It's Not as Scary as it Used to Be!

One of my favorite T-Shirts.  I bought it at the Art Space Gallery when it was located on Douglas Avenue. It references the fact that while at one time, Downtown Elgin was a major retail center, after the drain of business to area malls in the 1970s, much of Downtown was turned into in outdoor mall which ultimately became a deserted haven for criminals and the mentally ill who were dumped by the state from the nearby Elgin Mental Health Center.

It really isn't scary at all down there anymore,  but the perception lingers by a lot of the oldtimers that largely let their city go and then complained about it.