Kids Hanging Out Downtown La Grange: Your Take

On Tuesday, I asked you all to share your thoughts on the situation with kids who congregate in downtown La Grange.

You impressed me so much with your thoughtful, well articulated responses. It's clearly an emotional issue for many of you, which is another reason I love living in this town so much. People care deeply about La Grange.

Below is a sampling of some of the reader comments from the past couple of days. I'd like to keep this conversation going, because it's certainly making me think, so add your additional comments below, and read the rest of what people said earlier this week on the original article.

• Mike: Is it better having them hanging out downtown or on a street corner selling drugs? Hum? I'll take downtown.

• Hester: I'm with Mike above. The people complaining probably don't have kids or have always put themselves above their kids. I mean, really, these grown ups don't want their quiet evening disturbed by kids being kids. Maybe signs with rules or a police patrol a little more often but the kids have a right to enjoy the downtown like everyone else.

• dkherndon23: I agree with the above. I have an 8th grader and like that her and her friends can walk downtown La Grange and be safe. I have taught her how to act and the ones you describe aren't her and her friends. Even if it was kids need somewhere safe to hang and not worry about drugs and stuff. There are idiot adults that hang out downtown La Grange.

• Historic District Resident: Lauren hit it on the head with outlining how it is supposed to work...unfortunately it only works sporadically.
  
  The problem is not with the kids who want to come downtown, take in a movie, have a slice of pizza, and just be kids enjoying summer vacation. The problem is with the 13 - 19 year old crowd who want to consistently test their boundaries, adopt a mob mentality, intimidate those outside of their little group, and are just generally disrespectful of everyone and everything around them, especially the residents, business owners, public servants, public grounds, etc. that make the whole environment as inviting as it is. I am in favor of a more visible police presence with direction to enforce zero tolerance - I understand that there are costs associated with this, but I would GLADLY pay extra to correct this problem and maintain our town. I would also ask residents, businesses, and patrons to not tolerate the inappropriate and disrespectful behavior - just like the Metra announcements say, "If you see something, say something".

• L: Teens are oblivious, and they test boundaries--since the dawn of time. As adults, we do need to remind and correct. Humans aren't born "civilized". So step up! If kids are swearing in the park, and you have little ones, say something: you will be a model for your children, too.
  
  I'd like to hear from business owners--can they come out of the FroYo store and remind people that others may want to sit down?

• Ed: We are a fourth generation family in La Grange and all agree the downtown situation is out of hand. Do the business owners realize how much revenue they are missing due to the situation? All of our extensive family avoid the downtown area at night from May thru September. We don't want to be shoved off sidewalks by roving bands of teenagers who have no respect for their elders. We don't want to have to be inundated by the smell of pot in the parking garage. We all gave up years ago when the push was on for downtown commercialization and the parking garage. The parking garage has become the crime center we all said it would and now there is talk of building another one on the west side. Really? I guess we can call them crime center east and west.
  
  Downtown La Grange has become nothing more than the largest babysitting service in the western suburbs. It is disgusting, but it sure gets the kids out of the parents hair. Nice parenting! Yes, we did raise children here but never let them roam the downtown area or malls.

• Joe: Lauren:
  
  The bottom line is that the behavior these kids display is grounds for a ticket/citation. The problem is that the LGPD does not issue enough tickets and that the tickets they do issue are met by resistance and anger from the parents of the ticketed kids. Parents much like the above parents who think that the kids are testing boundaries, parents thinking that the behavior is better than selling drugs, parents that think it's the job of the offended adult to say something to their offensive kids. It's the job of the parents of the offending kids to control their kids. The new problem that we who live near downtown is that these kids are taking their lousy behavior in to our neighborhood. I've been to the LGPD, or have had an officer to our house 3 out of the last 5 weekends because these kids are fighting in front of our house, yelling obscenities at my wife and I when I ask them to leave, ding dong ditching us, and most recently, leaving their garbage with a profanity-laced note that I grabbed before my 8 year old daughter saw it. These kids need to be taught that this behavior is unacceptable and won't be tolerated. Ticket the offending kids, put their names in the paper, and put the parents on notice to control their kids. I'm sure if parents found out that their kids were acting like this, they'd do something about it.

• susan herley: Believe me - it keeps me out of La Grange. I am in IHP and enjoy going into downtown La Grange for dinner. We are catering to kids and forgetting the seniors. There should also be a more concentrated police presence.

Comments on Facebook

• Christine Goettl Maslan: The bad behavior is bothersome but I won't let it stop our family from enjoying downtown La Grange!

• Mark Kachlic: La Grange needs more visible police presence downtown. If kids are there without adult supervision for an extended period of time they need to leave.

• Burnal Roy Hansen: Kids will be kids.

• Marlowe Djuric Kachlic: We're avoiding downtown La Grange for the same reason we avoided downtown Naperville on summer evenings when we lived out that way. So sad! With a newborn, we'd like to be able to walk leisurely in the evening amongst civilization--kind of hard to do with masses of preteens/teenagers roaming aimlessly and acting up. My parents never would have let me do that at that age...and I turned out fine.