No Business Here Owned By Locals Victoria Gardens Mall is built to look like a historic downtown. Old mom and pop sinage, hung as decoration, combine with signs for corporate chains. No businesses here are owned by locals. Speakers hidden in the bushes pipe 1950’s pop music through the mall’s streets, inspiring nostalgia for American family values. Although within the mall, there are sidewalks with street parking, in order to enter Victoria Gardens one must drive and park in the huge parking lots that the surround the mall. At the intersection of Mainstreet (sic) and Eden Ave one can see the 15 freeway. Most visitors will use this freeway or the 210 to reach the mall. Because of the wide, busy intersections, even those living in the surrounding developments will find it difficult to walk to the town. The result is that Victoria Gardens, like a movie set or theater, has a back stage. The mall offers a town square area that has been popular even during hottest summer on record. At the edge of the Mojave Desert, that usually means the neighborhood of 100¾. Rancho Cucamonga, historically covered with vineyards and citrus groves does not have a old downtown. The city has embraced Lewis corporation’s Victoria Gardens, and has decided to move a public library and house their arts center in the mall. Although the city library is here, the mall remains private property. Taking photographs or film of the mall is forbidden.