re: Youths complaining about a lack of "third places" lately

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IF we are talking about teenagers, I think this is legit complaint. Most malls are gone. Parks are mostly trashed and many closed at night. No teen clubs cause they turned ghetto. The few bowling alleys are full of weird old people. Most skating rinks have closed.

Most of the places I hung out as a teenager are no longer around and were not replaced.

Now if you are taking 20-somethings, they have more options... but they are generally limited to a bar or a bar-type environment.

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Yeah, for teens it definitely seems to be a problem in small towns and smaller cities as well.

It's actually been happening in small towns since probably the 1980s.

I grew up in a small town north of Pensacola. When I was in middle school in the mid-80s there was a roller skating rink, theater, arcade, bowling alley and a couple of independent ice cream/burger places open 'til 10pm that were kind of social hubs for 13-18yo kids.

By the time I was in HS in the late 80s, every single one of these places was out of business--and certainly not due to crime-- and HS kids just hung out in parking lots which was a whole lot more "dangerous".

Now, there doesn't even seem to be many of those kind of places that are good for teenagers to hang out with friends even in a larger place like Pensacola.