Is there anything for tweens to do here?
One way Merrick Park and Sunset Place do a lot of business is with parents spending time at shops and restaurants while their kids have "play dates."
The kids are tweens and teens who would like to do their own mall hopping without Mom and Dad present, so as the kids go off to do their own thing, the parents kill a couple of hours doing their thing, which is eating, drinking and shopping.
There is nothing in the Grove that draws teens or teens. They don't want to hang out here so their parents don't hang out here.
I have been told that the Grove is "run by old people." Maybe we need some young blood to start making changes around here. Perpahs a few younger people on the BID or Chamber or Merchants Group might bring in some fresh ideas.
The kids are tweens and teens who would like to do their own mall hopping without Mom and Dad present, so as the kids go off to do their own thing, the parents kill a couple of hours doing their thing, which is eating, drinking and shopping.
There is nothing in the Grove that draws teens or teens. They don't want to hang out here so their parents don't hang out here.
I have been told that the Grove is "run by old people." Maybe we need some young blood to start making changes around here. Perpahs a few younger people on the BID or Chamber or Merchants Group might bring in some fresh ideas.
posted by Tom Falco at 3:00 PM
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20 Comments:
Skate Park by Peacock's where I see most kids of the 'newly independent' age group.
My 11 year old nephew loves it when he comes to visit.
what does merrick park offer tweens. i can't imagine them enjoying walking around stores where they couldnt possibly afford anything (i.e. gucci, tiffanys, neiman marcus, etc.). i can see the appeal of sunset place but dont think merrick has anything better than the grove when it comes to teens/tweens
there is nothing in merrick park for normal tweens. maybe rich tweens whose parents gave them black amex cards.
sunset place has: movies, cheaper food (wendys?), bowling, candy stores, arcade/computer game place, ice cream.
Grove has: no movies, expensive stores, no arcade, no bowling, no food other than johnny rockets/pizza that appeals to kids. it does have yogurbella... :-/
these kids are given cash by their parents (assuming $20-30) and spending it. Here there are no places to spend it anymore.
The truth is that tweens don't want to be anywhere that their parents are. Besides, Sunset Place is the place for the middle school crowd. Has been for 10 years now. They are usually horrified if the parents are there. It's pretty obvious that you never had a wonderful loving tween of your own. Want mine?
Merrick Place is not an interesting place for tweens and teens, unless they have a ton of money to spend on really expensive stuff. Sunset Place, on the other hand, is kid heaven. But on weekend nights, it can be a parent's nightmare.
as i remember it in the days that teens were just all over this place, miami subs was the place they all seemed to eat
Agreed Merrick is not a tween hang out at all. Sunset certainly is. The grove cannot comepete with Sunset. It's too late to even try. Sunset even has a pick/up drop off area. The Grove is considered too dangerous for tweens so parents do not allow it.
Hey, I'm a young Grovite with a fresh idea: Let's get rid of Preppy Papa Sarnoff.
Years ago it was the Falls...........then the Grove....
now South Miami..........who's next?
I wouldn't send my tween to the Grove with a rapist hanging around. But maybe later on when we open the movie theater and the bowling alley (if that's still happening) the tweens and teens will come back to the Grove. And hopefully the rapist is caught by then!
I have my office in the Grove and I have two teenagers. When I want to come in to work on weekends and ask them to come along they say no. They ask me to drop them off at Sunset because, as Brian said, there's more to do: movies, bowling, walking around, stores for kids their age, B&N, etc. They tell me that the Grove is boring. Only place they like is Johnny Rockets but even that isn't enough to want them to come over w/ me. I wish we had more things for them to do in CocoWalk or Mayfair. I loved the idea Grape had about having some bands play in CocoWalk. My son has a band and I bet they would love to come and play in the Grove. On a final note, my kids don't like The Falls anymore. They say there are too many "little" kids there and I shop at Merrick Park and would never take my kids there - they'd be bored to tears.
They all go where they all go, because even more so than their parents, they are sheep. Kids that age only want to do what "everyone is doing". There is no way to make the grove that, and we don't want it anyway. They have no money, and get dropped off at Sunset, while their parents go elsewhere.
Just let this idea fall by the wayside. NO reason for any effort or expense in this direction.
What a great idea, let's get rid of the Snarnoff Maffia and his crones who think that they are still in the 80'.... what a shame...
how about the beautiful displays of garbage containers and their nauseating smell. Now this is for sure a very attractive scene.
How about if we lower the drinking age and then all the bars can offer drink specials to tweeners from 3-5AM? ;-)
Seriously, I don't see the Grove as a kids' place at all. Even our movie theater, whenever that happens, sounds like it'll be anti-kids. (Fine by me....)
about 10 years ago, when I was in middle school (Carver Middle) we used to hang out in the Grove. We'd go to AMC, walk around the Grove, eat @ J Rockets or the pizza place. Sometimes we'd just get together there to listen to performers or watch artists with spraypaint.. My brother is now older than I was then, he is 17 & will not hang out in the Grove. The only exception is if I take him to Oasis, even though he cant smoke hookah. The Grove is dead. And it doesnt need to be revived for people my parents age, more like people college aged.
Lexie -- you got it RIGHT -- your parents' age will not be able to revitalize the Grove -- they don't spend the money! Drive through the Grove during the "tourist hours" -- forget the locals -- see who's here and spending money. The tourists. The gap? Lexie's age -- that's where the vitality and energy is. We need planners who can see the handwriting on the wall and what the future looks like -- and it's not Father Time!
The grove full of tweens is my personal hell. I'd rather be given a thousand paper cuts, then placed in a tub of lemon juice than fill the grove with tweens... I'd rather have ice picks shoved under my toenails... I'd rather be trapped in a small wooden box filled with fire ants... etc
Tweens and teens at Sunset are hanging out, looking for other teens and tweens and they're not shopping that much. It's not an idea worth spending a lot of time and effort. Kids come to the Grove in the afternoon after school for pizza, ice cream, Johnny Rockets, or come to eat dinner with their parents. If they're old enough, they'll shop and eat with friends. We don't need it to become a hang out.
when i was a tween/teen in the grove i sat on the bleachers at Peacock Park with about 30 other tweens and teens, smoked pot and dropped acid. we were definitely spending money in the grove but not at cocowalk.
Local Contrarian -Couldn't have said it better, so I won't.
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