The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

City scraps plans for teen center, for now

By Justin Berton

Sunnyvale teenagers will not get the teen center they asked for last year in the near future. City councilmembers shelved the idea at a special meeting May 12 in favor of hiring an outside consultant to determine what local teens really want.

At a council meeting in November, the Teen Advisory Committee provided surveys from local middle and senior high schools that came to one conclusion: local teenagers wanted a teen center with the flavor and atmosphere of a coffee shop where they could do homework and hang out. At the time, councilmembers directed the Parks and Recreation Department to move forward with the concept to address the needs of the estimated 6,000 teenagers in Sunnyvale.

In his State of the City address last month, Mayor Jim Roberts pledged that teen services would be the No. 1 priority for the city this year.

Currently, the city spends $300,000 to provide after-school homework programs and sports activities for teens, said Kay Whitney, senior leisure services coordinator with the city.

Pavithra Chollate, the president of the teen advisory group and a senior at Homestead High School, said she was disappointed the city pushed back the effort.

Chollate said local teenagers often go to other cities for entertainment and rarely find inexpensive hangouts within Sunnyvale.

"If we had something here, it would provide an option where we could go without having to spend a lot of money," the 17-year-old Chollate said. The teen center suggested by the advisory committee would have provided special Friday night events and weekly offerings, such as a Poet's Corner where local wordsmiths could present their work.

But city staffers hesitated on the concept, noting that two teen centers in Sunnyvale's past have gone in and out of fashion with teenagers, leaving the city with empty buildings.

The setback for the proposed center was an issue with city staff as well as teenagers.

"At first, it was an incredible disappointment," City Manager Robert LaSala said, "but we want to do the right thing the right way the first time to have the best chance of success."

LaSala pointed to teenagers' powerful word-of-mouth recognition that would sink a teen center that was deemed an unworthy place to hang out.

Once the City Council agreed to hire a consultant to survey Sunnyvale teens, councilmembers debated about the scope of the survey and what ages it should include.

Councilmember Stan Kawczynski suggested the survey focus on youths age 6-19 to include a broad database.

"We need to look at all of the youth of Sunnyvale. They are all at risk in some form, one way or another, sooner or later," Kawczynski said.

Councilmember Julia Miller countered, saying that was too broad an age range to yield an effective study of what teenagers need.

"By 18, kids are already driving and off to college, and they're not going to use a center," Miller said.

Miller also called for the consultant handling the survey to be from Sunnyvale to better understand the needs of the city's teenagers.

In the presentation given to councilmembers, city staffers said the purpose of the survey would be to determine "teens' leisure needs."

The staffers defined the term "leisure"--a term that drew criticism from councilmembers--as "any time not spent in school or sleeping."

Councilmember Pat Vorreiter suggested the consultants change the term to something that would differ from the general perception of the word.

"In my mind, it doesn't emphasize the job training or the employment-placement aspects," Vorreiter said.

Mayor Jim Roberts joked that when he was growing up in Sunnyvale, "there was a teen center that was so effective, I didn't even know about it."

The meeting ended when the city manager agreed to hire a consultant for teenagers and, if possible, hire one for younger age groups.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, May 20, 1998.
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