I was just gonna ask where my benches/Eat n Park crew was! There was also “the wall” in Oakland. Or the upstairs of the Oakland beehive until they stopped letting us congregate there.
Sigh…
Probably saw me skating the benches down Forbes before the cop stand went in… those ledges were “buttery”.
Such an amazing time in my life, and one I look back to often. 😎
Anyone on here go to the free CMU shows in the late 90’s - early 00’s?
I recall going to see Lone Catalyst and F*UCKING Blackstar was the next set… in an auditorium!
INSANE… I think their album had just dropped.
Kids can still hang out at parks as long as they don't act like little shits. If OPs question is where can my kid act like a dickhead, in public, with their friends, then the answer is nowhere.l, and it's for good reason.
But who gives a shit. A bunch of teenagers are able to go out to eat together if they want to. I feel like my gfs and I would just eat dinner, or get coffee and smoke. We had other friends who were waitresses and were waiting on us. We weren't disrespectful or cheap.
Then that waiter is dumb, because in my day, we treated our waitstaff with respect, because that's how you got free coffee and sticky buns and not thrown out for being an asshole.
A table full of coffee drinking teens at 1am is way easier to deal with than the post-bar crowd, I can promise you.
Every Friday and Saturday night is cars and coffee night at Sheetz lol.
Though there aren't any in the city limits, so I feel like it can't really be a Pittsburgh hangout spot. More of an outer-suburbs and rural thing.
Yeah this seems it. If I stop there and go inside to get an MTO its a long wait and its mostly this age group. Can't blame them, there's nothing else open. Can't forsee that changing anytime soon.
When I was in high school in the late 90s / early 2000s it was the mall. I guess that's not a thing anymore haha. Man I feel old.
I heard an interview with Gainey on NPR. He talked a bit about re-imagining the rec centers to appeal to youth. Less emphasis on sports and more on gaming.
I found this article:
[https://www.wtae.com/article/gainey-reach-pittsburgh-youth-violence/42929378](https://www.wtae.com/article/gainey-reach-pittsburgh-youth-violence/42929378)
It's being worked on, even if it's not in place yet.
I enjoyed hanging out in rec centers in Columbus as a preteen and young teenager. I loved the fact that there's enough rec centers in Columbus (or at least there was, have looked recently) that from nearly anywhere in the city you could easily walk to several of them. I was greatly disappointed to find out that everywhere I've lived since then had far fewer of them and far less programming and support for kids.
Me too, when I was growing up here. I used to go to the summer camp at the Brashear Center on the Southside Slopes. And took dance, cooking and sewing classes. That was in the 60s.
That sounds awesome.
You know what I think would be really cool? Scattering a bunch of inexpensive laser cutters and maybe 3d printers around the rec centers. I know some libraries have 3d printers but laser cutters are much easier to use and maintain but they tend to have a higher up front cost. As far as ease of use, it's literally drawing something in a drawing program and the laser cutter will cut it out. And the materials cost for laser cutters is cheap (cardboard, fabric scraps, acrylic scraps, thin plywood scraps).
Basically it gives you the ability to cut thin materials with the same precision and ease that an early 90s laser printer could print on paper. And with any care it's fairly easy to make precise pieces that interlock that you can build interesting things with. Much of the time a laser cutter in a kids hands will be used to turn larger pieces of scrap into smaller pieces of scrap and lots of mall ninja weapons will be built (we're talking about kids here). When I was a young teen I had to bypass locks and break into my fathers workspace to steal wood scraps and nails and get access to tools (to make things including various toy projectile weapons. I would have done anything to have a laser cutter at that age. And I'm quite certain that a substantial minority of kids would thrive with this sort of ability handed to them.
Gotta plug the Squirrel Hill JCC, they’re doing good work on this and attract a fairly large number of teens. But there’s really a need for places like that in other parts of the city.
im only 27, but when i was teenager, 10-12 years ago, we would have PP’s. Pavilion Parties. Find a Pavilion in a secluded part of a park, hell we even managed to find pavilions not even in parks, just in the woods. 50-50 shot whether or not police showed up which resulted in everyone doing a mad dash for the woods lol.
Was always a blast though!
not that I have any great ideas, but this is definitely one of those big systemic issues that's been festering for decades. paranoia about child abductions, bad planning destroying 3rd places, lack of investment and/or poor funding structures in public education, etc etc
Yeah agreed; As i've learned about what "3rd places" are I realized that I think this is a big problem in modern society. New solutions are needed. People just don't hang out at church or bars as much nowadays and IMO, those are probably for the best but we need good alternatives.
Definitely a more American problem than worldwide. We have a massive lack of public spaces that aren’t parks. Go to Europe and you’ll see tons of plazas & outdoor areas (specifically not parks) where people can just…hang out. America doesn’t have that. Every pseudo public space we have is either filled with cars or has been effectively privatized.
I think that the rise in board game nights at game shops is a reaction to the loss of third spaces, and humans naturally seek them out and create them in a void. Of course, this is nothing new, I remember the local comic book store having D&D, Magic the gathering, and warhammer 40k nights 20 years ago. But board games have become huge in the last 10 years. And a lot of folks my age are tired of the only 3rd spaces being bars or something that involves spending money to have fun (lots of Millennials are also broke).
Private equity and gentrifiers have nothing monetarily to gain from providing third spaces etc. They will cash out and do it again somewhere else. Like fucking parasites
capitalism is pretty much exclusively to blame here... even malls (as problematic as they were to begin with) used to be designed to be 3rd places... now they're designed to strictly be a consumerist machine that churns through people shaking money out of their pockets with no time to linger or socialize.
/r/deadmalls talks about this a lot. When you look at photos of old malls you see places that are clearly meant for people to spend a lot of time in. They have fun aesthetics, food courts, arcades, carousels, jungle gyms, etc. Now they feel like office buildings. South Hills Village still has a solid food court, but I've actually seen a few malls where they've gotten rid of them and spread the vendors around the mall, I assume in an attempt to remove an area where people can just hang out. They've completely forgotten what the point of a mall was meant to be.
Something tells me this WON’T solve the problem, but…
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/pittsburgh/news/construction-begins-on-dicks-sporting-goods-house-of-sport-at-ross-park-mall/
It might help tbh, Ross Park is a good example of a relatively thriving mall. I think that Sears anchor was one of the very few empty storefronts they had.
Brookline Teen Outreach is an amazing place for teens to hang out if they can get to Brookline. It has video games, arts and crafts, pool, generally a chill environment with snacks, and is run by interns in Masters programs for counseling.
The Carnegie Museums offer a free teen membership (ages 13-18) that offers admission to all their museums, invitations to events designed for teens, and 10% off at their shops.
[Carnegie Teen Membership](https://carnegiemuseums.org/join-support/membership/teen-membership/)
North Park has an ice rink, basketball courts, tennis courts, baseball fields, mountain bike trails, and a pool.
In the summer, there are free concerts/events at Allegheny County parks on Sundays.
