During the six years I was away from St. Louis there’s been some tremendous commercial and residential development, especially in the city — far exceeding anything I expected when I left town in 2002.

But driving around last Saturday I also noticed some serious decline in once thriving suburban shopping areas. I need to learn more before writing about what seemed to me to be so moribund.

Of course, there’s nothing new about changing fashions and shopping patterns, and what can happen to places that once were part of so many people’s social routines.

Today I saw an example of what may be a low point for a once prosperous mall — symbolically, at least, albeit under circumstances where the property was being put to a patriotic use.

The long, tortured and ultimately sad history of Eastgate Consumer Mall in Indianapolis (partly pictured above) has a prominent entry on DeadMalls.com, online chronicler of once mighty retail centers.

Today, Eastgate made Page One of the Indianapolis Star (print edition), with this item:

The 2,300 Marines of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., will be in the area for the next two weeks to train for urban combat a sites such as the old Eastgate Mall….

The Marines said they would warn residents in advance of activity.