For being the very first indoor mall...in the entire country...Southdale sure leaves a lot to be desired. I am at this mall very frequently and have watched it slowly, but surely, continue to decline. There are many vacant storefronts, even some totally vacant hallways...with all former shops shuttered up. The stores they do have just play location-rotation and move from one spot in the mall to another, in hopes of drawing more business, I suppose? I am very eager for the Kowalski's Market to finally open. That will be a much-needed addition. Another plus here is the combined DMV and Hennepin County Services Center. It's very convenient for folks, like me, who are here often. The food court [this term is a stretch for this location] is extremely meager. There are just a small handful of restaurants and some seem to pick and choose when to be open, despite posted operating hours stating otherwise. The entire north end of the mall was converted into a massive Lifetime Fitness. This is okay. If you have the open space, use that before building new. I think what irks me the most though is, the constantly malfunctioning elevators and escalators. When I tell you that you will NEVER enter this mall and find all transportation options in working order at the same time...believe me! The photo of the out of service escalator I included is from today and has been out of service for...at least...four months. [This is a typical time frame for both the elevators and escalators when they go down.] The 'caution' banner has been up since at least this past Monday, it is Friday today and no work has been done on it in between. Other than this escalator, another one on the main south entrance side of the mall is once again down and has been down for close to a month this time. They put the little caution barrier over it to prevent people from walking down it. We still do though because, the next closest place to get down is in Macy's or much further down the mall corridor. This escalator area does not have stairs as another option either. When the passenger elevators actually do work, the freight elevators are down. When the freight elevators are working, the passenger elevators are down. It's a never-ending cycle. You literally can't make this stuff up. If I had any type of mobility issues, trying to navigate this mall would be a nightmare for me. Simon Malls should do better, they are a huge corporation that can easily afford to actually repair these recurring issues. Instead, they just keep putting on Band-Aids. Sad.