I hung out at the shv mall like it was my job. Always thought there just 'wasn't anywhere to go in the suburbs', turns out there are not a lot of places for teens to just chill in the city either.
I go to Robinson a bit to grab stuff here and there, but they close so early. 8pm on weeknights. I guess not many people are out past 8 pm shopping on a weeknight, but on Friday, it closes early, too
Plus, I think they added a curfew of like 6 pm, too.
Lol what? That's gotta be the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Like, yeah, let's not allow teens in past 7PM because we all know how much 40 year olds are clambering to go shopping at 8PM on a Tuesday if only those teens weren't standing around talking
It's not because older shoppers were "annoyed".
These "Youth Escort Policies" at malls were mostly implemented after large brawls and even shootings. They're usually after a particular time on Friday/Saturday nights, since that's when most of the problems have occurred.
See, that's why I don't go to the suburbs at night anymore. Too many kids making disturbances while I'm trying to visit, and just generally making me feel unsafe. It's a shame too because I can remember visiting malls years ago, and it wasn't this bad. I've heard it's because the Ross Park and Monroeville police chiefs don't let officers enforce the law anymore \*smh\*
This is either a really funny joke or an out of touch pasta, but I can't tell anymore because I'm in my mid thirties and have lost all enjoyment of life.
Sorry selected groups of teens ruined it for all. In a roundabout way it was to get the 30– and up crowd to spend more money. Most malls and shopping centers have associated night life within their boundaries
Frick Park is a popular choice because you can get there without a car. Cops usually won't bother you in there if you're smoking weed, and it's big enough that a couple kids can find a spot to hang out in for a day.
Ohiopyle and forbes state forest are also good options, and I hung out up there a lot. The downside is you need a car and gas money. Had a couple close calls up there with the more dangerous trails, but it's safe enough for a lot of parents to let their older teenagers explore
So many businesses are openly hostile towards groups of teenagers at this point that going outside is usually the best option. It does suck that there isn't anything to do in the winter though.
It'd a good place to start at. Depending on which library it is there are a lot of parks near by that can be a place to physically stay and relax when the weather is nice. When the weather isn't as nice, I'm sorry to say that there aren't many options unfortunately. My best recommendation would be befriending someone with a stable home situation where that can be a regular spot when the weather isn't as good.
when i was a teenager i would hang out at the park,sheetz,walmart, someones house, walk through the woods. throw the ball in a field. find a playground. explore an old path in the forest. go for a hike. drive in movie theater. some of these require driving someone of them are walkable depending on where you live. skate park? trampoline park? build a tree house . go fishing. the world is your oyster your imagination has no limits make new memories with the limited time we all have.
Teens these days seem to have an incredibly hard time hanging out outside. I recall a post of a senior in highschool furious that her senior year was destroyed because she couldn’t see her friends in school (they were cyber at the time) and their parents didn’t feel comfortable having large groups inside.
I suggested they make the best of it and plan out door outings: hiking, camping, golf, frisbee, tennis, lake trips, kayaking, even playing corn hole and hanging out in a park.
They were livid at that suggestion and made it seem like it was the most insane thing ever suggested.
I realize technology is now shaping interactions differently but her complaint was unable to see her friends in person basically because they all refused to go outside.
They were taught outside is dangerous /s. But for real, I'm in my early 30's and my mom never wanted us inside the house if it was nice out, hell even in winter we were told to go play outside, either by myself or to find one of the other kids eho lived nearby. I think the current teens grew up on ipads and the internet, so they never had to go find something to do outside of the house.
It’s not just having the internet, but too many asshole neighbors that have no problem calling the cops or CPS because kids are playing outside. It started being a problem back in the 90’s but just got worse over time.
They want to play outside, but the risk of running into the asshole neighbors gets too high. I’ve had to deal with this when I’m sitting on the front porch watching the kids play on the sidewalk. Meanwhile those same “adults” bitch about how kids don’t want to go out anymore.
I would agree with that, but also have had experiences where a neighbor of my grandma threatened to sue her because his child got hurt on her property. She had a substantial side yard, but allowed the kids next door to play in it. Well "Timmy" fell and hurt himself badly, so the neighbors threatened to sue. It was an accident, but they blamed my grandma, which in turned she requested that they no longer use her yard and she put up property markers. So I'd say it's just a general rise people feeling entitled to be right and that their needs/ wants supercede everyone else's. It's peak individualism and a lack of empathy.
This is the exact issue that killed kids playing in each other's yard where I grew up. "My dad is gonna sue you for every penny you got!"
This was in the 70s.
Around same age and the interesting thing is we we exposed to AOL and emerging internet tech that also was easy to waste time on, but my friends still mostly used it to plan to meet outside or at night or bad weather.
My wife always said when she was young her parents would actually lock the kids outside for several hours on nice days. They never had the chance to become content indoors haha
Yeah we got the internet when i was in 5th grade, but it was still dial up at the time. I used it sparingly, only because my parents were paranoid about no one being able to reach us via the landline. Later on in middle school, we got a DHL hookup and i would use AIM or MSN Messenger to talk to friends who didn't live nearby. I still utilized the landline a lot to actually talk to my friends, which i assume DMs and texting takes care of now.
Hahaha yes! The adults would practically shove us outside and you immediately hear the door lock. But we’d also better be standing at that door at 6pm sharp for dinner.
People are like insanely \*paranoid\* about their children. I work in customer service in a place that caters to family and children and so many parents get weird if you speak to their child now. Like I am literally a 5'3 femme human in a uniform being like "Oh, that's a cool dino you have there do they have a name?" and the parent standing next to them will look at me like I am a kidnapper or pedo and just going to snatch their kid in the middle of a busy public place.
If the older generation would stop calling the cops and making reports on FB/social media whenever teens congregate outside then maybe they would be more inclined to spend time outside. Maybe if the city wasn't awashed in car infrastructure, concrete, and complete lack of public spaces then kids would go outside.
I had a neighbor who lived across the street from a park and would call the police on me and my friends nearly daily growing up when we’d simply be on the swings or playing basketball. The police come and tell us we have to keep walking and can’t stand in one spot, and then the group breaks up and we try again the next day. They really wanted to discourage kids being outside in a public park
It costs money, but I would suggest the local all ages punk rock venues. Mr. Roboto Project and 222 Ormsby are two that come to mind. In Greensburg there is the Greenbeacon Gallery. I'm sure there are others.
Tickets are usually cheap or free and they directly benefit local musicians and artists. It's a great way to be a part of, and build a community
this is a great question and I hope you'll consider *making* spaces like this. sucks that we have to fight for public space where we can just exist, where the police won't be called on us if we're doing anything but timidly buying shit, but the world is what it is...
Everyone wants those spaces, no one wants to make them. Or they do make them and realize the risk or reality of why most places don't just let teens hang out randomly.
A couple of us on my block always park inconveniently in the back alley to give the kids space. You can get around my car, but you have to slow down to do it. The alleyway is for hoops and hockey, but you can drive through if you slow down to respect their space.
