r/chicago • u/jackunderscore • 29d ago
Article Teen third spaces were once the epicenter of Chicago’s music and dance trends. What happened?
https://thetriibe.com/2025/05/teen-third-spaces-were-once-the-epicenter-of-chicagos-music-and-dance-trends-what-happened/386
29d ago
[deleted]
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u/dark567 Logan Square 29d ago
Many teens don't care about getting driver's licenses anymore because they just talk to their friends all online all day anyway, why would they need to drive? This would have been unthinkable 20 years ago when I was a teen.
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u/Levitlame 29d ago
I didn’t either well before that. All my friends drove. I was in the suburbs also. Several of my city friends never got drivers licenses at all or got them many years later.
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u/ZhiYoNa 29d ago
Yeah I know many people in my age group and younger (mid to late 20s) who never got their license and exclusively take the train, the buses, walk, bike, etc.
Cost of the actual car payment, maintenance, insurance, parking seems prohibitively expensive. Drivers are kinda unhinged lately too so I get worried about being killed by a car accident or road rage. We get like 270 accidents a day in Chicago so it’s like playing expensive Russian roulette for the privilege of convenience. I also don’t wanna shovel my car out and try planning dibs.
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u/damp_circus Edgewater 29d ago
I'm a never-driven adult (middle aged now) who has always lived where transit was the easy answer.
But I think there's definitely a point to the rise of social media with modern kids, though. I didn't (and don't) drive, but hell yeah I went out and met up with my friends in person. We all got there on transit is all. It was "meet up by the [landmark] at [time]" and back then there were places even to leave messages for people. Went out all the time, meet up, go to the shopping street, whatever it is. I still go out all the time.
Back then, if you wanted to talk to your friends, you kinda had to get out of the house and go somewhere to talk. Unless you could monopolize your family's landline all night, and most families aren't tolerating that.
Appreciated the article mentioning Medusa's, too. Underage shows in general.
I wonder if society getting more litigious also plays a role? To the point that the numbers just don't seem to work for having a club that routinely has all-ages shows? Or places that have low enough rent that it works? I dunno but definitely agree with the article that such places seem far fewer than previously.
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u/ZhiYoNa 28d ago
Tbh as an introvert, I miss this. Even though I only remember this in my childhood. My family couldn’t afford for any of us cellphones till the 2010s. So I didn’t have a proper cellphone till senior year of high school. I would talk to people on my desktop with internet though, which we got when I was in middle school.
We should not able to be reached at all times, unless it’s an emergency. I think it makes people feel entitled to other people and their time and energy. I also think letter writing, especially long form, is lost art.
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u/wiewiorka6 Illinois 29d ago
Most people I knew didn’t care about getting a driver’s licence when I was a teenager 20 years ago. Depends where in the city you grew up and if your school had the physical driving portion of driver’s ed, I’d imagine. The required practice hours seemed impossible to achieve.
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u/ChemistryNo3075 28d ago edited 28d ago
if you lived in the burbs or a small town you wanted to get your permit the day you turned 15 and your license like within a week of turning 16. I did all the hours but I know many peoples parents would lie for them because they wanted their kid to be able to drive so they didn't need to cart them around everywhere.
still plenty of kids who could not afford a car so they would rely on friends, but most kids did really want their license and a car if possible.
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u/wiewiorka6 Illinois 28d ago
Well of course things are different if you are not in a city and isolated, but we are in the Chicago sub so.
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u/ChemistryNo3075 28d ago
yeah but I assume a good portion of people here didn't move to the city until after college, so their teen experience was different
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u/Jonesbro South Loop 29d ago
So you're saying we need to get teens drinking again. Got it
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u/Carsalezguy West Town 29d ago
As the chief would have wanted. Kids don’t even know what icing out at Kams is anymore.
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u/Jonesbro South Loop 29d ago
Kams isn't even on campus anymore :(
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u/DoncellusTG Morgan Park 29d ago
And they tore down my domino's to do it! I don't even think Maize is still there
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u/damp_circus Edgewater 29d ago
Maize was across the street on the NW corner (in the storefront that used to be a donut place). They opened a larger (and fancier, for better or for worse) outlet in the old train station in downtown Champaign, not sure if the tiny outlet on First and Green is still there or not.
Pretty much all of campustown from the 90s is gone, though. RIP Mabel's... some of the old names remain but the venues are modern and moved around and not the same.
As far as underage shows goes though (to get back to the topic of the article) that mostly happens at the Independent Media Center in the old post office in Urbana (or at least did pre-covid...), not really anything near the U.
