Teen Gathering Spot Makes Sense

In today’s Park Record, citizen Melissa Band wrote a letter entitled, Kids need a place to call their own. Essentially, Ms. Band is calling for a location where teenagers could hang out in a safe place. It frankly makes a lot of sense.

For twenty years, the knock on Park City kids, from outsiders, has been the “party culture” associated with our teenagers. Park City kids are often associated with drugs, alcohol, and other illicit behavior. Like anything, I am sure the reality isn’t quite as dire as rumors suggest.  Yet, the rumors align with something out of a John Hughes movie.

That’s where either a government funded or privately funded location where teens could go, have fun, and be safe has a lot of merit. Ms Band provides options in Park City proper. Perhaps, it would make sense to instead consider Redstone at Kimball Village. There is plenty of open space there.

Likewise, perhaps someone like Basin Rec could open a facility. Another idea would be to use funding from something like the RAP Tax (Recreation, Arts, and Parks) that could be used to fund this.

We have a lot of trails. We have a great field house that is only going to get better thanks to the expansion plans. We have a huge amount of open space.

Perhaps it’s time to spend money on making sure our teens have a safe and fun place to go.