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  • myrmepropagandistfuturebird@sauropods.win
    Oct 16, 2026, 11:57 AM

    If someone would give me a space and pay for my supplies I'd run a repair clinic for them and we could learn to solider try to take things apart and fix them.

    But that would just help maybe two or three dozen kids and there are 100s.

    And you need a variety of activities. Some of them might even want to work. We could have a math tutoring center and it could employ a few teens to teach elementary kids arithmetic. But, you'd need to pay someone to run that.

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Replies

  • myrmepropagandistfuturebird@sauropods.win
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:01 PM

    I can tell they are good kids because with I hit them with a teacher look they apologize for swearing. They just need something to do ... some structure.

    I feel like this isn't getting attention in a way BECAUSE they are mostly good kids. They aren't running around in gangs or doing crimes so no one cares. But, in a way this still sucks just as much as it did in the 80s

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  • myrmepropagandistfuturebird@sauropods.win
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:10 PM

    I'm using the short hand of "good kids" and "bad kids" here but I'm also aware that bad kids don't really exist. Instead you have young people without enough adult support and care in their lives... or in some cases too much of such control though that's more rare.

    But, I think these kids have parents who are doing their part, family looking out for them, but no one has the money to fund a team, or get them in dance lessons. And that would be great for so many of them.

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  • moduluxmodulux@node.isonomia.net
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:05 PM

    @futurebird I don't know anything about children other than having been a child. But is it necessarily bad for children to have unstructured time they can decide what to do with? It didn't seem bad to me when I was a child, but I don't know.

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  • myrmepropagandistfuturebird@sauropods.win
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:07 PM

    @modulux

    Unstructured time is great. And I've seen the other extreme: the child with a google calendar that is packed like they are a little CEO.

    Like so many things in life balence is needed.

    What's missing for these young people are opportunities to do slightly more adult things in a small way. Like having a part time job, or being on a team. Just a little bit of responsibility.

    Part of college and clubs are all about helping young people to take on responsibility bit by bit.

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  • Sin Vegasinvega@mas.to
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:27 PM

    @futurebird @modulux I remember the first time I worked alongside work experience kids and I was like... jesus, they should be allowed to do this for a few hours a week and paid a full wage. This one kid in particular was doing better than most adults I'd worked with

    obviously you'd have to manage it carefully to keep them from being exploited (hence, for one thing, nothing less than a full adult wage, direct to them and nobody else), and I wouldn't trust any government of the last 15 years to do it. But "work experience" is already exploiting them. Makes no sense at all, better to extend it and actually PAY them, becuase how is it work experience if they're not getting the thing people tolerate it for

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  • George Bgbargoud@masto.nyc
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:20 PM

    @modulux @futurebird

    Unstructured time is great if you have somewhere to spend the unstructured time in.

    In the summer, there are parks and playground (although older kids will often not want to be in the playground anymore) but in the winter or on rainy days there are virtually no places a kid can be indoors without paying money. There are libraries but pretty much nothing else.

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  • myrmepropagandistfuturebird@sauropods.win
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:22 PM

    @gbargoud @modulux

    You get kicked out of the library if you are talking. And ... fair enough, it's the library. But I don't think most teens simply want to be silent on their free time all the time.

    They just want to be with their friends and talk. Which is normal and healthy so ... WHERE can they do this?

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  • Renke Meuwesemeuwese@mastodon.social
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:36 PM

    @futurebird @gbargoud @modulux I was very lucky that in my home town the library actually accepted that every Friday afternoon a whole bunch of young people would gather in one corner to play and trade Magic the Gathering. Not sure if they'd still tolerate that... I know that the shop in my current home town has stopped its Pokemon swap afternoons because they got tired of litigating accusations of theft between participants (and the fallout of parents being called in getting mad!)

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  • Sin Vegasinvega@mas.to
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:38 PM

    @futurebird @gbargoud @modulux I love libraries, but so many are full of staff who treat teenagers (especially if they're Black or asian) like they're way, way worse than they are

    9 times out of 10 I found that yeah they're getting really loud now. But they don't really realise they are, so if you gently ask them to take it down a bit they do. And so what if I have to ask another few times thoughout the day? Who's actually being harmed?