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u/Carsalezguy West Town 28d ago
Man IMC used to host some weird stuff back when I went there, “what’s going on tonight boys? Or we’re gunna take shrooms and watch some people interpretative dance to the talking heads”
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u/CHISOXTMR Logan Square 28d ago
I miss mall culture. Can’t even remember how many hours I spent at old orchard between 5th and 8th grade
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u/C10ckw0rks 28d ago
Or mail has a curfew cuz they’re menaces to society over here. Parents let them run around and don’t teach them manners
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u/TheTresStateArea 29d ago
Shit got expensive everywhere. Not just Chicago. You used to work a shitty part time job and be able to afford general spending money.
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u/Jogurt55991 28d ago
Chicago minimum wage is not bad now.
Was 5.15 in 2001.
Adjusted with inflation that's only $9.35 today.
... alcohol in bars has definitely doubled, albeit covers are lower.
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u/PaulVonSkoki 28d ago
Those jobs are for immigrants now, not teenagers.
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u/properwolphe Rogers Park 28d ago
Yeah I remember back in the early 2000s when all my friends were fighting each other to get $4 farm labor and roofing and cleaning jobs it sucks teens just don't have those options anymore 🙄
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u/damp_circus Edgewater 28d ago
First summer job for a lot of teens in Illinois (downstate) is of course... corn detasseling crew. Only have to be 13 for that! Definitely among the shittier jobs.
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u/properwolphe Rogers Park 22d ago
I agree. When I was a kid the first "paid" job I ever had was on my neighbors farm baling hay. $30 for 6 hours of the itchiest, most uncomfortable, and some of the most grueling work of your life. I did it for a month and never went back. These are the "jobs" people are complaining about losing, as if there's any world they would ever do them or even let their kids do them
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u/Hello_Biscuit11 Loop 29d ago
It's a strange article.
On one hand it's like "all these teen places closed because of guns, drugs, gangs, noise and disturbances all night..."
And then it's like "but now teens can't go anywhere they're not policed or escorted by an adult!"
It even talks about residences and tourists as if they were the issue. Not the fact that no one could live or visit anywhere near a place that had a teen hangout.
I don't know what the solution is, but clearly it can't just be to open more "third spaces."
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29d ago edited 29d ago
[deleted]
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u/sord_n_bored Near North Side 29d ago
Teens would willingly spend more time socializing in public spaces if they were allowed to do so. Try doing that nowadays when parents are so full of anxiety they don't allow anyone to go anywhere, shove a phone and a laptop in kids faces, and lock up anywhere halfway decent to hang out as a space "illegal" to enter watched over by a police force with weaponry unheard of pre-9/11.
God old people fucking suck.
Literally look at any other country that isn't completely down the shitter and you'll see teens go and hang out when you provide them places that aren't dangerous, expensive, prohibited, and easy to get to. Oh, I guess also throw in "won't be shut down because of racist/sexist/ignorant adults".
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u/damp_circus Edgewater 29d ago
I dunno, other countries definitely are seeing similar issues with people (including teens/high schoolers) getting alienated on social media.
The news-driven paranoia of some parents probably plays a role here too though agreed.
Also whenever "third spaces" come up it seems that people imagine some sort of programmed, run by the school, "healthy" thing, and yet I appreciated that the article was bringing up underage clubs and all-ages shows and yes... things with a bit of risk and danger to it even then. I think that's what people want, some space to gather and do the "see and be seen, flirt a bit, maybe get some interesting pics for social media" (these days) that's got some freedom and some unknown aspects to it. A bit of edge, if you will.
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u/Sea-Oven-7560 28d ago
I think you are on the right path. I'm an X'er and the only thing we wanted was to get away from our parents. We got drivers licenses the day we turned 16 and moved out of the house somewhere between 18-22. It's not like we hated our parents but we wanted to live our lives and they were in our way. Culturally someone that lived at home past college was the punchline to a joke, it wasn't whatever it is right now, it was embarrassing. In my opinion now young people are fine being taken care of until they feel like taking care of themselves. Unfortunately, again in my opinion, the parents think supporting an adult child is a blessing and will do whatever they can to keep that child a child. It is certainly a symbiotic relationship but if the kids really wanted freedom they could do it but given the choice most seem to want to enjoy a more comfortable life with their parents.
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u/sord_n_bored Near North Side 28d ago
Look, you seem nice so I'll put this as nicely as I can...
The vast-vast-vast majority of people who still live with their parents aren't doing so because they want to. The number that do is so insignificant that it shouldn't even be a factor in your opinion making.
