What do you do with a dead mall?

Whoever ends up owning Death Star Plaza, sorry, Downtown Plaza, is going to need a plan. What do you do with a great dead husk of a suburban mall that’s jammed into the middle of your downtown?

SN&R’s breaking news and local politics blog, Snog, surveyed readers, and though it was hardly scientific, we got some surprisingly thoughtful answers.

The most popular answer, with 35 percent of the vote was, “Downtown Plaza should get a major face-lift, adding housing and locally owned shops and boutiques to the existing building.”

Twenty percent of you voted to tear down the mall and start over. What are you, anarchists? Apparently, Mojo Nixon’s reading Snog, too. Wait, that was “Burn down the malls.” I guess that’s different.

Third place was “Stick an arena in it,” with 17 percent of the vote, followed by “Downtown Plaza should be refurbished and new high-end anchor stores like Nordstrom and Saks should be added,” which got 12 percent of the vote. Finally, just 8 percent of readers thought the Downtown Plaza should get the “Florin Mall treatment.” “Bring in Wal-Mart, Target and other big-boxes.” Funny, out of all these choices, big-boxes was the one thing that actually came close to happening a few years back.

The survey also encouraged readers to make up their own answers, and we got some good ones.

For example, “The Plaza should be remodeled to add two to four stories of market-rate rental residential above the second level. Add a small grocery store and residents don’t need a car, saving thousands of dollars a year to pay rent and spend on other things.”

Several people independently suggested some variation of “Tear it down and build a beautiful Central Park.”

There were suggestions for high-rise condos, an NHL arena, affordable housing and a need for more parking and better access. “It’s a pain in the a$$ to get to it.”

It’s hard to pick a favorite. In the end, it’s a tossup between “Tear it down and make it into a new Lavender Heights, but way gayer,” and “Film a zombie movie!”

If we can somehow combine those two, I think we’d really be onto something.

Compiled from Snog.