Listen to the city’s youth

Paige Richmond

of the Gateway

This is based purely on observation, but I’m going to step out on a limb here and say there are very few young people in Gig Harbor. A quick look at the city’s demographics showed that the median age is 44.6, compared with 35.3 for the rest of the state. Of course, this doesn’t take into account those people living outside city limits, but it does demonstrate that Gig Harbor has fewer young residents. I grew up in a place not like unlike this one. It was, at the time, a smaller city in southern California, about the same distance from Los Angeles that Gig Harbor is from Seattle. The city was filled with married couples, some ready to raise a family and some who already had. Restaurants closed at about 9 p.m. To go shopping for clothes — since there was no mall within city limits — you would have to drive about five or 10 miles to the next city, not unlike the trip to Tacoma. Of course, my hometown’s population has exploded since I was a kid, and it’s 10 times the size of Gig Harbor now. It also lacks the harbor’s maritime heritage and quieter way of life. But I have observed one commonality: There is very little for young people to do in their free time. This problem was widely discussed at this month’s Conversation Café. Of course, while several people agreed — like insurance agent Tim Lopez, who said his two teenaged children expressed a similar complaint to him — some people were surprised by this discussion, commenting that they had never noticed a problem. As a 20-something myself, I have thought a great deal about the issue, and I think that believing no problem exists is really the problem itself. It’s all too easy to sweep teenagers’ concerns about their social life under the rug, or argue that teenagers shouldn’t be out with their friends because they’ll just be getting into trouble. Based on my own experience, teenagers only get into trouble when they have nothing to do — and by having nothing to do, I mean sitting around their parents’ houses or their friends’ parents’ houses. Boredom leads to things like drinking or experimenting with drugs or breaking the law, if only because those sorts of things seem like more exciting ways to pass the time. It’s also very easy to place teenagers into two categories: good and bad, suggesting that some kids are just more likely to get into trouble than others. I’d argue that all teenagers want is to be trusted and to be treated like they are capable of making of their own decisions. But when there are few social options to choose from and therefore no decisions to be made, teenagers default to what’s available — even if what’s available might not be the healthiest or wisest option. This is why teenagers need to have more options — the new Galaxy Theatres are a good example — where they can hang out and spend time with their friends outside of their parents’ homes. Something as simple as an open mic night at a coffee shop or a 24-hour restaurant provides an opportunity not for kids to get into trouble but to actually stay out of trouble. But I’m not the expert on what teenagers want; they are. It’s about time to have a conservation with Gig Harbor’s youth, instead of about them.

Reach Lifestyles Coordinator Paige Richmond at 853-9243 or by e-mail at paige.richmond@gateline.com.