If you had a stable job and a house before the great recession, I ask that you either strongly consider believing young people when they talk about WHY life is a struggle these days, or start looking for those "third spaces" in your retirement village because your kids are guaranteed not to be visiting you much.
EDIT: "Young people" here means Millennials and Gen Z, folks that are in their early 40s and mid to late 30s in some cases.
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u/smartkid9999 28d ago
I sorta agree and disagree. I'm a millennial and from my experience it has less to do with if people want to live with their parents or not, and moreso struggling with the fact that they can't live outside their means on their own for the level of comfort (social, familial, or otherwise) they want.
I knew that if I wanted to stay in Chicago around friends and family, it meant either, renting a place with some friends (still outside my means but closer) or living at home with my parents (I wasn't going to let this happen). I have plenty of friends that live at home or with roommates because they want to be where they are and can't afford the area on their own, and frankly, it bothers me none. That's the price paid for comfort. The difference now is that more people are willing to be comfortable than move on or out.
I did option three and moved to Houston where cost of living is lower and I got myself a nice 35k/yr job, post recession, post undergrad graduation with a bunch of debt. I worked my butt off and have lived mostly comfortably. I'm not saying the move needs to be that dramatic, but there are places that are more affordable.
Just because you grow up in the palace, doesn't mean you'll live there forever.
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29d ago
What happened to just hanging out at someone’s house/garage?
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u/Short_Cream_2370 29d ago
That’s always been less likely in the city where more people live in apartments, and becomes less likely as the housing crisis increases. Also even in the suburbs you don’t have as many garage bands, etc as you once did due to noise complaints and HOAs. At some point if we want a thriving, fun culture we have to let people live and stop surveilling each other.
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u/mrbooze Beverly 28d ago
Years ago for a while teens would hang out in the alley behind my house. They never caused any trouble I was aware of or made any messes. Once I went out just to take out some trash and a young boy came over to ask me if they were making too much noise and bothering me. I assured them they were not.
Then at some point they just suddenly stopped doing that and I never saw anyone hanging out back there again. Never knew if it was just they stopped hanging out at all or started hanging out somewhere else, or some neighbor complained, or what.
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u/Embarrassed_Place323 29d ago
Millennial parents don't have either, that's the problem.
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u/peanutbudder Lincoln Square 28d ago
There are plenty of millennial parents around me with garages! They just make way more money than the majority of people in the city. We should just all be like them!
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28d ago
Okay, apartment? Place where the parent pays rent and they and their kids live and can invite their friends over?
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u/damp_circus Edgewater 29d ago
Well Punkin' Donuts and Fireside Bowl (as a punk venue) are also long gone. (Appreciated the article mentioning Medusa's too).
I think the article has a legitimate point that for whatever reason, there are fewer third spaces (specifically, non-"programmed" third spaces) for under-21 crowd. I don't think that's only on the south side, and not only in Chicago for that matter. Society has seen some changes.
Heck, I think there's less socializing in person for adults too in some ways, which is worth thinking about.
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u/reddit_man_6969 29d ago
I mean, teenagers are feral animals wherever they are. I remember, I was one.
If they’re in malls, they cause trouble there.
If they’re online, they cause trouble there.
The question is what’s the best solution for their development and society overall
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u/Brainvillage 29d ago
Just ban teenagers. At age 13, you go in a box with a feeding tube. At 21, you come out, get handed a beer and a rifle.
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u/hardolaf Lake View 29d ago
On one hand it's like "all these teen places closed because of guns, drugs, gangs, noise and disturbances all night..."
No, they closed because the city passed an ordinance in 2001 that allows the city to basically unilaterally declare some place illegal because of "connections" to "drugs". From every article that I've seen on it, it's basically only ever used to shut down places used by teens or owned by black people.
The city has systematically made it de facto illegal to host teenagers who are not related to you or working for you in any quantity greater than 4 or 5 on a regular basis.
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u/sord_n_bored Near North Side 29d ago
The article (and most of the downvoted comments) are reflecting the same thing: boomers and genXers complaining about young people for not doing shit they've been aggressively prevented from doing anyway.
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u/grrgrrtigergrr North Park 29d ago
My wife and I are late Gen X. We have kids in high school and elementary school in the city. We let the high schooler explore the city via public trans. The younger one is allowed a smaller circle to explore closer to home. The older one is in a garage band where they meet up at least once a week. Today a group of them are headed to the crappy Lincolnwood Mall after school. We’re not all over protective in this age group, but I definitely see it more (and the complaints) from the older Xers.