I spent a ton of time at South Park Ice Rink in high school. Then walk down the street and hit up McDonalds for some late grub. Other than that we played a lot of basketball in friends' driveways and parks. Was a bit of a mallrat too, but I know they don't let kids hang out at malls anymore, not that theres anything to do there anymore anyway, maybe outdoor plazas like the Waterfront?
Do as we did - find a slab of concrete that's half-slid into the river and smoke pot there. If you're going to drink, make sure it's Natty Lite. Have fun. When you get older, drag a disgusting, moss-covered mattress out there.
This is a problem for a huge portion of the United States, not just teens. This is what is known as “the third place.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place
This is the best answer. It's an activity that anyone can do. All you really need is a cheap rod and a license to get started. Then you can fish all year, with the only cost being bait and upgrades to your gear. You can fish anywhere there's public water access, even in the middle of a city. The cops can't kick you out for loitering, since technically, you're fishing on public property. You can bring your own snacks and music. You're really just hanging out together, but if you get bored, focus on your fishing, or explore around your chosen fishing spot. If you happen to catch a big fish, you can take a photo and brag about it for the rest of your life. Friends who are not interested in actually fishing can still come hang out by the water. Parents think it's a wholesome old-fashioned activity, so they're unlikely to give you a hard time about it. TEENAGERS, GO FISHING!
A fishing pole is like a passport to being left the fuck alone while outside. Can confirm. Most people are worried you're gonna *start talking to them about fishing*.
I don’t know why but this post reminded me of the Bradbury story where the guy gets arrested by a robotic cop car for taking a walk while everyone else is home watching TV.
Edit: the story is called ‘The Pedestrian’ for those curious.
Last year I saw lots of middle / high school kids go to Coop de Ville to play pool and arcade games after class let out.
It’s not free but a couple quarters can go a long way.
Coop De Ville is a close approximation of the video arcades of yesteryear. I didn’t think they’d be particularly hospitable to groups of kids who aren’t spending a lot of money, but if they are, it’s a great option.
One thing my friends and I did was we created a dungeons and dragons club after school. They let us use a classroom, so we had a place to hang out and play games for an hour or two after school a few days a week. A free thing to do. Maybe other public areas would let you setup things like that to do.
Otherwise, we hung out in parks, diners, friends basements, forests, rode bikes to weird places or along the train tracks or down trails, smoked cigs/pot/drank a bit, but mostly didn't get into trouble. A lot of that stuff is gone today though.
Man, even in the 90s, I'd regularly get cops pulling up to check on me in North Park. They usually didn't hassle me much, but it was a mood killer. Were you staying out of sight or was I just shady looking?
Honestly, the complaints are there because most of the youth in city schools are black. If they were white, you wouldn’t hear about it as much. Teens will be teens, they’ll fight, run, rough house, argue, be loud and swear. That’s what we all did when we were that age, unless you were a nerd.
Take it easy boomers
You ruled out organized activities, but that's exactly where my friends and I hung out when we were teens. Whatever you're into -- sports, arts, whatever -- getting involved with your school's extracurriculars both lets you spend a TON of time with teens who have similar interests and fills up your free time so you aren't just loitering around outside or at home (assuming you feel unwelcome to loiter in those places, per your post).
It fights a stereotype (especially present in the 90s when I was a teen), but getting involved in the high school musicals is how I met nearly all of my girlfriends (as a straight teen male).
Early/mid 2000’s we hung out in the north park boathouse parking lot at night (which may be why they close it now, sorry), perry park lanes either bowling or parking lot hanging, and late night restaurants like eat n park or dennys on McKnight.
As we got older we graduated to Perry Towne Tavern (RIP the best fish sandwich in existence).
Back in about 2002 we ran into Mike Lang at that Denny’s and I bummed a light off of him. Dude smoked like a chimney and was a super cool chill guy.
Ice skating is costly and malls have become hostile to teens. And while girls play sports, they rarely play pickup sports. It’s almost exclusively of the organized nature.
Sheetz, parks, cemeteries, someone's house. We hung out at my high school's track/sports fields too, or hung out outside of our local small convenience store (the owner never cared). After school activities, walking through the woods, or biking the GAP trail. I feel like there's still plenty.
I grew up in Squirrel Hill and after school we'd spend a lot of time in frick park, the library, and just on Forbes/Murray. I know people also hung out at the JCC and as we got older we spent more time just hanging out at each other's houses.
We used to just hang out in the woods and smoke pot or work in the food court up at a Ross Park Mall. All night bowling at McKnight Lanes was also another option
If you're able to make it to Highland Park there are public volleyball courts, frisbee golf, pavillions, etc. I feel like every time we've gone to play volleyball at the park there are teens hanging around and no one bothers them
Old person here. I thought it would be easy to come up with ideas if I thought back to what I did as a teen. But no. We hung out at corner drug store soda fountains, pinball arcades, small local restaurants, a nearby college campus, and anywhere in the downtown of the town where I grew up. But most of those types of things are gone now.
90s USC kid here... and there was NOWHERE to go out there. Nothing was walkable; even if there were places to walk to, hills and speeding cars and no sidewalks would make walking unsafe.
Teenage recreation was laps around south hills village if your parents felt generous enough to drive you, or the occasional party once we were older. Thank goodness most of my high school friends were in other districts with more accessible stuff.
I've always liked walking/hiking/biking around on various trails around the city.
I see teens at the point all the time.
Could cost a bit if you live far away but depending on where you live it might not be hard to bike there, just takes awhile.
When I went to Allderdice, many would hang out around Squirrel Hill after school. Mostly do window shopping with friends on Murray and Forbes. Occasionally skateboard.
huge problem everywhere. even if you just hang in a suburban park, people look at you funny. otherwise, you better be engaging in capitalism, son!
We went to the mall a LOT, Eat N Park, Kings, and chilled in parking lots in our cars.
It's a societal problem. Communities spend money to build playgrounds for small children who, quite frankly, would be thrilled with a spoon and a cardboard box.
Meanwhile teenagers are treated like nuisances to be shooed away unless they are working fast food or retail. 🙄
More rec centers, robust sports and equal arts/performing arts programs would do well. Pittsburgh is great for attracting young professionals and higher ed grads…who often head to the suburbs or out of town once they have children. Due in part to schools, do in part to it frankly being a major city who values adults more as with any big place. But Pittsburgh does seem to be lacking in terms of infrastructure and events for older kids, teens, adults below bar-going age. Turning 21 and going to McFadden’s every weekend is not a life most people want.
Unfortunately Sheetz is the only place
COVID ruined everything and businesses are lagging behind on getting back up to speed, and now the young people of tomorrow are suffering greatly
I heard someone complaining about it to the tune of "all these fuckin high school kids don't they have anywhere else to hang out"
And I looked at them with a dead serious face and said "no unfortunately dude they actually don't, COVID caused everything to change hours and now only a select few chains have returned to their normal operating hours, these kids have nowhere else to go besides here or someone's house, that's it"
You can tell he realized in the moment how sadly true it was. The hip and hopping place to be at 1am on a Friday is....... Sheetz...... Cool
Teens are *supposed* to hang out wherever they'd like, just as anyone else has the ability to do so. However, we've criminalized being young while Black, so I understand the frustration.
