Affordable, Accessible, and Age Appropriate? Hillsborough, NC as a teen

Until I left for college, I had lived my whole life in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Hillsborough is a small, quiet town right outside of the Research Triangle, home to Duke, UNC, and NC State. Due to the location, my county averages higher levels of education than the vast majority of the country. As a matter of fact, my county ranked 4th in the percentage of people with doctoral degrees as of 2022 (RELPI, 2024). As a student, this was great, but as a teenager, it was boring because there was (and still is) a lack of third spaces, especially for teenagers. The shortage of third spaces for teens and young adults is an issue throughout the US. It is exemplified in Hillsborough.

Third spaces are places other than home and work/school, where people go to have fun and relax. They are an important outlet for people to destress and improve mental health. For example, as a child, I would regularly go to local parks, which there were plenty of, but as I grew up there were less and less age appropriate places to go for fun. If I wanted to go somewhere with my friends in high school we almost always went thrifting or to the mall. Which was fun, yes, but it is not like that was our only interest. It was simply one of our only options for recreation. Going to the mall also meant we had to go to a nearby city. Occasionally, we would do other activities, but most nearby activities were not meant for us, they either felt too immature, or we were too young to do. Too old for playgrounds, too young for casinos. There was plenty for young children to do, there was plenty for adults to do, but there were just not enough activities designed with teens in mind.

Ideally, third spaces for teens and young adults would be free to enter places like skate parks, soccer fields, community centers, or even libraries. However, they could also be low-cost places like movie theaters. Unfortunately, of these, my town only had a library, a couple of soccer fields, and minimal parks. Even those were not always usable and can get boring quickly when they are your only options, and the parks were designed for children under the age of 12. Every now and then, my friends and I would hang out in a parking garage because we didn't want to spend money, and there was nothing better to do. This was blatantly discouraged by the town, as evidenced by signs that read “No Loitering” or “No Skateboarding.” This led me to choose places like the mall or a restaurant, despite there being a cost to it. 

In addition to most third spaces being geared toward young children or adults, and being costly, the few places that were fun and cheap for teens were often inaccessible for someone without a car. Accessibility would make third spaces more usable for everyone, but especially teens who are responsible enough to travel on their own, but might not have a car. My town has extremely minimal public transportation and unconnected sidewalks, so if I wanted to go somewhere with friends, I had to hope one of them could pick me up. Unfortunately, this is the reality for many teens in Hillsborough. Especially when I was around 13 to 15, there were many times my friends and I were free to hang out, but couldn't because we could not drive.

I do love my town, especially when I think back to my childhood. Hillsborough was a great place to be a child, and I can imagine it being a peaceful place to grow old, but it lacks third spaces for young people. As a teen, this made it hard for me to hangout with my friends regularly, discover hobbies, make friends outside of school, and not be on my phone all the time. Access to desirable third spaces is important to an individual's development, especially at such a pivotal stage of life. When I visited other towns and cities, it made me wish for affordable, accessible, and age appropriate third spaces in my own town.

References

RELPI. (2024, June 18). Top Ten Counties With the Highest Concentration of PhDs. RELPI. https://www.relpi.org/post/relpi-intel