    Libraries haven't been silent for over 20 years anyway, and it's not like we're not sat at the counter talking too

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  • William Wittemanwillyyam@mastodon.social
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:59 PM

    @futurebird @gbargoud @modulux
    I think there is space (a capitalist would call it a market niche) for a "loud library". A place where you could be indoors, lightly supervised, but with spaces for some noise and activities.
    A room with tables and games, a room with some instruments available in exchange for your shoe, a room with tools, workbenches, and donated broken things.
    Some mentor/teachers, possibly retired folks who know how to do things and teach.

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  • Lien Raglienrag@mastodon.tedomum.net
    Oct 16, 2026, 2:55 PM

    @futurebird

    Do you think Mamdani could do something about it ?
    Have you tried reaching out to his team ?
    (I don't know much about US or New York politics, maybe what I say is bonkers, but here that's basically the sort of programs that left-wing mayors try to put in place)

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  • Darth Hideout 🏳️‍🌈🎃darth_hideout@mas.to
    Oct 16, 2026, 5:19 PM

    @futurebird

    I'd go farther & say there are no good people & no bad people. Just people. Full. Stop. It's a question of what ppl do, not who they are. As you say, it's a convenient shorthand.

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  • Renke Meuwesemeuwese@mastodon.social
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:33 PM

    @futurebird the attention they might still get is the bouncer telling them to go away. Which is more than the kids that decide to stay at home and play video games would even get. They're implicitly told they're making the right choice, when most of us (parents, teachers, everyone else) would probably agree that sitting by themselves every afternoon is worse than hanging around outside. But short term it *seems* safer.

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  • SewBluesewblue@sfba.social
    Oct 16, 2026, 5:44 PM

    @futurebird Keep up the teacher look! Am soooooo tired of the swearing battle, as mother of a teen.

    What mom, where are no kids around. 🙄 as if that is the only reason not to swear.

    I'm going to have start treating her like a young child and removing her from public when she pulls that line of logic. Just to make a point.

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  • helplessduckhelplessduck@beige.party
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:06 PM

    @futurebird

    And I'll bet you a nickel that it wouldn't take long for the "social problems" wrought by the disappearance of third spaces to themselves disappear.

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  • myrmepropagandistfuturebird@sauropods.win
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:17 PM

    @helplessduck

    The major "social problem" is the fast food places not wanting to be teen hang out spots and so having to hire bouncers which is... it's silly. I'm certain the business owners are fuming about the teens, think they are wild animals and have turned republican.

    But I kind of get it. They don't spend any money and can be very loud and annoying. Because they are teenagers.

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  • helplessduckhelplessduck@beige.party
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:37 PM

    @futurebird

    I sat here dithering on "social problem" for several minutes. It wasn't the kids who took away bowling alleys and the after school tutoring programs, society did. It casts aspersion at the kids who are, as you point out, just being kids but I don't know what else to call it.

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  • George Bgbargoud@masto.nyc
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:12 PM

    @futurebird

    I was thinking of a second hand shop/repair cafe idea.

    At its core, people donate broken things and the shop fixes them and resells them.

    The part that's different is a room with a bunch of tools and tables and anyone can claim something from the broken bucket and fix it. If they can fix it they can choose to take it home or leave it in the shop for sale and get some significant percentage of the sale price (like 25-50%)

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  • myrmepropagandistfuturebird@sauropods.win
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:15 PM

    @phooky

    There is a building on the Grand Concourse that used to be a vet clinic, and nothing is in it now. It's at the perfect location near all of these new schools.

    Also, I think there is space in the old post office that could work.

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  • llewellyllewelly@sauropods.win
    Oct 16, 2026, 12:49 PM

    @futurebird "... solider try to take things apart and fix them. "

    war on entropy, you mean.

    Soliders in the war on entropy.

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