Photos: Teens Fill the Promontory for Halloween Dance Party

Despite the news reported elsewhere, last night there was a fully attended Teen Halloween Dance with a very happy group of participants, at the Promontory near 53rd and S. Lake Park West. These photos were kindly provided by Ebony Lucas. Ebony adds this summary:

"Teens from all over the city come to Hyde Park every year on Halloween. Until last year, there were never any activities and they still came. Community members, local officials, and the SSA began to plan activities because there were multiple incidents in 2016 that hurt the community.

In 2017, 100 volunteer community members passed out candy, performed music, and engaged the teens on 53rd St. At the end of the night, the teens were escorted to 53rd and Lake Park and additional buses were called to accommodate them. There were no neighborhood incidents.

This year, the community members attempted, without success, to plan a street fair in conjunction with the Downtown Hyde Park SSA and Aldermanic Offices. After months of attempting to schedule a meeting and being told that 53rd St would be shut off for "families only," the community members planned an event at The Promontory for teens. The street fair had no activities for teens and ended at 7pm.

The event at The Promontory was from 6-9pm and a teen party where attendance was a total of 410 teens. There were no incidents of violence or crime at the teen party. On the street however, where teens were pushed out of the business district into residential neighborhoods, there was violence and crime.

Our group believes that progress starts with being welcoming and engaging to teens. Community members who want more teen programming are not justifying the teens' behavior, we just know that an idle mind is the devil's playground. We have been able to show that if you offer an activity, it can mitigate the behavior. We also know that you need a plan for transportation at the end of the night. In 2017 we were able to get additional buses for the teens and had them exit on Lake Park, as a result, there were no neighborhood issues.

Failing to plan is planning to fail. Next year, a plan to protect both the businesses and the neighborhood needs to be in place. The teens are coming, because they do every year, so we should be prepared for larger scale entertainment for teens on 53rd St. We are really hoping to come together as a team with a better, more comprehensive plan.

We have a community de-brief meeting on Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 7:00pm, University Church 5655 S. University. We are inviting all community members, businesses, and local officials to attend."