[Boston-editorial] new feature: Holyoke Mall Now a Weekend No-Teenager Zone

[Matthew Williams]

Holyoke Mall Now a Weekend No-Teenager Zone
by Jason Pramas, info (nospam) massglobalaction.org

Having spent a childhood hanging out, working at, loving, and hating 
local malls, it was with disbelief that this commentator read a piece 
in the July 13 edition of The Republican (Springfield, MA) that says 
that the Holyoke Mall at Ingleside has instituted an "MB18" ("Must Be 
18") policy on Fridays and Saturdays from 4 p.m. to closing at the 
facility--after some "success" with similar rules at other malls owned 
by The Pyramid Companies.

Any teenagers under 18 during those periods who are not accompanied by 
an adult, will be targetted by mall cops and escorted from the 
premises. Mall owners claim that racial profiling will not be involved 
in such targettings, but interestingly, Pyramid is instituting the 
policy in the relatively urban Holyoke mall frequented by that city's 
burgeoning Latino population, but not at the Hampshire Mall in more 
rural Hadley, MA, which it also owns. The Eastfield Mall in urban 
Springfield, MA, owned by Mountain Development Corp. of New Jersey, is 
planning to implement a similar policy.

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25 Jul 2005 | Filed under: Commentary / Globalization : Human Rights