Please no loitering. No kicking balls. Minors must be accompanied by adults.
In response to multiple shootings around the downtown area in 2022, the Chicago City Council enacted a curfew for those under 17 (the original curfew was only set for those under 16 before former Mayor Lori Lightfoot moved to expand it). This move came after large groups of teenagers gathered in the Millennium Park area.
As a teenager living in Chicago, downtown has truly been one of the few places in which I have been able to feel a sense of freedom, higher safety, and independence. It has been one of the few places of which I’ve been able to effectively commute to with friends. The CTA loop is one of the few ways that teens without a license are able to travel without much parent involvement.
Still, after years of ordinances policing teenagers in the loop area, I have become concerned with the lack of accessible spaces for teenagers to develop and grow. The space which many kids like me find to be an exhilarating window of freedom has moved to actively make us feel unwelcome. An area whose colorful food options, amazing programs for young people, and unparalleled resources has become a truly hostile environment for those who need to escape the most.
I remember seeing more recent videos of mobs of teenagers causing chaos downtown and feeling a sense of anger that the spaces in which I have learned about my love for architecture, my love for public transportation, and the incredible art of Chicago are moving farther and farther from me.
After the 2022 curfews went into effect, the American Civil Liberties Union Chicago Chapter (ACLU) pushed back, stating that it damaged the relationship between young people and the city. The city argued throughout the pushback that this would be about ‘educating’ teens instead of making ‘mass arrests’ of teenagers.
It has truly been a battle in my head between understanding that teenagers are going to make bad decisions and remembering that kids like me need to explore the city we live in. It has been frustrating to see young people mob downtown when I know how sacred that space is for some of us. Coming from areas who have been actively repressed by Chicago’s well-known segregation, downtown has been a sliver of the city that has felt accessible to me.
On multiple occasions, I tried entering Millennium Park and had to pass through an overflowing security checkpoint that seemingly was just a security theater. Though I knew it was virtually useless, I still felt a huge sense of being unwelcome. It felt that me going to visit the iconic Chicago Crown Fountain or the bean was a nuisance to the city.
I realized that what I felt is what I felt at places closer to home—a sense of over-policing that made me feel watched. One wrong move, and the young kids of color who take the ‘El’ downtown would face the wrath of the Chicago police. It is these metal detectors and constant news stories of the police pushing teens out of downtown that made me realize that, no matter how much I needed the freedom and escape to learn about myself, I was a nuisance to the city. There is not a single time that I stroll Michigan Avenue or State Street and I don’t think about the pushes from the city to further push the city away from young people.
However, what’s frustrating is that Chicago is already home to places for teenagers to explore and interact with their peers. I have been to places on the north side like Wicker Park and Lakeview where there is a large sense of autonomy for young people. My peers that live on the other side of the city have places to be youthful.
One of the most relatable experiences of teenagers, in my opinion, is that it feels like your questions are no longer valued. You are no longer a toddler asking why the stop lights are the colors they are, you are a teenager asking more about yourself, who you want to be. Where does one ask these questions?
