Oh Kings Park, You Never Change

Oh Kings Park, you never change. 

The response from my previous blog post was SO unexpected, and I want to thank you all for reading. 

Before I go into my jumbled mind to make some sort of sense of it all, I wanted to just say this:

Obviously my arguments were not injected with steroids and were a little flimsy. But that was my point. You see, Kings Park is one of those places that the residents are proud of. I am a fourth generation, there are buildings that my family built, and the museum holds our history proudly. I just wanted to unveil the frustration of the young people. 

When we recognize that the ‘twenty something’ crowd has no place, or that kids are bored with their surroundings - yes we should act on these ideas. Obviously plans are useless if they become place-mats, but ideas themselves are bulletproof. 

You cannot penetrate an idea with negativity because the beholder creates it at their own will. One person’s childhood memory looks a lot different through someone else’s eyes. What we can all agree on is that Kings Park needs some oomph. 

We can blame suburbia, we can blame laziness, we can blame uninterested teens, we can even blame ourselves for missing the meetings and not writing to our town superintendents. We can point fingers at each other and call each other out on lameness or hallow arguments. Are we ever going to listen and just work together? We have to start somewhere. 

Let’s ask ourselves something. Many of you are parents and long time residents - you have memories and concerns, hopes and dreams, and fears of what could happen if a pebble is skipped across the Sound. Do we have our youth’s best interest in mind? What are they really looking for? Is it a bowling alley or a skate park? 

I seem to think not. While those things would be an awesome starting point to facilitate SOMETHING to do, some kids are just looking for somewhere to ‘hang out’. 

I personally love Lake George (who doesn’t?!) the charming Main Street keeps you busy during the day, and just outside of the town you can buy a six dollar spot at the Drive In Theater. It is calm, beautiful, historic and provides so many outlets for so many interests. I put Kings Park in that type of category, an untouchable little town.

When speaking to our youth, they really feel like their interests are not given a local outlet. 

Alicia Bee, a graduating senior of Kings Park High School answered “The only theater programs we have are for professionals, not to mention the best movie theater is all the way near the Smith Haven mall,” when asked if she had a local outlet for her interests. 

It is true that for most high school girls you can only get your nails done and ruin them eating pizza so many times. 

Stephanie Hansen added “Most of the time my friends and I get into fights about what to do, because there is literally nothing to do.”

Creating a venue for kids to have fun could be a catch 22. It is almost like you have to trick teens into a good place to ‘hang out’. Summer concerts and a possible community center seem like a great start. As for my personal opinion, I am marrying a man who skateboarded as a teen, and he rolls his eyes at skate parks so I just have to laugh. 

It’s all a double edge sword. Supervision may not be cool, but if you build it, they will come.