Today brought a trip to the Westminster Mall in Westminster, Colo. The mall, once the shopping hub of the Northwest portion of the Denver suburbs and the only thing between Denver and the Crossroads mall in Boulder, is in a state of decay. It is very much like the Crossroads mall in Boulder which has shrunken to a few shops and no major department stores. J.C. Penny, Sears etc., one by one they pull out with pressure from the newer and fancier likes of the Flatirons shopping center in the Broomfield/Superior area. Occupancy in the Westminster mall appears to be declining with many open spaces and no hint of anything to fill the space left empty by the Wards bankruptcy half a decade ago.