The mall has always had problems with teens. I can remember back to when I was about 16 (that would be 17 years ago) seeing a girl I knew from school being attacked by two other females. That fight occurred in front of what is now Old Navy. I remember fights at the bus stop, and teens stealing stuff. We rarely had money when we hung out there, but it was the common place to go after school or on Saturdays.

I personally did not steal or fight, for someone reason I have always had pretty good morals. I say "some reason" because I pretty much raised myself, and the majority of my friends definitely did not share the same morals. It seems that morals have to be taught, but for me it is almost as if I was just born with them. I have to agree with Wayfarer on this one, conscience is a gift from God. However, some get more of that gift than others. Parents need to start being parents and instill good morals in their kids, since obviously all of them were not given a good, strong, conscience.

Audrey, I completely understand your question "Why do some  people manage to use their childhood poverty as a catalyst for seeking a better life while others (born into priviledge) manage to screw up every advantage they were born with?" I have friends who came from great homes who have done nothing with their lives. I came from a MUCH less than nurturing environment, and that is what has motivated me to make something of my life, to be more than what everyone speculated I would, or could, be. Sometimes people are just born with more drive than others, I do not believe that how a person ends up is 100% based on their upbringing, nature plays a big part in it as well.

The last time I was in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Mall Security was checking I.D. and not allowing kids under 18 into the Mall without an adult after 4:30 in the afternoon.

There were PLENTY of shoppers spending money AND it was very peaceful.

The Valley Plaza is to blame for that loud music....it is flat out ridiculous. Abercrombie's music is too loud. I won't even go in there anymore; I send my daughter in alone. They need to make those stores turn down their freakin music.

Parents Please Listen

Keep your hoodlum kids at home if they don't have any money. A mall is for shopping. A mall is not a hang out. It is for people that have money. A mall is not a place to pick fights and hunt chicks. I see 12 year old girls dressed like hoochies, with a face full of make up. Parents need to step it up a notch.  If your kid does not have money....your kid is probably going to steal...then the cycle begins.....juvenile hall, jail, gangs, welfare, prison.  If your kid needs to go to the mall make sure you are with them. The mall is not a babysitter. Keep your children at home please!

Thanks Audrey. A lot of it is in how a child is raised.  We were always taught to be self sufficient, earn what we got and to always do a good job.  My father was fond of saying "There are no BAD jobs, only good and better".  I still believe that.

RoyT

You made your own luck.   I've always felt that a person (born with the "right stuff") will create their own opportunities. 

Why do some  people manage to use their childhood poverty as a catalyst for seeking a better life while others (born into priviledge) manage to screw up every advantage they were born with?

It has more to do with what's inside a person than what's on their outsides.

 we were witnes to 3 youths attack the young man in front of us waiting for the cashier to ring his purchase up. One of the 3 youths even attempted to bash in the young mans head w/ stantions near the cashier. ~sfinbaston

....And what did you or your husband do during all this?

Sorry SF that you had to witness such. Bakersfield has indeed changed~ in some areas not at all for the better. TVP has never really interested me as a shopping destination,after my early teens, and there are plenty of other places to shop. 

Whooohoooo..put me on the list of gladly paying some kid to wash my outside windows.  Good luck on that these days though.  Pulling weeds, doing spring yard cleanup, yeah..like there ae NO summer jobs to be had.  I have 3 humongous shrubs that need trimming..any takers?

Now that we're through being silly...the risk of injury to a minor (or even adult) and the liability probably would keep most people from hiring teens.  In our litagation mad society, it really is a risk.

I did nearly the same thing, canvased my neighborhood looking to wash cars, empty trash, mow yards. Whatever I could to earn a few bucks.

Roy, that cat is hypnotic! I just found myself bopping along with it!

When I was a teen (14) I was too young to work.  Mom helped me and i fixed four milk bottles with an ammonia and water mix. I   put them in my old red wagon with a bunch of old towels and other good rags and a small kitchen ladder. I covered the neighborhood washing windows for money.  I made out like a bandit and done it all summer.  There are a whole lot of people out there who hate to wash windows and will gladly pay to have it done. Kids have no imagination today.

Nancy, Roy -

Sorry for the sweeping statement, but it's not so much INSIDE the Mall itself, it's the trip into it. I guess I need to head over there during school hours, when hopefully, it would be empty of loud, foul-mouthed teens. Also the loud rap/hip-hop coming from the cars cruising the parking lot.  Why do I have to listen to that?

When I was a kid I lived within walking distance of TVP, and spent a lot of time and money there. In recent years, the clientele has become younger and hostile. The last time I went in (it WAS a Saturday) I had to stop and allow several teens walking 4-5 abreast to pass or get cussed at. That was enough for me, I haven't been back.

Sorry, maybe I was there at the wrong time, but all I want to do is go in, shop, and leave...

There has been a series of articles on the net and in print over the lack of jobs for young people these days. A lot of well qualified older workers with shrinking prospects have been forced into what were once the domain of low skill youth jobs.

