In McHenry, there is a lot to do for adults. There are bars and restaurants that span across town and parks, but it seems as if there is nothing to do for teenagers.

There are few third spaces or small businesses for teenagers to go to and get out of the house. McHenry has a huge teenage population. While it is surrounded by towns like Crystal Lake, Woodstock and Richmond, it would be nice for McHenry itself to have things for teens to do. The coffee shops have weird hours mostly during school hours and are usually very over priced, no book stores and even restaurants are more bar/adult leaning.

Having one place where the teens could go do their homework, hangout with friends or even just be themselves outside of their house could be a huge benefit.

The third spaces we have are expensive

Some may argue that there are things like coffee shops for teenagers to do after school or practice, but, these coffee shops often are highly priced, especially for teenagers who only have part time jobs and may not have enough to fill up their over five dollar a gallon gas tank.

For example, one of the more popular coffee shops in McHenry is Toast and Roast, which in theory is perfect. It’s in the center of town and has exactly what most teenagers are looking for, a place to get off their phones– to be social. But there is one issue, a lot of their menu items are expensive, a latte can cost up to $7, which is something most people, especially teenagers cannot afford.

A five or seven dollar latte isn’t bad every once in a while, but the fact that this is one of the only third spaces in downtown McHenry, makes it hard to only go once in a while. If there were more third spaces for teenagers to go to, this would make the occasional expensive latte less of a problem.

While McHenry does have curtain places for teens to hangout, they are mostly very spread out or not usable in certain seasons. McHenry’s parks are very accessible to everyone but only able to truly be used during the summer because of how cold it gets. Yogeez, a frozen yogurt/desert shop, is located on the border of McHenry and Johnsburg. An easy place to hangout but also farther for the kids who live in the surrounding towns like Lakemoor, Wonder Lake, Holiday Hills, and so on.

Downtown McHenry focuses on adults

McHenry’s downtown feels centered around adults and not teenagers. Nearly every major event in the area is centered around adults, drinking, or activities aimed towards an older crowd. Events like wine walks and bar nights bring people downtown, but there are very few consistent palaces for teenagers to gather. While places like the Vixen have attempted Teen Nights, those nights were rare and eventually stopped taking place.

For many teenagers, there is no comfortable “third space” outside of school or home where they can simply exist where they can simply exist without feeling out of place. Instead of coffee shops staying open later, bookstores, music spaces, or teen-focused hangout spots, most of downtown nightlife caters to adults. This creates a disconnect between the large teenage population in McHenry and the spaces actually available to them.

However, spaces like The Records Department prove that creating teen-friendly environments is possible. Co-owner and operator Micheal Sacco said, “3rd spaces are something that a business actively chooses to do,” and that “it does take businesses making a conscious effort of saying, no, we’re going to have space for people to just come hang out.”

Sacco also emphasized the importance of giving teenagers ownership within community spaces, saying “let the kids cook, man,” and that “if you just let those kids cook, usually something cool is going to happen.” he added, “let them take some ownership within the space… and let something beautiful happen.”

Ultimately, McHenry teenagers are not asking for much, just spaces where they can exist outside of school and home. While businesses need profit to survive, downtown should still make efforts to include younger people through affordable hangout spaces, later hours or bringing back teen-focused events. Places like The Records Department prove that when businesses make room for teenagers, the community grows stronger. McHenry has the people and the potential, it just needs spaces that actually welcome them.