Sunday morning in churches across South Dallas, worshippers will not only pass the plate, they'll pass petitions. It's part of a new drive to keep JC Penney from leaving Southwest Center Mall.
Malls are a good measure of a community's economic health.
They bring in shoppers, provide jobs and keep residents from leaving to spend their money elsewhere. So it was a one-two body blow when first Montgomery Ward and then JC Penney announced they were closing down at Southwest Center Mall. Community leaders can't bail out Ward's, but they're not letting Penney's go without a fight. At a town hall meeting, residents were urged to sign petitions, pass them out at churches so Penney's can hear from them. He believes more boarded-up buildings around the mall could stall economic momentum in South Dallas.