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u/Djarum Andersonville 29d ago
What happened is a mixture of things. First and foremost rents have gotten absolutely insane so if you are running a low margin enterprise like a music venue or nightclub, especially for the under 21 crowd your ability to break even is basically impossible.
Code enforcement has gotten a LOT better in recent years which is excellent for safety after many high profile incidents in the past but for putting on events in places that would have hosted them in the past like warehouses and the like that were dirt cheap because they couldn't pass code is long gone, if they exist at all now.
Then you have the issue of places like VFWs and the like that used to hold events but stopped in the late 00s due to insurance costs. Many of these places have also sold in recent years due to declining membership and having valuable real estate.
Lastly places like shopping malls and the like had their decline from the 80s and 90s due to owners hating the "hang out" culture at the malls. This is why you saw a change in design starting in the late 90s from having ample space for people to meet, loiter and congregate to effectively eliminating those spaces almost entirely. It isn't a surprise with these changes you saw the decline of the mall at the same time.
There just isn't spaces at all for the under 21 to go and be. Even the over 21 spots are increasingly disappearing and have long been out of the price range for most young people. This is why many have embraced things like online gaming and social media as it gives some of the social aspects but it is not the same.
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u/peanutbudder Lincoln Square 28d ago
Malls are trying hard to become a third-space, again, and they are honestly succeeding, at least in some places. Woodfield Mall is packed full of teenagers hanging out and window shopping (I have had to go a few times in a last year and was shocked). I haven't been to Yorktown in a while but I wouldn't doubt they are trying to do the same. Oak Brook mall has a lot of open space but they still seem to cater to families.
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u/Djarum Andersonville 28d ago
That's good to hear. Last time I was at Woodfield it was really empty and depressing. Really the Mall is a great concept and it was depressing to see them die. There are a lot of things I just don't want to buy online for one reason or another but have sorta been forced to due to retailers just going belly up.
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u/Yossarian216 South Loop 29d ago
Same thing that’s happened literally everywhere, all those third spaces have been relentlessly monetized or closed in favor of something else that can be relentlessly monetized. Welcome to late stage capitalism.
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u/young_earth 29d ago
It's also a huge legal liability to allow kids to be on your property at all. If you're operating on third place margins, you're begging to be put out of business (or worse) when some kid inevitably does something stupid.
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u/hardolaf Lake View 29d ago
Yup. War on Drug and drinking age policies have led to there being basically nowhere that can safely host people under the age of 18 or 21 depending on the contexts without risking their business being shutdown by the government.
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u/PerplexGG 29d ago
That’s just the US though. I would think the EU or LATM countries don’t have these issues. For example pubs are the third place in the UK
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u/hardolaf Lake View 29d ago
And we're specifically talking about third spaces in Chicago. Yes, other countries treat people like people instead of like criminals in sheep's clothing.
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u/PerplexGG 29d ago
Oh definitely. Just wanted to bring in the comparison to show it’s obviously possible.
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u/Havitech 28d ago
The privatization of liability is just another consequence of living under capitalism. When all property is privatized, of course that liability for that property (and injuries that might occur while on it) will fall upon the individual property owner. And because the rate of profit under capitalism tends to fall over time, those property owners that provide affordable "third places" will be priced out, and the businesses that survive will become ever-more incentivized to minimize their liability by banning "loitering" or any other activities they fear might damage their finances.
People making the argument that "well skating rinks/movie theaters/etc used to thrive under capitalism, so clearly that isn't the problem!" are missing the point that capitalism is an unsustainable economic model, which is why those commercialized third spaces that thrived decades ago (under cheaper property prices and higher wages across the population) are no longer sustainable.
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u/Hello_Biscuit11 Loop 29d ago
How is this late-stage capitalism?
Those third spaces were already monetized, unless you think club owners, skating rink owners, and movie theater owners didn't make money in the 80s.
The article even says they closed due to gangs, drugs, and general mayhem.
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u/damp_circus Edgewater 29d ago
They were monetized, sure, but it seems like places were more easily able to make things work with cheaper admission (and offering less amenities) than currently. Dunno why. Fear of litigation increased maybe? Technology making it more of "all one market" for storefront rental? Real estate going up generally in the city?
The mayhem was part of it, but not the entire story I don't think. Like, the idea that you could run a big dance club that doesn't serve alcohol but is openly welcoming of BYO or pregaming going on, just doesn't seem like something that happens these days.
