Fourteen-year-old Peter Golue and his friends don't want much. They're looking for someplace they can skateboard, spend time with their friends, stay out of trouble and not be harassed.
For teenagers, it's not that easy. Area businesses frown on loitering teens, and programs intended to get youth involved in constructive activities are scarce.Church programs and Boy and Girl Scouts cater to a segment of the teenage population. Midnight basketball and similar programs target "at-risk" teens but reach only a handful of teens, leaving many to their own creativity, which can often lead to trouble.
"I've developed a formula," said Judge Joseph Anderson, a 3rd District Juvenile Court justice, who sees the outcome of a lack of activities for teenagers. "Teens plus time equals trouble for too many of them, particularly if they don't have a parent at home.
"I think they don't have anything constructive to do, and they get with other kids who don't have anything constructive to do and they get in trouble," he said.
Golue and his friends gather at the University of Utah, where they "see their friends a lot" and have miles of sidewalks and concrete for skateboards and in-line skates.
"I've seen anywhere from five to 60 (skateboarders)," said U. Police Chief Wayne Shepherd. "There's a pretty good group that congregates up here. There's a nice skating area."
However, complaints from students and faculty and damage to university property have forced campus police to chase skateboarders off campus, he said.
Golue said they have started skating in Sugar House, but business owners and their patrons frown on their presence. Peter Golue's brother, Andy, 12, got beat up once in Sugar House and another friend had a board broken by people there who don't appreciate teenage skaters.
"Every time we find a new place to skate, there always seems to be someone who tells us we can't," said Mike Murdock, 13.
They agree there should be a skateboard park in Salt Lake City. Right now, the closest park is in Farmington, which is too far for younger teens without cars to travel.
Forrest Vaux, 17, an Ogden skateboarder, tried to persuade the Ogden City Council to open a park, funded by contributions Vaux and his friends lined up from area businesses. But, Vaux said, "The City Council wasn't willing to cooperate."
It's not just skateboarders looking for somewhere to go. Hundreds of teens have claimed Salt Lake's coffee houses as their new hangouts. John Bolton, owner of Salt Lake Roasting Co., said up to 40 percent of his patrons at night are teens but notes that his is not one of the more popular coffee houses among teenagers.
"They can cause problems. You know, kids are kids," Bolton said. "They do stupid things and they try to impress each other, and there's a strong social pressure to perform."
Bolton said when the Roasting Co. was a smoking establishment, older teens would go upstairs and smoke for hours and only buy a cup of coffee.
"I'm in the business to make money, not provide a halfway house," Bolton said, but he recognizes that "there's not a lot of options for kids under 20 years old."
Other teens gather in malls, which can create problems for businesses. At the ZCMI Center downtown, security guards are told not to bother loitering teens unless they block the entrance to businesses or create problems for other mall patrons.
Jim Jensen, head of the Salt Lake Boys and Girls Club, said they are trying to fill the vacuum for teens. "What's happening in Boys and Girls Clubs across America is there'a a national movement to work with teens," Jensen said. "We're beginning to designate program facilities just for teens."
Boys and Girls Clubs have started job-placement programs, singing groups, a leaders-in-training program where older teens are mentors to younger peers and have built facilities with exercise and computer equipment.
"What we're doing right now is creating certain program areas just for teens," Jensen said. "We would like to see 30 percent of our members as teens."
Jensen estimates about 15 percent of their members are teens.
Murdock said if programs catered to their interests, he and his friends would be likely to participate in them, especially if there was a skating program, which he says they would do "every day of our life."
There are plenty of activities for teens if they've already had a run-in with the law or other problems. Anderson regularly sentences young offenders to community service or mentor programs.
But Jensen said he and other program directors recognized there was something missing from the programs they offered. He hopes the new programs will give teens a constructive way to spend their time to keep them out of trouble in the first place.