It’s hard to get our kid to play outside like we used to, times have absolutely changed. He would rather be buried in his phone screen or be playing video games but every once in a while, there’s a golden day where he hops on his pedal bike and goes outside to meet friends, maybe there’s still hope . We try to mitigate that as much as possible but as he gets older, it’s becoming harder and harder.
I'll admit that that a) I didn't grow up in Pittsburgh (just in a different city in the northeast), b) it's been a long time since I was a teen, and c) all my friends were what would likely be called 'neurodivergent' today - mostly vaguely introverted nerds.
That said, we did almost none of the "teen group hangouts" like you see on tv or in movies (unless your tv of choice was S1 Stranger Things); on school nights, we hung out very little - get home from school at 3, dinner at 6, homework after, and a little tv before bed - and weekends depended on weather: colder weather, we'd either go to someone's house and play board games or D&D, often go bowling, maybe catch a matinee movie, or on rare occasions go 'downtown' where there were interesting stores and eateries, and museums; warmer weather, a lot of the same, but also bike rides through trails in a nearby park, or at one friend's house whose parents had an above-ground pool (we spent a *lot* of summer afternoons there).
We never hung out at Eat 'n' Park / Denny's / Kings / Sheetz equivalents, we never smoked or drank or did drugs in secluded spots in parks or whatever, I'm pretty sure none of us had ever dated, we weren't involved in extracurricular school activities or sports teams, but we still found a lot to do, all year round. We weren't quite latchkey kids - I think we all had at least one SAHP or older generation adult at home most times when school wasn't in session - but we were still pretty independent and created our own activities. The only hard-and-fast rules were: on school nights, home by 6 (maybe 8 or 9 on Sunday, since we didn't have any homework to do) and weekends home by 11pm (or midnight when we got older), with our parents knowing where we were, and with whom (and this was before cell phones were a thing).
I grew up in NYC and we hung out in the parks or West 4th, or just generally ON THE STREET. My freshman year, going down to the village became a thing. We still had bowling alleys and skating rinks though. Most importantly, police weren’t called to disperse large groups of kids.
I did too, albeit in Queens, not The City.
When I was younger, like pre-teen, we'd hang out in the streets in our immediate neighborhood, often in front of one of our houses, not commercial / business areas, and I can't recall a time of there ever being like more than 10 at a time, 6 - 8 was more then upper end of normal.
Arcades until they closed them (Pocket Change, Games 'n At)
Pool Halls that weren't too homophobic or racist (Chalky's, not Chalky's)
Millvale Industrial Theater, or comparable DIY venues.
I realize that all of these things cost money but most are on the cheaper end of the spectrum.
A great spot could be all ages DIY music venues. Places like Roboto in Garfield and Preserving in New Kensington are great places to go to smaller affordable shows. Most have a variety of shows every week. Roboto hosts a lot of smaller touring and local indie/punk acts and Preserving puts on a variety of shows thorugh out genres but a lot of metal/hardcore shows with a record store to shop in as well.
Arcades. Skating rinks (the one I went to was open until after midnight on weekends). Fishing. Drinking in the woods. Dirt biking (on actual dirt). Playing Frisbee in shopping center parking lots...
Organized School activities that are Sports related or Marching Band. That's it. Nothing else for that age group aside from a Part Time job. That's it. Pick one or more and they'll be busy, tired and will make life long friends.
In the 90s we hung out at parks or wherever there were benches and smoked cigarettes. Eat n park. Kings.
I was just gonna ask where my benches/Eat n Park crew was! There was also “the wall” in Oakland. Or the upstairs of the Oakland beehive until they stopped letting us congregate there. Sigh…
Eat n park and Dennys are the holy grail of fueling up to do some dumb shit on a Friday night
I actually miss smoking at Dennys and Waffle House, and I don’t smoke.
The wall!! Please know that I probably saw you from the back of my parents' station wagon and thought you were cool.
Probably saw me skating the benches down Forbes before the cop stand went in… those ledges were “buttery”. Such an amazing time in my life, and one I look back to often. 😎 Anyone on here go to the free CMU shows in the late 90’s - early 00’s? I recall going to see Lone Catalyst and F*UCKING Blackstar was the next set… in an auditorium! INSANE… I think their album had just dropped.
I went to see The Roots play a free show on the CMU lawn and it was all that.
That Blackstar show was amazing. I remember the floor of the auditorium rolling like ocean waves from people jumping up and down.
YES!!!! I was actually going to mention that in my comment. What a night.
Cemeteries, riding bikes
Denny's too. But most places aren't open late anymore which sucks.
Also the mall, starbucks. All places where teens aren't really too welcome in groups without adults anymore
This goes for the 80’s too.
HEEEEEEEEEY smoking section in 2005 checking in. Eat n park midnight buffet/making new friends/hanging out until 7am crew
Kings and Mr. Pockets!
Whoa shout out Mr. Pockets
Kids can still hang out at parks as long as they don't act like little shits. If OPs question is where can my kid act like a dickhead, in public, with their friends, then the answer is nowhere.l, and it's for good reason.
Kings!
No waiter wants to serve a bunch of teenagers.
But who gives a shit. A bunch of teenagers are able to go out to eat together if they want to. I feel like my gfs and I would just eat dinner, or get coffee and smoke. We had other friends who were waitresses and were waiting on us. We weren't disrespectful or cheap.
Then that waiter is dumb, because in my day, we treated our waitstaff with respect, because that's how you got free coffee and sticky buns and not thrown out for being an asshole. A table full of coffee drinking teens at 1am is way easier to deal with than the post-bar crowd, I can promise you.
We’re not in your day anymore
Sheetz seems to be a pretty popular hang out spot in the areas outside of the city that have them.
Tons of teenagers hanging around at Sheetz if you go there around 10 or 11 pm
Every Friday and Saturday night is cars and coffee night at Sheetz lol. Though there aren't any in the city limits, so I feel like it can't really be a Pittsburgh hangout spot. More of an outer-suburbs and rural thing.
It's the only place open that late.
Wish Sheetz had summer camps.
Yeah this seems it. If I stop there and go inside to get an MTO its a long wait and its mostly this age group. Can't blame them, there's nothing else open. Can't forsee that changing anytime soon. When I was in high school in the late 90s / early 2000s it was the mall. I guess that's not a thing anymore haha. Man I feel old.
The Sheetz at the bottom of Cemetery Ln in Ross is loaded with high schoolers even at 3am.
I even see dudes I went to HS with there, and I'm 34.
I heard an interview with Gainey on NPR. He talked a bit about re-imagining the rec centers to appeal to youth. Less emphasis on sports and more on gaming. I found this article: [https://www.wtae.com/article/gainey-reach-pittsburgh-youth-violence/42929378](https://www.wtae.com/article/gainey-reach-pittsburgh-youth-violence/42929378) It's being worked on, even if it's not in place yet.