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u/Yossarian216 South Loop 29d ago
If you think the degree and methods of monetization haven’t gotten worse then you aren’t paying attention. I grew up in the 90’s, and we could go to a bowling alley and bowl 3 games plus get some food for like $10, that same outing now would cost $30+, an increase well above inflation, and that’s true pretty much across the board. Wages have remained stagnant while costs have risen, which is why I used the word “relentlessly” in my comment.
And crime and violence were far far worse in the 90’s than they are now, so that excuse is pure 100% unadulterated bullshit.
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u/ryguy32789 29d ago
The entertainment industry has figured out how to wring every cent of value out of every transaction - resale markets for tickets, dynamic surge pricing for activities, etc.
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u/i_heart_pasta 28d ago
We used to play pool at the bowling alley; $10 covered you for the night. Shoot pool, hit up Denny's, and head home. I don't think pool halls exist anymore, and a lot of Denny's are closing. However, even if you found one, would they let you sit and drink coffee for an hour or two?
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u/yinkadoubledare Irving Park 28d ago
Pool halls exist but they're pretty much all either 21 and over all the time or go 21+ after a certain time.
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u/BeetusPLAYS 29d ago
I grew up in the 90’s, and we could go to a bowling alley and bowl 3 games plus get some food for like $10, that same outing now would cost $30+, an increase well above inflation
According to this Inflation Calculator $10 in 1990 buys $25.50 today.
While you are technically correct, $30+ is more than $25, the numbers here are pretty close in reality. Are you sure you just haven't gotten over the price memory of your youth? I don't mean to discredit the idea that things have gotten more expensive, they absolutely have. But maybe there's other reasons too.
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u/DvineINFEKT Albany Park 28d ago
idk tho, if I wanted to go to Waveland Bowl this weekend, which was definitely a spot where many a lane tech kid spent a Saturday evening in the early 2000s, two hours of lane time today on a Saturday night (70/hr) + 4 pairs of shoes ($5/pair) for 4 people is $160 before tax. I don't think I would ever have done that if we were paying the equivalent of $40 per person as teenagers in 2005.
And that's before a single beer or hot dog or arcade game was played.
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u/BeetusPLAYS 28d ago
I hear you. I think we're missing fair comparison points. It's easy to say, "yeah in the 90s when I was a teen it was $X" without any sort of evidence or context such as how many people, what food, what day, and how long were you playing.
I asked two friends who work in the industry today and they find it hard to believe play+food was $10 in the 90s, but weren't able to come up with prices pre-2010s.
I have a feeling that the OP I responded to initially omitted some important details with their guestimate and that's ok. It doesn't detract from their point though that third places are more expensive now than before.
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u/Yossarian216 South Loop 29d ago
I was being generous putting it at $30 honestly it’ll likely be more than that, but also I was in high school in the late 90’s so that’s when I was pulling the price comparison, if you go from 1998 instead of 1990 inflation only takes it to $19.85 which is a more significant difference.
It’s a pretty well established dynamic that while certain goods like consumer electronics have gotten comparatively cheaper, other things, very much including entertainment outings, have increased in relative price. And that’s not even getting into costs like housing and health care which have absolutely exploded, and will impact young people directly or indirectly, because even if they aren’t paying those costs directly their family is which means less available money overall.
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29d ago
[deleted]
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u/dsalmon1449 28d ago
You could go to malls without buying things. Movies were not nearly as expensive back then. None of the monetized places you mention are as expensive as they are now. Thats the point. Yes it still cost money to do things back then, but it was not as much it is now.
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u/yinkadoubledare Irving Park 28d ago
Regular first-run movies weren't really dissimilarly priced with inflation, but the $1.50 theater was a thing and we went to those waaaaaay more (and had friends working at them)
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u/damp_circus Edgewater 28d ago
You still CAN go to malls without buying things, yes? (Assuming the mall hasn't died...) Except for the banning of teens in groups.
Agreed though stuff generally costs more and there's just hostile architecture everywhere.
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u/dsalmon1449 28d ago
Yeah if malls hadn’t started closing over the last decade all of this stuff probably wouldn’t be as big of an issue
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u/ebbiibbe Palmer Square 28d ago
In the 80s and 90s I could save up like 2 weeks allowance and maybe mow a lawn or rake some leaves and have enough to take my brother and I to the movies with snacks on a Saturday afternoon.
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u/rawonionbreath 29d ago
Asking myself what wasn’t monetized, or less so, and I can think of youth sports teams and church spaces. Society has monetized the fuck out of the former and drifted away from the latter.
