Trib that I think are worth passing along.

One is the heartbreaking story of Richard and Vanessa Quinn. They were supposed to meet at the mall on Monday night to buy the wedding rings they’d been too poor to get when they first married four years ago. Richard arrived after the shootings and learned that his wife was among the dead when he saw her body through a news photographer’s zoom lens. I can’t even imagine what that must’ve been like…

Next up is a column by Rebecca Walsh that tries to explore the place Trolley Square holds in Salt Lake’s collective consciousness, and what effect the shootings may have on that position. She flirts a little bit with the kind of pop-psych language of victimhood that bothers me so much, but in general, her piece is a nice overview of the community’s current state of mind. She also offers up this nice description of why people like myself love Trolley:

The mission-style brick barns were a comforting reminder of Salt Lake City’s past, a physical affirmation that not everything old is torn down. At times, the halls were largely empty, customers sparse. Other shopping centers were more popular, trendier. But the place – a mall of all things – drew us in.

She also, unfortunately, confirms some of my fears about what’s going to happen to Trolley Square in its upcoming remodel:

The mall’s new owners already planned to rip out the wrought-iron railings and build a central atrium. Trolley won’t look the same.

My reaction to that sentence was an unqualified (and also unsurprising), Damn. I happen to like those wrought-iron railings, as well as the whole faux-Victorian atmosphere of Trolley. Also, given the long, rectangular shape of the original barns that house the mall, I don’t see where a central atrium could be place without a lot of structural changes. Why do you need a central atrium anyway, just because every other stinkin’ mall on the planet has one? Seems to me that’s a perfect reason not to put one at Trolley Square, so the place will retain some uniqueness.

Oh, well. At least the shootings haven’t driven people away. I’m very gratified to hear that people are going back only a few days after the event…