There are retirement homes along two sides of the site. I wondered if it was depressing for the old folks to watch Monterey Center be slowly dismantled. This is not a country, after all, that gets too sentimental about its old stuff. As I was standing there, I imagined a mob of oldsters, hobbling along behind their walkers, blocking a bulldozer as it rolled toward the Monterey Center sign.

Then again, it's just a shopping center. Maybe this is what it deserves.