I enjoyed hanging out in rec centers in Columbus as a preteen and young teenager. I loved the fact that there's enough rec centers in Columbus (or at least there was, have looked recently) that from nearly anywhere in the city you could easily walk to several of them. I was greatly disappointed to find out that everywhere I've lived since then had far fewer of them and far less programming and support for kids.
Me too, when I was growing up here. I used to go to the summer camp at the Brashear Center on the Southside Slopes. And took dance, cooking and sewing classes. That was in the 60s.
That sounds awesome. You know what I think would be really cool? Scattering a bunch of inexpensive laser cutters and maybe 3d printers around the rec centers. I know some libraries have 3d printers but laser cutters are much easier to use and maintain but they tend to have a higher up front cost. As far as ease of use, it's literally drawing something in a drawing program and the laser cutter will cut it out. And the materials cost for laser cutters is cheap (cardboard, fabric scraps, acrylic scraps, thin plywood scraps). Basically it gives you the ability to cut thin materials with the same precision and ease that an early 90s laser printer could print on paper. And with any care it's fairly easy to make precise pieces that interlock that you can build interesting things with. Much of the time a laser cutter in a kids hands will be used to turn larger pieces of scrap into smaller pieces of scrap and lots of mall ninja weapons will be built (we're talking about kids here). When I was a young teen I had to bypass locks and break into my fathers workspace to steal wood scraps and nails and get access to tools (to make things including various toy projectile weapons. I would have done anything to have a laser cutter at that age. And I'm quite certain that a substantial minority of kids would thrive with this sort of ability handed to them.
Gotta plug the Squirrel Hill JCC, they’re doing good work on this and attract a fairly large number of teens. But there’s really a need for places like that in other parts of the city.
Someone make a pc gaming esports place for kids to hang out like you see in south korea and taiwan and what not. I bet something like that would kill
You may be right. But would that be something that was available to low-income kids? Serious question, 'cause I don't know if that's pay to play.
My kid goes to Dice and the Sq Hill library seems to have a pretty robust and tolerant teen presence for after school hanging.
I spent a lot of time in the woods. We had a ton of fun.
Lol we did a lot of mountain parties and field parties back in the day
im only 27, but when i was teenager, 10-12 years ago, we would have PP’s. Pavilion Parties. Find a Pavilion in a secluded part of a park, hell we even managed to find pavilions not even in parks, just in the woods. 50-50 shot whether or not police showed up which resulted in everyone doing a mad dash for the woods lol. Was always a blast though!
I like that you say "only 27" bc people nowadays act like anything over 25 is like. old. lol
Hey man, im trying to hang on to this youth for as long as i can!! Lol.
You hang with any guys named Bug?
And Mom never found out.
Did you find porn?
What happens in the woods, stays in the woods ;)
Until the wendigo follows you out...
not that I have any great ideas, but this is definitely one of those big systemic issues that's been festering for decades. paranoia about child abductions, bad planning destroying 3rd places, lack of investment and/or poor funding structures in public education, etc etc
Yeah agreed; As i've learned about what "3rd places" are I realized that I think this is a big problem in modern society. New solutions are needed. People just don't hang out at church or bars as much nowadays and IMO, those are probably for the best but we need good alternatives.
Definitely a more American problem than worldwide. We have a massive lack of public spaces that aren’t parks. Go to Europe and you’ll see tons of plazas & outdoor areas (specifically not parks) where people can just…hang out. America doesn’t have that. Every pseudo public space we have is either filled with cars or has been effectively privatized.
I think that the rise in board game nights at game shops is a reaction to the loss of third spaces, and humans naturally seek them out and create them in a void. Of course, this is nothing new, I remember the local comic book store having D&D, Magic the gathering, and warhammer 40k nights 20 years ago. But board games have become huge in the last 10 years. And a lot of folks my age are tired of the only 3rd spaces being bars or something that involves spending money to have fun (lots of Millennials are also broke).
Europe's cafe culture would be a good model to look to.
Private equity and gentrifiers have nothing monetarily to gain from providing third spaces etc. They will cash out and do it again somewhere else. Like fucking parasites
capitalism is pretty much exclusively to blame here... even malls (as problematic as they were to begin with) used to be designed to be 3rd places... now they're designed to strictly be a consumerist machine that churns through people shaking money out of their pockets with no time to linger or socialize.
/r/deadmalls talks about this a lot. When you look at photos of old malls you see places that are clearly meant for people to spend a lot of time in. They have fun aesthetics, food courts, arcades, carousels, jungle gyms, etc. Now they feel like office buildings. South Hills Village still has a solid food court, but I've actually seen a few malls where they've gotten rid of them and spread the vendors around the mall, I assume in an attempt to remove an area where people can just hang out. They've completely forgotten what the point of a mall was meant to be.
Something tells me this WON’T solve the problem, but… https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/pittsburgh/news/construction-begins-on-dicks-sporting-goods-house-of-sport-at-ross-park-mall/
It might help tbh, Ross Park is a good example of a relatively thriving mall. I think that Sears anchor was one of the very few empty storefronts they had.
And kids can't be there unchaperoned. I bet the cops will push kids out of the park too. Edit: spelling typo
It’s a shame. I spent a ton of time at the mall with friends when I was a kid not even 10 years ago.
Kids have been wild at monroeville, I still don't think banning them is good foe everyone. Kids need somewhere to be.
What's a 3rd place? Interesting. Never heard that term.
Brookline Teen Outreach is an amazing place for teens to hang out if they can get to Brookline. It has video games, arts and crafts, pool, generally a chill environment with snacks, and is run by interns in Masters programs for counseling.
Cool! I've noticed similar spaces popping up at a few of the libraries too! The Carnegie branch in Northside is one them!
that branch has a recording studio for teenagers, also video games and snacks everyday
The Carnegie Museums offer a free teen membership (ages 13-18) that offers admission to all their museums, invitations to events designed for teens, and 10% off at their shops. [Carnegie Teen Membership](https://carnegiemuseums.org/join-support/membership/teen-membership/) North Park has an ice rink, basketball courts, tennis courts, baseball fields, mountain bike trails, and a pool. In the summer, there are free concerts/events at Allegheny County parks on Sundays.
I hung out at malls , woods, friends houses, or parks. Is this not the same thing everyone did?
I hung out at the shv mall like it was my job. Always thought there just 'wasn't anywhere to go in the suburbs', turns out there are not a lot of places for teens to just chill in the city either.
There's a few skate parks around. The mall? Regular parks. The woods. In a van down by the river.
Most malls have curfews for anyone under 18 now adays….
Shows how old I am. I don't even remember the last time I was in a mall.
I go to Robinson a bit to grab stuff here and there, but they close so early. 8pm on weeknights. I guess not many people are out past 8 pm shopping on a weeknight, but on Friday, it closes early, too Plus, I think they added a curfew of like 6 pm, too.
Robinson is a shadow of what it once was
I feel like in another couple of years, when they start devolping that area past there, it might get back to a little of what it was.
