Phoebeb
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- May 26, 2011
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Unless things have changed drastically, first years do not frequent the DTM, except maybe on special occasions or with upperclassmen who have cars. It is really nowhere near grounds or Hannah's apartment, which was just off grounds (campus). Aside from grounds, the Corner, the fraternity and sorority areas and perhaps North Grounds (Law School, JAG school, Graduate Business School), there is nowhere else first years would venture as a matter of course, or routine. If anything, all the stores on 29 are reachable by a short car ride and offer more variety.
This is not a mall like the shopping centers depicted in "Mall Cop." It's a pedestrian area of boutiques and restaurants, movie theater, etc. It doesn't offer anything that you couldn't get on or near grounds. Furthermore, it has a dangerous reputation (deserved or not) among students and townspeople alike. Nobody in their right mind would voluntarily walk there, from the Corner, alone and after dark.
It is my opinion she did not intend to end up there. I would be surprised if she had been there more than a handful of times during her time at the University. Furthermore, being drunk and possibly disoriented, wandering around after dark in a neighborhood with which she was not yet familiar (had only lived there a few weeks) likely got her turned around and moving in the wrong direction. That is very easy to do around U.Va.
JMO
Thanks for that insight- I did realize the mall was pedestrian.
If I was lost and drunk and knew enough to run down that stretch Preston (?) the Shell station was on, I would be so glad to find an area of restaurants, lights, people walking around once I got to the mall. Do you think she continued moving on the mall because she thought she was heading in the direction of home or because she felt it was dangerous? (If you have any ideas on what you would have done if in a similar situation) I'm just trying to figure out what she may have been thinking as we see her on the Sal's video.