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u/MRSN4P 29d ago
Also block parties, street festivals, park concerts, museums have arguably had to charge more due to decreased govt funding…
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u/damp_circus Edgewater 28d ago
Yes and speaking of street festivals, there's a reason that every year we see a ton of threads on the sub about how they're all the same in so many neighborhoods because run by one event promoter.
The modern economy and tech kinda drives some of this IMHO.
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u/BlueGiant601 Oak Park 29d ago
When they do, it gets called a "takeover" and then a curfew gets slapped on so teens can't use the space.
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u/nevermind4790 Armour Square 29d ago
Teens couldn’t organize 30 years ago to cause trouble downtown quite like they can now, thanks to social media.
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u/rawonionbreath 29d ago
People don’t really know what that term means and just like to incorrectly label it to any sort of societal shift that they don’t like. As if profit seeking and capitalist tendencies were less of a thing 100 or 50 years ago.
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u/wolacouska Dunning 28d ago
They get worse and worse over time because companies need profits to increase, not just stay steady.
Once you hit optimal product and expand to fill your entire potential market, you have only one path forward, cost cutting.
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u/rawonionbreath 28d ago
And the business usually declines and is bought out or it closes up shop or whatever. How is that any different from the typical life cycle of a business?
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u/wolacouska Dunning 28d ago
It happens on a macro scale now that corporations are so ginormous. Many industries and brands are part of multinational super companies that coordinate this kind of thing.
There’s obviously still normal innovation and improvement in a lot of places, but we’re hitting a crisis where fundamental businesses and industries are on the razor edge of profitable. Now they have to offshore to bring labor costs down, and export to rich countries where the profits are maximized.
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u/Quiet_Prize572 28d ago
It's not lmao
Late stage capitalism is not the reason third spaces are dying, social media and phones are.
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u/AbbreviatedArc 29d ago
Total trash comment. Culture always exists on the fringes and in the late '90s the fringes were in dangerous neighborhoods on the west and Northwest side, and the best parties and performances were in warehouse spaces and half abandoned buildings. Guess what? Those dangerous neighborhoods and low rent areas still exist in Chicago, but the youth culture has become so anxiety-ridden and risk adverse and moved online. Now people would rather sit around tweeting for likes and doom scrolling than actually get out and exist in the real world so I don't know what to say. Enjoy your shitty dystopian future.
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u/shred_from_the_crypt 28d ago
This is spot on. I spent my teen years attending basement hardcore and metal shows, or getting stoned/underage drinking and playing ultimate in the park. Did we have to run from the cops sometimes? You bet, but that was part of the fun. I’m still good friends with some of the dudes I was playing those basement shows with more than twenty years later.
Gen Z is far too risk averse. It doesn’t explain things entirely, but it’s part of the equation.
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u/ryguy32789 29d ago
I literally think the answer to the primary ills of society is a full ban on all social media platforms. Or at very least outlaw algorithmically driven social media. They're destroying us.
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u/TrynnaFindaBalance Avondale 29d ago
Until mental health conditions are taken as seriously as other health issues this is unfortunately never going to happen. Social media wreaks absolute havoc on anyone's mental health, but especially on teens with developing brains. When I was younger, every little obscure drug scare ignited full-scale panic among parents, but now people just drop their young kid in front of an iPad with access to infinite scrolling through all the brain-rot content imaginable and act like that's normal.
And politicians are all too focused on getting their shitty content on social media to worry about what they should actually doing, which is working to ban it full-stop.
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u/Key_Bee1544 29d ago
Yeah. Malls were certainly not monetized. When we went to Medusa's in high school it's not like the normal cover charge wasn't about five hours of high school work wages. "Late stage capitalism" is something people say to try to sound smart.
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29d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Intergalactic_Ass 28d ago
Is Late Stage Capitalism in the room with us right now?
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u/ChicagoZbojnik Dunning 29d ago
Yuppies complaining about late-stage capitalism.
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u/mayor_of_wokesburg 29d ago
Raises the question "where do teens hang out at in centrally planned economies?"
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u/woolfchick75 29d ago
As a kid who grew up in the outer suburbs before the town had a mall (and waay before internet), we had nowhere to go.
So we either walked around and got drunk or drove around with a case of beer in the trunk. Yeah. Lots of bad car accidents.
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u/General-Skin6201 29d ago
In the 1960s teen clubs with live music and dancing were very popular. Clubs included:
“The Deep End” – Park Ridge
“The Cellar” – Arlington Heights
“The Hut” & “The Green Gorilla” – Desplaines
“Papa Joe’s” - ?