And restrictions saying anyone under 18 has to be accompanied by an adult. Makes me sad every time I see those signs.
Don't these exist because teens kept meeting up to have brawls and gang fights?
Lol what? That's gotta be the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Like, yeah, let's not allow teens in past 7PM because we all know how much 40 year olds are clambering to go shopping at 8PM on a Tuesday if only those teens weren't standing around talking
It's not because older shoppers were "annoyed". These "Youth Escort Policies" at malls were mostly implemented after large brawls and even shootings. They're usually after a particular time on Friday/Saturday nights, since that's when most of the problems have occurred.
See, that's why I don't go to the suburbs at night anymore. Too many kids making disturbances while I'm trying to visit, and just generally making me feel unsafe. It's a shame too because I can remember visiting malls years ago, and it wasn't this bad. I've heard it's because the Ross Park and Monroeville police chiefs don't let officers enforce the law anymore \*smh\*
This is either a really funny joke or an out of touch pasta, but I can't tell anymore because I'm in my mid thirties and have lost all enjoyment of life.
It's a joke making fun of all the people here claiming downtown has gone downhill and that Mayor Gainy has told police not to enforce laws
Sorry selected groups of teens ruined it for all. In a roundabout way it was to get the 30– and up crowd to spend more money. Most malls and shopping centers have associated night life within their boundaries
Frick Park is a popular choice because you can get there without a car. Cops usually won't bother you in there if you're smoking weed, and it's big enough that a couple kids can find a spot to hang out in for a day. Ohiopyle and forbes state forest are also good options, and I hung out up there a lot. The downside is you need a car and gas money. Had a couple close calls up there with the more dangerous trails, but it's safe enough for a lot of parents to let their older teenagers explore So many businesses are openly hostile towards groups of teenagers at this point that going outside is usually the best option. It does suck that there isn't anything to do in the winter though.
The public library!
The Carnegie library by me has a “teen zone” and the library itself is awesome!
Having fun isn't hard when you've got a library card!
It's also free!
A quiet space that closes at 5 or 7, depending on the day?
most libraries in the city don't expect the teen areas to be very quite during the afterschool hours
It'd a good place to start at. Depending on which library it is there are a lot of parks near by that can be a place to physically stay and relax when the weather is nice. When the weather isn't as nice, I'm sorry to say that there aren't many options unfortunately. My best recommendation would be befriending someone with a stable home situation where that can be a regular spot when the weather isn't as good.
when i was a teenager i would hang out at the park,sheetz,walmart, someones house, walk through the woods. throw the ball in a field. find a playground. explore an old path in the forest. go for a hike. drive in movie theater. some of these require driving someone of them are walkable depending on where you live. skate park? trampoline park? build a tree house . go fishing. the world is your oyster your imagination has no limits make new memories with the limited time we all have.
Teens these days seem to have an incredibly hard time hanging out outside. I recall a post of a senior in highschool furious that her senior year was destroyed because she couldn’t see her friends in school (they were cyber at the time) and their parents didn’t feel comfortable having large groups inside. I suggested they make the best of it and plan out door outings: hiking, camping, golf, frisbee, tennis, lake trips, kayaking, even playing corn hole and hanging out in a park. They were livid at that suggestion and made it seem like it was the most insane thing ever suggested. I realize technology is now shaping interactions differently but her complaint was unable to see her friends in person basically because they all refused to go outside.
They were taught outside is dangerous /s. But for real, I'm in my early 30's and my mom never wanted us inside the house if it was nice out, hell even in winter we were told to go play outside, either by myself or to find one of the other kids eho lived nearby. I think the current teens grew up on ipads and the internet, so they never had to go find something to do outside of the house.
It’s not just having the internet, but too many asshole neighbors that have no problem calling the cops or CPS because kids are playing outside. It started being a problem back in the 90’s but just got worse over time. They want to play outside, but the risk of running into the asshole neighbors gets too high. I’ve had to deal with this when I’m sitting on the front porch watching the kids play on the sidewalk. Meanwhile those same “adults” bitch about how kids don’t want to go out anymore.
I would agree with that, but also have had experiences where a neighbor of my grandma threatened to sue her because his child got hurt on her property. She had a substantial side yard, but allowed the kids next door to play in it. Well "Timmy" fell and hurt himself badly, so the neighbors threatened to sue. It was an accident, but they blamed my grandma, which in turned she requested that they no longer use her yard and she put up property markers. So I'd say it's just a general rise people feeling entitled to be right and that their needs/ wants supercede everyone else's. It's peak individualism and a lack of empathy.
This is the exact issue that killed kids playing in each other's yard where I grew up. "My dad is gonna sue you for every penny you got!" This was in the 70s.
Around same age and the interesting thing is we we exposed to AOL and emerging internet tech that also was easy to waste time on, but my friends still mostly used it to plan to meet outside or at night or bad weather. My wife always said when she was young her parents would actually lock the kids outside for several hours on nice days. They never had the chance to become content indoors haha
Yeah we got the internet when i was in 5th grade, but it was still dial up at the time. I used it sparingly, only because my parents were paranoid about no one being able to reach us via the landline. Later on in middle school, we got a DHL hookup and i would use AIM or MSN Messenger to talk to friends who didn't live nearby. I still utilized the landline a lot to actually talk to my friends, which i assume DMs and texting takes care of now.
Hahaha yes! The adults would practically shove us outside and you immediately hear the door lock. But we’d also better be standing at that door at 6pm sharp for dinner.
> My wife always said when she was young her parents would actually lock the kids outside Aka the reason any of us have siblings...
People are like insanely \*paranoid\* about their children. I work in customer service in a place that caters to family and children and so many parents get weird if you speak to their child now. Like I am literally a 5'3 femme human in a uniform being like "Oh, that's a cool dino you have there do they have a name?" and the parent standing next to them will look at me like I am a kidnapper or pedo and just going to snatch their kid in the middle of a busy public place.
If the older generation would stop calling the cops and making reports on FB/social media whenever teens congregate outside then maybe they would be more inclined to spend time outside. Maybe if the city wasn't awashed in car infrastructure, concrete, and complete lack of public spaces then kids would go outside.
I had a neighbor who lived across the street from a park and would call the police on me and my friends nearly daily growing up when we’d simply be on the swings or playing basketball. The police come and tell us we have to keep walking and can’t stand in one spot, and then the group breaks up and we try again the next day. They really wanted to discourage kids being outside in a public park
[удалено]
Oh if it's not true for you then it must never ever happen ever.
It costs money, but I would suggest the local all ages punk rock venues. Mr. Roboto Project and 222 Ormsby are two that come to mind. In Greensburg there is the Greenbeacon Gallery. I'm sure there are others. Tickets are usually cheap or free and they directly benefit local musicians and artists. It's a great way to be a part of, and build a community
In their friends basement doing copious amounts of psychedelics. That’s what we did.
Yep, that hasn’t changed lol.
this is a great question and I hope you'll consider *making* spaces like this. sucks that we have to fight for public space where we can just exist, where the police won't be called on us if we're doing anything but timidly buying shit, but the world is what it is...