This appeared on this site awhile back:

"1. The teen employment rate last year was
only 34.8 percent, the lowest annual
average employment rate for teens ever
recorded since the end of World War II.
2. Declines in teen employment rates over the
past seven years (2000-2007) have been
widespread across
age, gender, raceethnic,
educational
attainment, household
income and geographic
subgroups.
3. Those teens from low
income families who
were Black or Hispanic
fared the worst in the
U.S. labor markets.
4. Only 19 percent of low
income Black teens
worked during 2007
versus nearly one-half
of their more affluent White counterparts
living in families with incomes above
$60,000.
5. Female teens in recent years were more
likely to be working than males. Whites
were considerably more likely to be working
than Black teens and Hispanic teens.
6. Teens have also been facing more severe
competition from other labor force groups in
recent years, including older adult men and
women (55+) who have increased their
attachment to the labor market, single
mothers with limited schooling who have
faced time limits on welfare receipt, young
adults (20-24) including college graduates
who cannot find employment in their chosen
fields of study, and less educated new
immigrants, particularly young males, who
have overwhelmingly dominated the ranks of
the newly employed young since 2000.
7. Male high school dropouts and low income
teens, especially Blacks and Hispanics,
seemed to suffer the greatest job
displacement fro illegal immigrants.
8. Their summer jobholding rates over the past
four years have represented new historical
lows for the post-World War II era, with
males, minorities, and low income youth
being increasingly shut out of the summer
labor market.
9. More teens are attending high school and
college today, but employment rates have
fallen sharply among high
school students and out-ofschool
youth, including both
high school graduates and
dropouts.
10. Low income and
minority dropouts face
very bleak employment
prospects, with less than
one-third being
employed in a given
month in recent years.
11. The nation’s employers
in recent years have
expressed a high degree
of dissatisfaction with the employability skills
of new high school graduates.
12. Youth who participate in work-based
learning activities during high school are
more likely to see the relevance of school
work to career success and acquire stronger
employability skills. The more teens work
this year, the more likely they are to work
the following year.
13. The summer 2008 job outlook for teens
looks particularly bleak. These findings
suggest that the nation’s teen employment
rate this summer is currently headed for a
new historical low in the absence of any
comprehensive set of new job creation
strategies for youth.
14. The paper concludes with three national,
state and local strategies that can be
adopted to promote teen employment
opportunities during the school year and
summer.
__________
This paper was prepared by Dr. Andrew Sum and the
Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern
University, for the U.S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Labor, Health, Human Services and
Education, in Washington, D.C., March 2008."

People get angry and frustrated when there are no opportunities. No decent jobs coupled with no education does have its consequences. Hope you had an chance to check out all wonderful grafitti art the town has spawned as a testimonial to job creation efforts between the public and private sectors here over the last several years. 

I guess I live a charmed life because I have never had ANY problems at Valley Plaza.  I once saw a young man surrounded by about 5 security guards and he was alone..no gang stuff.  Looked to me like security was on it....what ever IT was.  I hear these isolated stories from time to time but I honestly do not believe it's the norm here. 

I'd hate to think someone who moved away would judge a visit to the city by that one incident.  I understand talking about it but the sweeping statement was uncalled for.

Strange! I've been in the Mall 4 or 5 times in the last month.  Everything was peaceful.  Saw at least two security guards on each visit.  No gangs or loud music.  There were a few young ones there but none of them caused any trouble.  All you have to do is not go on Friday or Saturday night if you don't like kids.

SF- sorry that your return home was marred by that incident. Yes, Bakersfield has changed, and not for the better...I avoid TVP and East Hills mall like they're radioactive these days. I hate to say it, but it's become a teenage wasteland, nothing for an ADULT. The anchor stores hang on, but only because you can enter and exit without setting foot in the mall itself.

PUNKS!

Our Spirits and conscience are like muscles, they must be exercised and trained or they will wither away.  Just as you can not coach yourself to be a NBA All Star no matter what talent God gave you.  You can not raise yourself to the Heavenly Kingdom alone.  Plus the devil is out there and in his hatred for God and  mankind he is actively deluding people to follow the path to destruction. 

We are all given a measure of Faith      We don't start off life without help     How we use that measure is the question

There is a need to teach right and wrong Apollo    those that have a calling have a job and that is to teach right and wrong those that never hear the word are judged by their hearts those that are living by the law are judged by the law  those that live by faith are judged by their faith 

AppolloDawn  --  A child knows its wrong to steal cookies, and he knows its wrong to lie about it - thats built in - but he'll do it anyway - because of our fallen nature.

  That's why we have to "teach"(spank their little butts) them morality. 

I ask because if that's true, then there is no need to teach right and wrong, is there?

I would share some concern about teaching wrong as right and right as wrong, however.  If something sounds unspeakably evil and despicable before one has been trained to accept it, maybe it really is evil and despicable.  It takes some real special training to shut off one's moral conscience.

Please give it some thought.

God gave everyone a conscience as well as freedom of choice.  But  we can abuse our freedom of choice and darken our conscience with sin so that we no longer hear it and become worse than the animals.  If we do that we create a foretaste of hell in this life as warning of the hell we are creating for ourselves for eternity.  Same if we seek to know God and build virtues instead of sin.  We receive a foretaste of the Heavenly Kingdom in this life.  As scripture says a "peace beyond understanding." 

Dcs on another page said that each of us have a "built in morality."  Do you agree?

People don't like to hear this ,but everything has it's consequences.  In our society were we fail to teach our youth: right and wrong, self control, putting other people first and taking responsibility for our own lives.  Is it any wonder that the world is going to hell in a hand basket?