Sometime in the mid 2000s my town decided that the public library wasn't important enough to fund. It closed completely for a few weeks, and then reopened for about 15 hours a week. I can't remember how long that went on, but I believe within a year the library was back to (almost) its previous level of service. It is now open six days (55.5 hours) a week. During the period that it was closed the town powers-that-be also determined that shutting down the town skateboard park was advisable, leaving not much to do in the center of town. Not surprisingly (to me anyway) within the next few weeks the local paper reported on a mini crime wave of petty theft and vandalism in town. Of course public safety had been spared when the town voted on the budget, which turned out to be a good thing since it was then needed more than ever (can you hear my sarcasm here). To those who would defund libraries and recreation in order to ensure funding of public safety I say this: libraries are public safety, as are recreation centers and parks.
This 1979 film (Matt Dillon's debut) illustrates what happens when a town decides that business is more important than pleasure. Teens in New Granada have nowhere to go after school except a sad little recreation center located inside a depressing-looking quonset hut. Exactly one adult runs the place. Business owners (and police) determine that the rec center isn't good "optics" when investors for a new Industrial Park come to town and ask to have it shut down for the day. When the director refuses she is fired and the center is shut down for good. The restless teens turn to sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, and increased vandalism of public and private property to fill their free time. Tragedy strikes when a fourteen-year-old boy (played by Dillon) is killed by the sheriff. Things go from bad to worse from there. There is some indication that the film is based on real events, but it is unclear exactly where, when, or how much.
The film features a 1970s PSA in which students are admonished not to destroy things. Within the PSA is a scene in which some students vandalize a library (among other things). This presaged the decimation of the New Granada Junior High School library (among other things) by the town's (now very angry) teens.
I remember watching this film on cable television sometime in the early 1980s. I don't think I'd seen it since. Talking about it with my husband afterward we discussed that while the motivations of the adults (and the children) were clear, the film really only scratched the surface of any of the characters' feelings. It really missed an opportunity for insight, but at least there was a lot of blowing things up.
More on that skate park, which we still do not have: https://www.environmentalgeography.net/2010/08/contested-public-space.html
ReplyDeleteA neighboring town went even farther: a skate park was funded by memorial donations for a young woman who was killed (quasi-accidentally) by police. That park was later bulldozed to during the construction of a high school, but is now an empty field adjacent to the high school.
Back to the film: blowing things up seemed to be the producers' main goal. Every incident that might conceivably blow up a car DID blow up that car, in up to a half-dozen stages.
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