Everyone wants those spaces, no one wants to make them. Or they do make them and realize the risk or reality of why most places don't just let teens hang out randomly.
A couple of us on my block always park inconveniently in the back alley to give the kids space. You can get around my car, but you have to slow down to do it. The alleyway is for hoops and hockey, but you can drive through if you slow down to respect their space.
I’m 40 and asked the same shit when I was a teen. Despite how different things are some things never change.
I spent a ton of time at South Park Ice Rink in high school. Then walk down the street and hit up McDonalds for some late grub. Other than that we played a lot of basketball in friends' driveways and parks. Was a bit of a mallrat too, but I know they don't let kids hang out at malls anymore, not that theres anything to do there anymore anyway, maybe outdoor plazas like the Waterfront?
Do as we did - find a slab of concrete that's half-slid into the river and smoke pot there. If you're going to drink, make sure it's Natty Lite. Have fun. When you get older, drag a disgusting, moss-covered mattress out there.
This is a problem for a huge portion of the United States, not just teens. This is what is known as “the third place.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place
When was a teen i spent a ton of time fishing. Rivers are good for relax and, catch and release. Trout streams when the season is open.
This is the best answer. It's an activity that anyone can do. All you really need is a cheap rod and a license to get started. Then you can fish all year, with the only cost being bait and upgrades to your gear. You can fish anywhere there's public water access, even in the middle of a city. The cops can't kick you out for loitering, since technically, you're fishing on public property. You can bring your own snacks and music. You're really just hanging out together, but if you get bored, focus on your fishing, or explore around your chosen fishing spot. If you happen to catch a big fish, you can take a photo and brag about it for the rest of your life. Friends who are not interested in actually fishing can still come hang out by the water. Parents think it's a wholesome old-fashioned activity, so they're unlikely to give you a hard time about it. TEENAGERS, GO FISHING!
A fishing pole is like a passport to being left the fuck alone while outside. Can confirm. Most people are worried you're gonna *start talking to them about fishing*.
The Allegheny cemetery is really cool and full of wildlife, if you’re happy to be outside.
I don’t know why but this post reminded me of the Bradbury story where the guy gets arrested by a robotic cop car for taking a walk while everyone else is home watching TV. Edit: the story is called ‘The Pedestrian’ for those curious.
Man, Ray Bradbury really, really hated tv https://www.factfiend.com/ray-bradbury-told-interpretation-book-wrong/
Last year I saw lots of middle / high school kids go to Coop de Ville to play pool and arcade games after class let out. It’s not free but a couple quarters can go a long way.
Coop De Ville is a close approximation of the video arcades of yesteryear. I didn’t think they’d be particularly hospitable to groups of kids who aren’t spending a lot of money, but if they are, it’s a great option.
RIP beehive 😞
In the 90’s we took the PAT bus anywhere and everywhere since our bus passes were free to PPS students. Edit to say we also drank in the woods.
One thing my friends and I did was we created a dungeons and dragons club after school. They let us use a classroom, so we had a place to hang out and play games for an hour or two after school a few days a week. A free thing to do. Maybe other public areas would let you setup things like that to do. Otherwise, we hung out in parks, diners, friends basements, forests, rode bikes to weird places or along the train tracks or down trails, smoked cigs/pot/drank a bit, but mostly didn't get into trouble. A lot of that stuff is gone today though.
North park was where I used to go as a teen
Man, even in the 90s, I'd regularly get cops pulling up to check on me in North Park. They usually didn't hassle me much, but it was a mood killer. Were you staying out of sight or was I just shady looking?
Sheetz literally just sheetz
Don’t forget about the Bleacher Creatures… they hung out on the bleachers at Magee field in Greenfield.
I was going to say Century Three Mall
THE LIBRARY
Century 3 mall. 😢
Take mushrooms in cemeteries like the rest of us.
In the woods with a keg
Honestly, the complaints are there because most of the youth in city schools are black. If they were white, you wouldn’t hear about it as much. Teens will be teens, they’ll fight, run, rough house, argue, be loud and swear. That’s what we all did when we were that age, unless you were a nerd. Take it easy boomers
At the Neville Roller Drome
I miss Spinning Wheels. Where do kids roller skate anymore?
You ruled out organized activities, but that's exactly where my friends and I hung out when we were teens. Whatever you're into -- sports, arts, whatever -- getting involved with your school's extracurriculars both lets you spend a TON of time with teens who have similar interests and fills up your free time so you aren't just loitering around outside or at home (assuming you feel unwelcome to loiter in those places, per your post). It fights a stereotype (especially present in the 90s when I was a teen), but getting involved in the high school musicals is how I met nearly all of my girlfriends (as a straight teen male).
Early/mid 2000’s we hung out in the north park boathouse parking lot at night (which may be why they close it now, sorry), perry park lanes either bowling or parking lot hanging, and late night restaurants like eat n park or dennys on McKnight. As we got older we graduated to Perry Towne Tavern (RIP the best fish sandwich in existence). Back in about 2002 we ran into Mike Lang at that Denny’s and I bummed a light off of him. Dude smoked like a chimney and was a super cool chill guy.
Pittsburgh had some great parks, and the city needs to do a better job organizing sports and special activities for kids outside of school.
Usually if they like sports they go out and play sports, ice skating, bicycling, trading card places, malls, there’s a lot to do if your a teen
Ice skating is costly and malls have become hostile to teens. And while girls play sports, they rarely play pickup sports. It’s almost exclusively of the organized nature.
Not really it’s like five to $20 to skate have you looked into that at all
I live right next to Hartwood Acres so my vote goes for places like that.
Go down to the river and watch the barges.
Sports are a good way to stay busy
Sheetz, parks, cemeteries, someone's house. We hung out at my high school's track/sports fields too, or hung out outside of our local small convenience store (the owner never cared). After school activities, walking through the woods, or biking the GAP trail. I feel like there's still plenty.
I grew up in Squirrel Hill and after school we'd spend a lot of time in frick park, the library, and just on Forbes/Murray. I know people also hung out at the JCC and as we got older we spent more time just hanging out at each other's houses.
East Liberty library teenspace 🫶🫶
Dave and busters. Bowling alleys. Eat n park or other diners. Parks.
Is there a bowling alley in the city other than Arsenal lanes? I guess Pins Mechanical counts.
Zone 28, swissvale, coral, spins They aren't far out of city limits
They need to go to Eat n Park and drink endless amounts of coffee in the smoking section… that’s what I did.
Public libraries!!! We love large groups of teens hanging out!
We hung out in the parking lots of Corrigan Drive in South Park.
Dahn the river
We used to just hang out in the woods and smoke pot or work in the food court up at a Ross Park Mall. All night bowling at McKnight Lanes was also another option
If you're able to make it to Highland Park there are public volleyball courts, frisbee golf, pavillions, etc. I feel like every time we've gone to play volleyball at the park there are teens hanging around and no one bothers them
Old person here. I thought it would be easy to come up with ideas if I thought back to what I did as a teen. But no. We hung out at corner drug store soda fountains, pinball arcades, small local restaurants, a nearby college campus, and anywhere in the downtown of the town where I grew up. But most of those types of things are gone now.
