MrAndrewBradley

It has been almost a year since the debacle that was the Galleria fire . There was the " Rebuilding Together " and " My Mall " campaigns (I still have my t-shirt and still wear it to the gym) and there was me helping to let everyone know that the mall was partially re-opening . Today, the Roseville Galleria "re-opened." I'm using quotes because as you can see by the photos there are still quite a few "coming soon" store fronts, which was a little disappointing. I hope they will all be able to open before the true start of the holiday shopping season. Now for the good ... the Disney Store is amazing, they have movies playing in the hallway, so you're welcome to park the kids (and I presume husband) there for awhile. The mall has two kid/family play areas, once again another place to park (or bribe) the non-shoppers. The mall seemed to be brighter than it used to and there were newly designed light fixtures hanging from the ceiling (...

As the news broke around 10:30 this morning, I noticed it on Twitter .  I figured it would be taken care of quickly, just another hostage situation.  By about noon everything seemed to be okay, the suspect was in custody and the bomb squad was on scene to see if there really was a bomb.  Around 1:30 everything changed. A huge plume of smoke could be seen from my office miles away and from throughout the Sacramento region.  I watched with thousands of others online as the mall we have come to know, love and frequent literally went up in smoke. That said, this post isn't just about the fire, it's about how social media was utilized in the response.  "Roseville Galleria" quickly became one of the top 10 worldwide trending topics on Twitter ( number 5 to be exact ). Roseville residents and workers not only went to their office windows to look, but took out their phones, snapped and posted pictures, took videos and helped local media get a more complete picture of ...

Tonight was supposed to be a memorable night for 500 to 1,000 people at the Roseville Galleria .  The idea, break out into song in the Food Court in an effort to spread some holiday cheer and perhaps break a flashmob world record.  The result however was an estimated crowd of 5,000 and as Westfield put it "The enthusiasm for the Hallelujah event tonight was far greater than anticipated by organizers," as the floor began to creak under the weight of the crowd the Roseville Fire Department was called in and the mall began to evacuate for the second time in two months (check out video of the crowd booing the announcement ). Social media takeaways: - @scannerboy02 and @sacnews were the first "media outlets" (they supply video to most local TV stations) to report the news, a full 10+ minutes before any other representative from other major Sacramento news outlets (note this is only based on the reporters, assignment editors, producers and outlets I follow, which ...

The Roseville Galleria incident on Thursday proved to be an amazing show of coordination between dozens of agencies.  It only makes sense to thank them, right?  Well Westfield (the owner of the Roseville Galleria ) decided to do just that. They asked the Roseville Police Department to compile a list of all agencies that were involved and then purchased a full page ad in today's paper.  To the casual observer the 34 agencies thanked seemed like plenty. The omission? The Roseville Police Department. There are two basic ways to take this.  The first: They made the list and forgot to add themselves (similar to when you count a group of people and forget to count yourself).  Second: Westfield intentionally left them off the list because they could be the ones that ordered the malls fire suppression sprinklers turned off , meaning a fire that would have caused minor damage to just a few stores, caused major damage to 3/4 of the mall and will close parts of it for ...

Just a quick post to show pictures of the newly reopened Roseville Galleria (as you may recall I helped break the news on Sunday ). Only 41 stores open today, although about 70 have permits that basically say they can open when they are ready.  A few more, including Banana Republic will be opening tomorrow.  In speaking with a sales associate at GAP, they confirmed my suspicions that the person that started the fire (okay "suspected" arsonist) did not come out wearing GAP clothing as he originally claimed.  It was most likely Anchor Blue or a similar store.  The mall did have a smell a little bit like smoke and cleaning products, but overall was clean and comfortable.  The wall that has been constructed to block off one section includes quotes that were written on the Galleria's Facebook page .

It's no secret that I'm a little bit addicted to Twitter, Facebook and the news.  It's also no secret that I have been following the fire and its aftermath closely since it began on Thursday morning .  Tonight around 5:30 I saw tweets from a friend that said she had heard a rumor that parts of the Roseville Galleria could reopen within a week.  I quickly spread that good news , saying that I hoped it was true. After a few minutes I decided to play it safe and post that it was just a rumor , I also sent the information to a friend at News10 .  Soon after that the Mayor Pro Tem of Roseville posted on a friend's Facebook page ( he's running for City Council ) that clean up crews were making great progress, I quickly sent this information to News10 as well. Within 15 minutes of getting the information from me, she had contacted a member of the clean up team and confirmed the fact that parts of the Galleria could reopen as early as Thursday, just one week after the i...

Today marked the first full weekend that the Roseville Galleria has been open since the fire that destroyed or damaged a large portion of it.  Although more than half of the stores remain closed, many more seem to open daily and people are returning too.  Many have said that the mall is not just a place of commerce, but is a place that helps build a sense of community. Today Westfield hosted a community spirit day with a Halloween event for children, stores handed out candy to customers and mall representatives allowed community members to write inspirational quotes on the new (semi-permanent) wall that separates the open part of the mall from the closed portion. After getting my free "It's my mall" t-shirt (this time they remembered to thank the Roseville PD, they " forgot " in last Sunday's Sacramento Bee ad ), I took a walk to the far corner of the parking lot to look at all the restoration semi trucks . For now the closest thing to seeing the restora...