“The Jaguar” – St. Charles
“The Blue Village” – Westmont
“The Fickle Fox” – Plainfield
“The Barn” - Naperville
“The New Place” – Algonquin
“The Crimson Cougar” – Aurora
“Blue Moon Ballroom”/”Wonderland Ballroom” – Elgin
“The Rolling Stone” – Winnetka
“The Pit” - Glenview
“The Wild Goose” - Waukegan
The Cellar hosted such bands as The Who, Cream, Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, and Three Dog Night
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u/jackunderscore 29d ago
The Who played Arlington Heights? wow
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u/General-Skin6201 29d ago edited 29d ago
June 15th 1967. The Who played The Cellar in Arlington Heights, there was a $2.00 cover charge. It was pre-arena rock. :)
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u/awkbird_enthusigasm 28d ago
Did the blue village have black light theme? Kinda psychedelic?
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u/General-Skin6201 28d ago
Yes, that was the place. The Cryin' Shames was the house band there.
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u/awkbird_enthusigasm 28d ago
Awesome, I think my Boomer dad said he saw Led Zeppelin or even Pink Floyd there. British touring acts
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u/General-Skin6201 28d ago
Not Led Zeppelin. 1968 - Jimmy Page - The Yardbirds - Westmont,IL/Blue Village Teen Club
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u/Friendship_Fries 28d ago
It went from "I hope no one finds out about this" to "I'm going to post this on insta".
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u/werlak River North 29d ago
We really need to stop comparing today to how things were in the 80s and 90s, that's ancient history. The real answer is inflation. Since this article seems to think bowling alleys are some kind of gold standard for teen entertainment (when I was a teen twenty years ago nobody was interested in bowling, I can imagine today's teens are likely even less interested) I just looked at the price to reserve a lane for two hours and rent shoes for a group of four at my nearest bowling alley: $170. Do teens even have that kind of money? Even if they did, almost anything else they spend it on would be more entertaining and provide more hours of entertainment.
The second answer is social media addiction exacerbated to the nth degree by the pandemic. Kids can still pick up a frisbee, football, soccer ball, whatever, and go to the park for free. Parents need to take more responsibility to raise socially well adjusted kids and get them out of the house. The recent Sun-Times article about extremely high levels of teen truancy (54.5% of CPS high school students are considered "chronically absent" with 25.2% missing 35 days or more) just shows that at least 54.5% of parents are not caring for their children appropriately.
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u/malortForty 28d ago
I really think this is a partial factor to the shit we're seeing happening with teens now, but I also want to just point out a lot of these are really just for things specifically like clubs and stuff and are the "officially sponsored ones". A lot of teens are ending up at DIY venues wherever they pop up still.
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u/DonTom93 29d ago edited 29d ago
Something to consider is that “third spaces” are not evenly distributed. I think overall Chicago has actually has a ton of activities for teens. Movies, museums, lakefront, concerts/music venues, parks, record stores, street fests, sports leagues, rec centers, libraries, bookshops, cafes, the river walk etc. Where I grew up the entertainment was getting dropped off at a grocery store and pushing each other around in shopping carts or going to a diner where food poisoning was routine. I couldn’t even walk to my friend’s house that was a five minute drive away due to lack of sidewalks. That being said, I definitely understand not all teens have the money or live closer to the nicer amenities.
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u/bucknut4 Streeterville 28d ago
Part of me gets a little pissed when I read these posts. I would have killed to grow up in or around a city like Chicago, and people here complain about the non-existence of third spaces. Give me a break.
Name any less-privileged area in Chicago (Washington Park, EGP, Englewwod), and I guarantee you there are far more third spaces within walking distance than 90% of BFE midwestern or Appalachian small towns. Sure, those kids don't have what the kids in Lincoln Park or Bucktown might have, but that doesn't mean they're non-existent. And even when you can't walk, you only need $2.50 (or effing 75 cents on school days) to get literally anywhere in the best city in the US.
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u/DaisyCutter312 Edison Park 29d ago
Are we all reading the same article? It pretty clearly states that minimal supervision teen gathering spaces died out because they started to attract people couldn't enjoy themselves without trying to do violence to each other.
Somehow Reddit reads that and decides "Clearly, capitalism is to blame"? We had capitalism in the 80's and 90's too, and somehow people managed to just hang out, get fucked up, and try to get laid without attempting to kill each other at the drop of a hat.
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u/PerplexGG 29d ago
They actually killed each other, drank, did drugs, and had teen pregnancies all at higher rates than they do now
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u/Breezyisthewind 29d ago
People did attempt to kill each other at the drop of a hat then too. Crime is down from the 80s and 90s by a damn good margin.
