After an incident in which a police officer was attacked near the Delmar Metro station on April 9, University City officials vowed to crack down on “unruly youths” on the Delmar Loop. Proposed measures include making an earlier curfew (8 p.m. has been proposed) for those under 18 on the Loop, closing the Delmar Metro station early on Friday and Saturday nights, handing out court summonses rather than preliminary warnings to first-time offenders and lowering the minimum age that the curfew affects.

We feel that many of these measures are inappropriate responses to the problem at hand, especially the curfew, and will actually have an adverse affect on the community.

While the disturbance on April 9 was indeed troubling, as are other reports of rowdiness, it isn’t as if most of the teenagers who spend time on the Loop are actively disrupting patrons and causing trouble. In fact, the man arrested for attacking the police officer was 21, and wouldn’t be affected by these proposed measures at all.

The teenagers that U. City is targeting have nowhere else to go, and shutting them out isn’t the solution. The Galleria has a curfew as well, and going to the movies is generally expensive. There are very few places for “kids to be kids,” particularly those who come from the city’s more dangerous neighborhoods. For example, kids from north St. Louis often spend time on the Loop instead of in their own neighborhoods, which are often less safe than Delmar.

The proposed restrictions do not take into account what is best for the youths of the community, only what is best for the image of a pristine, college town area. On the Loop, youths are relatively safe walking up and down streets. What would they be doing if they were forced to sit at home instead, or explore other areas that are more conducive to harmful activities?

Based on the common racial profile of teenagers found on the Loop, we feel that these measures have more than a small racial element tied to them. It’s not a coincidence that the “unruly youths” described in various reports are, for the most part, black. We question whether city still feel the need to keep so many officers on the loop or keep such strict policies if these “unruly youths” were white

Even if you think that the youth behave poorly and dangerously on the Loop, this solution is far from ideal. If U-City decides to have more officers patrol Delmar, we feel as though they would be misappropriating resources away from other issues. At the time of the officer’s attack on April 9, there were at least a dozen police cars on and near the Loop. While it’s much better to be safe than sorry, especially when someone could get seriously hurt, not all of these cops needed to be on the Loop and could have been better used elsewhere in University City.

The promised crackdowns coincide with attempts to revitalize the Loop and bring in more revenue. Business owners have opened new restaurants and new bike paths promise to make the Loop more accessible. At the same time, the proposed measures designed to close off the Loop to outside teenagers and the rest of St. Louis create a disturbing double standard. The concern at the bottom of these new measures is the image of the Loop and attracting patrons who bring in revenue. From what we can see, the police and local business owners have given little, if any, thought to the kids the proposed measures would exclude.