Pittsburgh teens weigh in on their ouster from Market Square, call for more ‘third spaces’ Downtown
WESA-
The City of Pittsburgh rolled out a new policy late last month restricting when youth can be in Market Square, a downtown plaza that has become a popular spot for teens to congregate.
Anyone under the age of 18 will now need an adult with them Thursdays through Sundays from 3 p.m. to midnight.
But while city officials have indicated that students cannot hang around the square unless they are buying and eating food, they have not offered any alternatives for kids downtown.
“It’s really not fair, to be honest,” said Ousmane Conde-Cyrus, a senior at City Charter High School, which is just a few minutes’ walk from Market Square. “You have to be 18 to go to a public space? That doesn’t really make any sense.”
Conde-Cyrus told WESA that he used to go to Market Square more when he first started attending City Charter High School, commonly known as City High.
“‘Cause, you know, new environment, I want to explore downtown and whatnot,” he said. “But, as I got older, you know, I started to go to that place less and less because there’s not really much to do there.”
Conde-Cyrus said kids mostly gravitate to Market Square to buy food after school.
But on Cinco de Mayo last week, Conde-Cyrus and his friends instead stopped at The Cellar for free quesadillas and mock pina coladas. The volunteer-run space, located in the basement of the First Presbyterian Church on Sixth Avenue, offers high schoolers afterschool meals, homework help and a space to hang out every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
It’s also a place where students can steer clear of the chaos that can sometimes brew in unsupervised spaces downtown. A large fight in Market Square this March resulted in police charging several teens and reignited downtown safety concerns.
Business owners around the plaza have long complained about disruptive teen behavior — such as kids running around, messing with chairs, and throwing trash near restaurants — that could turn away customers.
But Conde-Cyrus said most teens are looking only for a safe space to hang out and let out some energy after school.
“I feel like since [adults have] been teens before, they should understand how [teens’] emotions are sometimes out of control,” he said. “I mean, they’re like kids in adult bodies…sometimes they just need to let out their stress and whatnot, and that may just be fighting and whatnot.”
The Cellar, however, is one of only a couple of dedicated youth spaces downtown. And the programs that do exist are already at capacity.
Joanne Galinowski, The Cellar’s director, said 100 kids are registered for the free program. Each weekday it’s open, 70 to 80 students cycle through The Cellar’s doors.
“We would love to see more kids, but especially with the high school kids, you can’t just allow everybody in without proper staffing or volunteers, because then it’s a disaster,” Galinowski said.
“It could be really dangerous having any kids without the proper amount of people that are needed to provide the services to them, just the eyes,” she continued.
Like many students WESA spoke to at The Cellar, 10th grader Lanaejah Darwin said she often comes for the snacks.
“The Cellar is great because some people can’t afford just to get snacks on their own,” she said. “So for The Cellar to just give it out for free, I feel like that’s great.”
Darwin, who goes to Urban Pathways Charter School, also located downtown, said there aren’t many other free options for teens in the neighborhood. The Carnegie Library on Smithfield Street is open after school, but Darwin said she sometimes feels unsafe going there.
“It’s kind of hard to go to the library with the amount of crackheads that are outside, and it gets a little scary to even walk in,” she said.
Jay Siwa, a senior at City High, said she and her peers have long discussed the need for more teen spaces outside of school and home.
“ We need third spaces where we can study, where we can talk to each other, relax, also have some physical release — maybe some activities like the gym,” Siwa said.
While many teens found ways to build community online during and after the pandemic, Siwa said her peers are now hungry for more in-person experiences.
“Even if you go home, you’re going to be online,” she said. “And that just leads to this generation continuing to be parasocial, and that’s not what we want. We want to talk to other people in real life.”
Responding to ‘teen takeovers’
That motivation to socialize freely could be part of the reason neighborhood youth gatherings, dubbed ‘teen takeovers,’ have surged in popularity nationwide. In some cities, the gatherings have been reported as rowdy and sometimes violent events.
In March, flyers promoting a teen takeover in Downtown Pittsburgh were circulating online. Officials with Pittsburgh Public Schools sent out a flurry of robocalls and letters urging parents to dissuade their teens from attending.
Despite — or because of — that panic, the Pittsburgh teen takeover never materialized, public safety spokesperson Cara Cruz confirmed.
She noted, however, that the number of police citations issued to minors convening in Market Square after school and on the weekends has increased dramatically compared with the same time last year.
In Washington, D.C., the response to these gatherings has resulted in a long-term youth curfew. But officials in Detroit are taking a different approach, planning year-round activities to engage teens.
Farooq Al-Said, director of education for the Pittsburgh-based advocacy group 1Hood Media, questioned why city officials wouldn’t first do the same.
“ What systems were overlooked? And how did you skip the queue and just go straight to something exclusionary when you could have had a conversation with youth?” he said.
Al-Said said these questions are among those he hopes to see addressed at the youth forum 1Hood Media is hosting Saturday, May 16 on safety and mental health.
In a statement, Boys and Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania CEO Christopher Watts said long-term solutions must center the voices of the city’s youth.
“The time is now to invest in these types of opportunities alongside a comprehensive strategy that includes collaboration with outreach workers, public safety, and the Downtown community,” Watts said.
The nonprofit’s current youth center downtown only has seats for 30 teens. While the organization is in the process of planning an expansion, a timeline has not yet been announced.
“Safety and opportunity must go hand in hand,” Watts added. “When young people are engaged, supported, and given spaces to belong, Downtown — and our entire region — becomes stronger.”
The teens WESA spoke to also want to strengthen Pittsburgh’s downtown. Tae’Vaughn Smith, a senior at City High, said the Golden Triangle has the potential to become a thriving hub for city youth.
“There’s opportunities for them to make things down here. They could have made a bowling alley down here, I’m pretty sure,” he said. “They could have made a nice little gym down here.”
Or offer activities for younger kids at Point State Park, Smith added.
In the meantime, Smith said spaces like The Cellar should be known to everyone downtown — not just teens. Police in and around Market Square, for instance, could refer students to spaces like The Cellar as a violence-prevention tactic, he suggested.
An armed security guard, who is also a former city police officer and teacher, greets students at the center’s entrance. Smith said that prevents any fights from occurring in the space.
“I feel like officers or like just people walking past… could just be like, ‘Oh, do y’all know about The Cellar? Y’all don’t have to be out here messing around and everything. They have a place where you can play around,’” he said.
Increasing everyone’s understanding of the third spaces available to teens, Smith said, would allow adults in the city to better support students and build a safer Pittsburgh together.
More from WESA here.