I’ve been hearing stories about police harassing (younger college aged) people for being out late at night in this area. This came up in a conversation with someone who’s lived around here a long time, and she mentioned that there is a 10pm curfew for all minors in this area, and that the police probably thought that these college students were high school students. That just strikes me as being so odd. There were many times when I was out about in the streets after 10pm while I was a minor. Sometimes I was just outside talking a walk to clear my head before I went to sleep. It’s hard to think of that as being illegal. Also, in this conversation, this person talked about how the local taxes are high here - much higher than they are in San Francisco - and in exchange, the police take on a semi-babysitting function for the parents to ensure their good behavior. That just strikes me as a waste of time/energy/money - I’d rather have the police fighting crime. And if you’re going to raise taxes, there are a whole bunch of things I’d rather see that money going into than enforcing a curfew for teenagers (especially a 10 pm curfew … I could almost understand a 1 am curfew, but a 10pm curfew just seems extreme to me). But then, I didn’t grow up around here.
Granted, whenever I went out anywhere during the evenings, I always told my parents where I was going, and I was always honest. However, it also seems to me that a curfew like that restricts the parents freedome as well - my parents encouraged me to go out during the evenings (as long as they knew where I was and I was going to safe places) since they felt that it helped me develop independence (which it did). On the other hand, my parents feel that San Francisco is a much better place to live than Silicon Valley, so it’s probably not a coincidence. I guess parents move to communities with like-minded parents - I knew a lot of people in high school who were frequently somewhere other than home at 10pm, and their parents (for the most part) felt it was okay - parents like mine live in cities where the police have higher priorities than harassing law-abiding youth. and parents who want to keep their kids more sheltered move to suburbs.
So, while this is getting longer than I wanted it to be, I’m wondering how other Textkittens feel about this. I guess it’s good that I’m going to college in a surburban enviornment (though Sillicon Valley deviates from the stereotypical suburb in a number of ways) because I am experiencing a different approach to live, but I personally feel more comfortable in the inner city.