Are Mall Restrictions “Working”?

Have you been to the Mall lately? I have not, but my post-college kid stopped by after a recent visit and clearly takes a dim view of the curfew/chaperone rule. 

“I mean, it’s summer!”

I get the point. How many air conditioned spaces are there in town where teens can meet and socialize without a substantial financial outlay?

It’s not just a Columbia thing. The establishment and enforcement of these kinds of restrictions is happening in other nearby areas as well. This piece by Leslie Gray Streeter in the Baltimore Banner looks at what “mall life” meant to teens of her generation. 

Local malls are restricting teens. Gen X would never have survived. Leslie Gray Streeter, Baltimore Banner 

It’s more than a pure nostalgia piece, although it does provide a delicious glimpse into what made the mall such a magical place for Streeter and her contemporaries. I spent my teen years in a town without a mall and we certainly bemoaned the fact that there was “nowhere to go!” other than the library, the indoor mini golf, and the movies. 

Streeter also addresses changes in parenting styles and the advent of helicopter parenting. I noted that change myself when we attended college orientation for our youngest a few years back. The school held a special session just for parents. I was flabbergasted to learn that many parents expected that they’d hear from their college kids at least daily once they had gone away to school. 

Despite these societal changes, one person quoted in the piece notes that the kids who are now required to be chaperoned don’t behave a whole lot better than when they were on their own, and that the parents don’t seem to be doing much about that. Hmm.

I was glad to see that Ms. Streeter touched on this point:

Because of changes in retail, nobody — including kids — needs to shop in person at a mall to get what they want. But both Lehr and my sister think that if businesses respected the money that the young demographic spent, they might be less restrictive. “You think about whether the malls would be failing as much if they looked at these kids as actual consumers,” Lynne said, who added that she thinks some of these curfews and restrictions have a racial bias (as do I).

I agree, on both points. 1. Teens are undervalued as mall consumers and 2. these kinds of rules have their roots in racial bias.

The Mall Problem, Village Green/Town², February, 2023

Teens love and patronize malls with far more faithfulness than many adults. (Just Google the phrase “teens spend money at malls” if you’re curious.) If we respond to this situation by throwing more police and more restrictions at it, we are essentially developing exclusionary policies that place value on some people and devalue others. 

So we’ve been doing this for over a year now. What are the results? Is the Mall “safer”? Has there been an increase in business overall or has it declined? Are teens taking their dollars elsewhere? 

I’d love to know.

Village Green/Town² Comments