Detroit leaders are sharing ideas and plans for convening young people with the goal of creating more safe spaces downtown and in neighborhoods amid a number of so-called teen takeovers.
District 6 Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero has helped lead the charge for “teen care” amid the rollout of a new free bus service for Detroit students and an influx of young people gathering downtown as the weather warms.
She noted talks she’s had with young people over the past week about what they want and need to feel more welcomed and supported in the city. Santiago-Romero read from a list she’s compiled about what young people say they need: more third spaces to sit, late-evening lighting and a skate park around the Detroit River or Hart Plaza.
“It’s going to be 80 degrees this week. People are going to be outside, and we need to care for them,” Santiago-Romero told members of Mayor Mary Sheffield’s administration during a Public Health and Safety subcommittee meeting on Monday.
The latest discussion comes days after Sheffield unveiled plans for a Youth Advisory Committee that’s expected to bring together a group of at least 50 youth between 16-26 monthly for conversations about their needs for safe spaces. The mayor noted “teen takeovers” happening nationally, but said similar actions in Detroit are different.
“Because, while other cities have experienced chaos or division, what we saw in Detroit was community,” Sheffield said.
On Monday, officials with Sheffield’s administration expanded on messaging from the mayor during Monday’s committee meeting, chiefly to “correct the narrative” being shared online and via media reports.
Teferi Brent, the new director of the mayor’s Office of Neighborhood and Community Safety, said that he worked with the city’s Community Violence Intervention partners to identify organizers of the so-called teen takeovers in Detroit and to get those young people to the table for a listening session.
“We heard from the young people in regard to what their needs and concerns are and what those remedies and solutions look like,” he said.
Brent also pushed back against some media reports, asserting that there were 400 teens congregating downtown over the weekend. He said he was in constant contact with CVI groups and police officials and there were “less than 75 young people (congregating) downtown throughout the night,” and the claims of a teen takeover Saturday are “just not true.”
“That wasn’t what TV presented. It was very peaceful, very slow,” he said.
Chanel Hampton, Detroit’s senior director of youth and education, said the mayor’s office is working with young people to create additional spaces for engagement.
“Our young people had no ill intention or negative intent, they just truly wanted to be kids and be outside and engage in fun, safe spaces,” Hampton added in reference to the recent youth gatherings in the city’s core.
The young people the administration have connected with so far, Hampton said, plan to take part in the city’s Occupy the Summer events, which kick off June 12 and run through Aug. 14. But Hampton acknowledged that those events are two months off, and the city can’t and won’t hold off on getting going on its engagement efforts.
Santiago-Romero said the gatherings have been a signal from youngsters that they need places to go, things to do and want to be downtown, too. “It’s a call for us to answer.”
She said that spaces need to be created for young people to dance, sing and be creative. She also raised the concept of allowing young people to serve as “summer liaisons” at skate parks, basketball courts or riverfront parks to oversee and facilitate play and distribute equipment.
“We are not providing those opportunities and then we see what happens, they make their own fun takeover. Because really, it’s because what are we offering for them to have?”
District 7 Councilman Denzel McCampbell praised the administration for bringing out representatives to listen and engage with youth in an authentic way.
“My colleagues here, we’re committed to being true partners in this as well,” he said of the council. “The media, the news might see our young people being downtown as a problem. I do not. The more that our city and us as leaders say that and embrace our young ppl, the more that maybe our visitors can as well.”
McCampbell also said he’s seeking data from the Detroit Police Department on curfew violations issued to young people on Opening Day and overall since the City Council amended the city’s youth curfew ordinance last year.
BridgeDetroit submitted multiple public information requests to DPD to obtain the same detainment and citation data, but has not received a response.
In response to a teen’s question during Tuesday’s formal session about how the city is working to ensure there are enough safe spaces, Council President James Tate responded: “we are in support of our young folks without a shadow of a doubt and looking for ways to improve their lives, your lives.”