After Camp Bradley officially ended, I stayed at my parents house for a few days (so I could get a ride to the airport ) and so we could eat at Fins Market ... it was a fantastic meal, I cannot wait to go back. After my road trip to Austin , it was a nice change of pace to fly ... only took four hours instead of four days to get here. I arrived in Austin on-time (as did my bags ...  I was worried since I only had 20 minutes between connections in Phoenix ). Right when we arrived we headed into Downtown Austin for Happy Hour at a Texas classic ... P.F. Chang's . The next day I headed off with Ray from RazorSharp PR to San Antonio for the Live and Invest Overseas " Retirement Overseas Conference ." It was fun to learn about the many options for retiring overseas ... everywhere from Belize to the Pacific Coast of Mexico , Ecuador , South East Asia and many more. I could see myself in Belize ... one new community has balconies on the front and back of the h...

It's Spring! And soon my garden will be producing some of my favorites including snap/sugar peas , a variety of tomatoes and basil . It's also time to start thinking about local produce and with the warmer weather brings plenty of Farmers' Markets throughout my area of Placer county and the rest of California . Last Tuesday I headed to Whole Foods at The Fountains in Roseville to check out their Farmers Market (which actually is one of the few that runs year-round) to see what they had to offer. Lots of fresh produce, of course, but also breads, baked goods, sauces, locally roasted coffee and even live music. As Placer County's seasonal Farmers' Markers are about to launch, PlacerGROWN is having a contest and I hope that a few of your are able to win some of the great prizes. From May 19-30, 2014, PlacerGROWN will be giving away the following items on Facebook : 5 – $25 gift cards to Foothill Farmers’ Markets 5 – Bottles of wine 1 GRAND PRIZE – 8 New...

Between 5.6 mile runs around my neighborhood, a trip to the gym and lots of work, I found some time to escape from behind my desk and enjoy being around friends. I started the week out with a BBQ at a friend's house, then while shopping for a new patio table I ended up at Lucille's BBQ for Happy Hour with my roommate. Beer, fried pickles, sliders and rib tips. On Thursday, I participated in a Beer Tasting for Fresh & Easy through Twitter . Although I did not get to try the Anderson Valley Brewing Company Summer Solstice (the store I went to was out), I did enjoy the New Belgium Rolle Bolle Summer Seasonal Ale and Shore Break Brewing Co. Hefeweizen. Today, after my longest run of the year and working since 4 a.m., I had the opportunity to go to Ruth's Chris Steak House for Happy Hour . It was my first time there and I will be back, New England Lobster Roll With Fries, Prime Sliders, Tenderloin Skewers and beer. It was a great way to celebrate a friend's bi...

It was a busy day and evening, but for your sake, I will focus on the evening.  First, I attended the SacTweetup at 3 Fires Lounge , part of the Marriott Residence Inn Downtown . I had the opportunity to meet new people and see many of the people that I have developed friendships with through these events, Twitter and other social gatherings, like last week's " Chick-Fil-A Meetup."  In an interesting twist on the standard event, Matt Barnes (basketball player) came to the event and announced in person (before he posted it on Twitter ) that he had signed with the Los Angeles Lakers . You would think that would be the top story from the event, but no, after a long campaign led by a few individuals (whom I call my friends ) Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was unable to make it, saying he was stuck in meetings via Twitter .  He then posted that he would punish legislators if they did not pass a budget by making them watch " Jingle All the Way ," that story was ...

It's been a fun last few weeks. It started with Thanksgiving in Lodi . We went non-traditional by pulling up carpet to reveal beautiful hardwood floors, then had steak for dinner, paired with some flavorful Miner Family Wines . After a quick trip to the mall for Black Friday (not normal for us at all, but I did buy two new suits at about 75% off), we celebrated Thanksgiving a day late with three chickens replacing the turkey. Once back to Roseville, I ventured out again to the mall for lunch and to check out the Bayside Ice Rink at the Galleria. After a few days in Roseville it was time to head to Napa to check out the Christmas decorations at The Meritage . The chef created a huge gingerbread house that now sits in the lobby for everyone to see, just before they are greeted by a Christmas Tree that reaches the ceiling. I also had the opportunity to take a tour of Stag's Leap Wine Cellars and try some of their wines in their brand new tasting room . They will be our feat...

It ha s been a busy two weeks of birthdays, traveling, Easter , running and eating. I started off eating Mac & Cheese with friends, complete with a sundae from Chick-Fil-A , went to church for Palm Sunday (granted it was Saturday night), then enjoyed baked cabbage and Dickey's for dinner. On Palm Sunday I went to Sam's Club and Costco to start looking for glasses and ended up getting a couple of pairs at Costco, before heading to my brother's house to celebrate my nephew and mom's birthdays. After fish tacos , wine and cake on Sunday night, we went to Rubio's for more fish taco s on Monday before heading to Stanford Medical Center with my grandma for some quick tests (all is well). On the way home, we stopped at WinCo for my favorite fried chicken and potato wedges (I wouldn't want my mom to have to cook on her birthday). Once back to my house, I was busy planting my garden for the spring/summer, and got to have lunch with a former colleague at ...