Mall owners trample youth rights

On July 13 the Pyramid Management Group, owners of the Ingleside Mall in Holyoke, Mass., issued a statement announ cing that, effective Sept. 9, the mall will bar anyone under 18 who is not accompanied by an adult over 21 on Fridays and Saturdays from 4 p.m. to closing time. Teenaged mall workers will not be subject to this policy.

Thirty additional security officers have been hired to enforce the policy. “Greet ers” will inform customers of the policy. If individuals don’t have proper identification showing they’re 21 or over, they may be asked to leave the mall. (www.masslive.com)

But young people and their allies are fighting back. Fifteen-year-old Machael A. Lemme, who lives in nearby Chicopee, began a petition drive on July 13 to demand the policy be revoked. His father and over 1,100 others have signed. See www.petitionspot.com/petitions/holyokemall.

Other actions being considered by area youths and progressive organizations include boycotts, pickets and/or sit-ins.

Established in 1970, the Syracuse, N.Y.-based Pyramid owns 20 malls in Massa chusetts and New York. It reports approximately $5 billion in annual sales.

Pyramid has only implemented this policy in its malls near or in cities with big populations of people of color and high poverty rates.

According to the 2000 census, in Holyoke, the poorest city in Massachusetts, Latin@s make up more than half of the population. Those under 18 make up 30 percent. In Syracuse and Buffalo malls where these policies are already in place, statistics are similar, although with a bigger Black population.

In cities where Pyramid hasn’t implemented its policy, the local population is predominantly white and poverty rates are much lower. These cities include Had ley, Mass., where whites make up 96 percent of the population; Pittsfield, Mass., 92 percent white. Plymouth—where Independence Mall caters to tourists going to Plymouth, Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket—is 93 percent white. The poverty rate in all these cities is at or below 11 percent.

Mountain Development Corporation followed Pyramid’s lead on Aug. 1 by issuing a similar policy, barring unescorted teens under 15 after 5 p.m. every day at its Eastfield Mall near Springfield, Mass. Springfield’s population is 20 percent Black and 27 percent Latin@. Springfield has a 23-percent federal poverty level.

These discriminatory policies began in 1996 at the Mall of America in Bloom ington, Minn. They are now standard at many of the 1,100 malls in the United States, claims the International Council of Shopping Centers.

“It’s devastating how so many rules and so many people seem to be against young people. This is age discrimination. It takes away another right that young people should have… The mall is such a huge place for teenagers, from a social standpoint… There aren’t enough safe hangouts or drop-in centers for us to go,” said teenager Mary Jo Pham in a newspaper opinion poll regarding these policies. (www.masslive.com)