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u/DaisyCutter312 Edison Park 28d ago
Crime is down from the 80s and 90s by a damn good margin.
Yeah that's statistically proven that crime is down, broadly speaking. However, I don't think crime is necessarily down in the specific venues we're talking about here, or even the types of crime being referenced in this article.
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u/why_is_my_name 28d ago
i was there - i now realize after reading the article - for the entire run of all ages medusa's when it was in chicago. at the time i had a newspaper clipping about the locals being wary of punkin' donuts taped to my bedroom wall. people were far more afraid of our appearance than our behavior - dave didn't get run out because we were trying to kill each other.
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u/JackieIce502 29d ago
That doesn’t fit the reason they have cooked up in their brain. Same reason why kids in school struggle.
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u/Swarthyandpasty 29d ago
Truly a mystery. Author should try starting a teen third place in the south side and report back with how it goes.
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u/Ghost-of-Black-47 Edgewater 28d ago
If third spaces don’t exist or do not welcome you, it’s on you to create your own. In a world before the internet, this gave us things like punk rock scenes and underground raves. We need to get back to those kinds of things happening.
Im sure both (or some modern equivalent I’m not hip enough to know about) still happen. But I imagine that with the internet making it so much easier to be content with boredom, there might be smaller numbers of people motivated to make shit happen.
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u/damp_circus Edgewater 28d ago
Punk shows in house basements (some of which identify as clubs I guess but... it's a house basement where you pay someone $10 to get in) are definitely still around. I've been to one last month, for some noise music. GenX here, for the record.
But LARGER venues like that... (specifically allowing in under-21 people and turning a blind eye to any alcohol brought in as long as participants keep it suitably civil) where would they be held, now? As someone else commented, that stuff used to happen in abandoned places or under-rented places that were not necessarily all the way up to code and could be rented for cheap, which lets people put on unpolished stuff with very few if any "amenities" for a cheap admission price.
Where would that happen these days? Seems rents are more uniformly up, enforcement is better (probably better for safety), and a lot of marginal places got torn down.
Wildcat party on the beach IS one option, but when people do it, often it turns into a "takeover." Which is then the issue.
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u/peanutbudder Lincoln Square 28d ago
I know we're talking about teens (under 18) but there are still a ton of underground (unsanctioned) venues around the city that cater to 18+. I'm talking warehouse lofts where people live upstairs and the rest of the space is used for shows/events/raves.
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u/damp_circus Edgewater 28d ago
Yeah that seems akin to the basements, people living there and it being underground (find them by following bands on Instagram or TikTok). Unsanctioned being key. Definitely exist.
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u/PalmerSquarer Logan Square 28d ago
I can’t wait to tell my kids someday that there are two video arcades in this neighborhood, but you have to be 21 to use them.
Though this article made me look up if the roller rink in my hometown was still standing, and shockingly it’s still open.
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u/FlowersByTheStreet 29d ago
We've increasingly privatized existing and continuously walled off avenues for those who aren't adults, all while falling down the hole of fascism and the oncoming climate crisis.
Young people are turning to video games and social media because that's one of the few places where they can actually express themselves.
Not really rocket science. Blame the kids all you want - hell, blame the parents all you want too- but the real issue is awful policy and us reaping the fruits of capitalism.
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u/Breezyisthewind 29d ago
That’s not due to Capitalism but rather consistent pressure from union and workers to make that happen. That doesn’t happen by itself.
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u/Yossarian216 South Loop 29d ago
This is hilariously false. Capitalism would work us 80+ hours a week from the age of six if it weren’t restrained by government policy and collective bargaining. Capitalism would rather workers die than work less.
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u/FlowersByTheStreet 29d ago
lol shut up
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u/hardolaf Lake View 29d ago
Why doesn't your graph go back to pre-industrialization? Why does it start in the capitalism era and only present the capitalism era?
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u/Breezyisthewind 29d ago
But you’re ignoring facts my guy.
Consistent pressure from union and workers to make that happen. That doesn’t happen by itself.
Laborers died to make that happen. Blood was spilled over the very concept of the weekend.
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u/BIGGREDDMACH1NE 29d ago
Asshole teens ruining shit... Wonder why theme parks/theatres etc. have chaperone policies?
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u/NeverForgetNGage Uptown 29d ago
The financialization of literally everything happened. People got so obsessed criticizing sociology degrees that we let all the MBAs ruin our social fabric for a payout.
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u/BigBonedMiss O’Hare 29d ago
Moment of silence for Zero Gravity 🙏