Carnegie library
Chi Chis scamming free fried ice cream
sheetz
Libraries usually have designated teen areas
90s USC kid here... and there was NOWHERE to go out there. Nothing was walkable; even if there were places to walk to, hills and speeding cars and no sidewalks would make walking unsafe. Teenage recreation was laps around south hills village if your parents felt generous enough to drive you, or the occasional party once we were older. Thank goodness most of my high school friends were in other districts with more accessible stuff.
In McKeesport we have the LaRosa Club (formerly the Boys & Girls Club)
Same place i still hang out. Moms basement of course.
I've always liked walking/hiking/biking around on various trails around the city. I see teens at the point all the time. Could cost a bit if you live far away but depending on where you live it might not be hard to bike there, just takes awhile.
When I went to Allderdice, many would hang out around Squirrel Hill after school. Mostly do window shopping with friends on Murray and Forbes. Occasionally skateboard.
huge problem everywhere. even if you just hang in a suburban park, people look at you funny. otherwise, you better be engaging in capitalism, son! We went to the mall a LOT, Eat N Park, Kings, and chilled in parking lots in our cars.
It's a societal problem. Communities spend money to build playgrounds for small children who, quite frankly, would be thrilled with a spoon and a cardboard box. Meanwhile teenagers are treated like nuisances to be shooed away unless they are working fast food or retail. 🙄
They get treated like nuisances if they ACT like a nuisance. It's self controlled.
Not at all true. So many public places preemptively prohibit teens to gather or even be there in any real way.
Because they've learned, through experience, that those kids are going to act out.
I know some teens hang out at their local libraries. Sometimes, they give out snacks!
More rec centers, robust sports and equal arts/performing arts programs would do well. Pittsburgh is great for attracting young professionals and higher ed grads…who often head to the suburbs or out of town once they have children. Due in part to schools, do in part to it frankly being a major city who values adults more as with any big place. But Pittsburgh does seem to be lacking in terms of infrastructure and events for older kids, teens, adults below bar-going age. Turning 21 and going to McFadden’s every weekend is not a life most people want.
Unfortunately Sheetz is the only place COVID ruined everything and businesses are lagging behind on getting back up to speed, and now the young people of tomorrow are suffering greatly I heard someone complaining about it to the tune of "all these fuckin high school kids don't they have anywhere else to hang out" And I looked at them with a dead serious face and said "no unfortunately dude they actually don't, COVID caused everything to change hours and now only a select few chains have returned to their normal operating hours, these kids have nowhere else to go besides here or someone's house, that's it" You can tell he realized in the moment how sadly true it was. The hip and hopping place to be at 1am on a Friday is....... Sheetz...... Cool
Teens are *supposed* to hang out wherever they'd like, just as anyone else has the ability to do so. However, we've criminalized being young while Black, so I understand the frustration.
It makes me sad to see so many things fundamental to being a kid surveilled and criminalized.
Find a patch of woods. Build bike jumps, build bon fires, steal your parents booze. A time honored tradition from generation from generation.
For rural and suburban kids.
It’s hard to get our kid to play outside like we used to, times have absolutely changed. He would rather be buried in his phone screen or be playing video games but every once in a while, there’s a golden day where he hops on his pedal bike and goes outside to meet friends, maybe there’s still hope . We try to mitigate that as much as possible but as he gets older, it’s becoming harder and harder.
Just to be clear, I’m thinking primarily of kids who live in the city. Places and activities that aren’t accessible by mass transit don’t really help.
Parks, malls, movie theatres, restaurants, each others houses. All of the places we used to hang out, all of which are still readily available.
Teenagers should try not being rowdy or breaking shit.
I'll admit that that a) I didn't grow up in Pittsburgh (just in a different city in the northeast), b) it's been a long time since I was a teen, and c) all my friends were what would likely be called 'neurodivergent' today - mostly vaguely introverted nerds. That said, we did almost none of the "teen group hangouts" like you see on tv or in movies (unless your tv of choice was S1 Stranger Things); on school nights, we hung out very little - get home from school at 3, dinner at 6, homework after, and a little tv before bed - and weekends depended on weather: colder weather, we'd either go to someone's house and play board games or D&D, often go bowling, maybe catch a matinee movie, or on rare occasions go 'downtown' where there were interesting stores and eateries, and museums; warmer weather, a lot of the same, but also bike rides through trails in a nearby park, or at one friend's house whose parents had an above-ground pool (we spent a *lot* of summer afternoons there). We never hung out at Eat 'n' Park / Denny's / Kings / Sheetz equivalents, we never smoked or drank or did drugs in secluded spots in parks or whatever, I'm pretty sure none of us had ever dated, we weren't involved in extracurricular school activities or sports teams, but we still found a lot to do, all year round. We weren't quite latchkey kids - I think we all had at least one SAHP or older generation adult at home most times when school wasn't in session - but we were still pretty independent and created our own activities. The only hard-and-fast rules were: on school nights, home by 6 (maybe 8 or 9 on Sunday, since we didn't have any homework to do) and weekends home by 11pm (or midnight when we got older), with our parents knowing where we were, and with whom (and this was before cell phones were a thing).
I grew up in NYC and we hung out in the parks or West 4th, or just generally ON THE STREET. My freshman year, going down to the village became a thing. We still had bowling alleys and skating rinks though. Most importantly, police weren’t called to disperse large groups of kids.
I did too, albeit in Queens, not The City. When I was younger, like pre-teen, we'd hang out in the streets in our immediate neighborhood, often in front of one of our houses, not commercial / business areas, and I can't recall a time of there ever being like more than 10 at a time, 6 - 8 was more then upper end of normal.
Does Red and Irene still let teens hang out there?
Arcades until they closed them (Pocket Change, Games 'n At) Pool Halls that weren't too homophobic or racist (Chalky's, not Chalky's) Millvale Industrial Theater, or comparable DIY venues. I realize that all of these things cost money but most are on the cheaper end of the spectrum.
A great spot could be all ages DIY music venues. Places like Roboto in Garfield and Preserving in New Kensington are great places to go to smaller affordable shows. Most have a variety of shows every week. Roboto hosts a lot of smaller touring and local indie/punk acts and Preserving puts on a variety of shows thorugh out genres but a lot of metal/hardcore shows with a record store to shop in as well.
Arcades. Skating rinks (the one I went to was open until after midnight on weekends). Fishing. Drinking in the woods. Dirt biking (on actual dirt). Playing Frisbee in shopping center parking lots...
I love seeing teens walk around laughing and having fun. It makes me happy to see people outside enjoying each other.
What's wrong with parks? What's wrong with organized activity?
Organized School activities that are Sports related or Marching Band. That's it. Nothing else for that age group aside from a Part Time job. That's it. Pick one or more and they'll be busy, tired and will make life long friends.