Teens chilling in frozen foods.

April 24, 2008 1:20 PM

I recently came across an article about the lack of opportunities for teenagers in rapidly developed suburban/exurban communities. Can you help me find it again?

Here are some of the details I partially recall for the article's anecdotes: a town built many homes quickly to encourage young families to move there but didn't plan for when those kids got older; the zoning to build a high school couldn't be obtained because the school and its teenagers would reduce the neighboring property values; and bored teens were aimless wondering grocery aisles so the store installed couches and wi-fi.

I read some left-wing opinion blogs (Firedoglake, Hullabaloo, etc.) and some more academic sites (3QuarksDaily, the Freakonomics blog, etc.), and I thought I was linked to article from one of those. However, I just skimmed the story initially and can't remember any searchable details. I appreciate the help.

posted by glibhamdreck to media & arts (4 comments total)

That was in the NY Times. The Boomtown Mirage.
posted by dersins at 1:35 PM on April 24, 2008

I think.
posted by dersins at 1:36 PM on April 24, 2008

Key paragraphs, from the second half of the article:

Although it was exciting to experience features you don’t often see in New York apartments, like the “great room” and the “media room,” it was kind of spooky being in a giant house with no furniture. Once the sun went down, the street was very dark and very quiet; the blank faces of empty houses were only occasionally lit by garage lights. There was nowhere to go and no one on the street. The brick walls on both sides of my house meant I couldn’t see my neighbors and they couldn’t see me. So I began to spend my evenings at Fry’s, the supermarket in the main strip mall on Highway 347. Fry’s had couches and wireless Internet and a flat-screen TV — and, more important, people. As it turned out, I was not the only person in Maricopa who thought Fry’s was a pretty great place to spend an evening.

At Fry’s, I met Adrianna Roberts, who is 16 and recently moved to Maricopa from Illinois. Her parents had wanted to get out of a bad neighborhood and into a bigger house, and her older sister, a real estate agent, had recommended Maricopa. Roberts and her friend Alajeda Howard, a recent transplant from Missouri, bagged groceries at the store, and they came to Fry’s even when they weren’t scheduled to work, because, they said, there was nothing else to do.

posted by dersins at 1:38 PM on April 24, 2008

Oddly enough, my husband and I drove through Maricopa a couple of weeks ago. It's very bizarre, off in the middle of scrubby desert and the only businesses you'll see are fast food joints and Walgreens. It's a suburban hellhole.
posted by TorontoSandy at 2:48 PM on April 24, 2008