ST. LOUIS — St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones said downtown is not a 1 a.m. destination for juveniles after a teen party devolved into a mass shooting in June – that’s why some downtown residents and city leaders are confused as to why the city is sponsoring downtown parties for teens.
The parties, which happen in the Downtown Youth Zone along Chestnut Avenue between 8th and 9th streets, have been taking place on Saturdays from 7 to 11 p.m. since that mass shooting.
The most recent party drew a crowd of more than 300 teens, which police say required extra resources to monitor.
Alderwoman Cara Spencer is calling for an end to the downtown teen events. In a statement to 5 On Your Side, she wrote:
"I cannot speak as to why the city chose to host this event as I wasn’t even aware it was happening. However, it is clear that it was not a good idea and I have expressed that to the mayor’s office and organizers. Downtown late at night is not a place for youth. Most of the businesses open at that time serve alcohol and cater to an adult population. I would like to express my deep desire to not see the city engage in this type of event again. While I recognize their intention was good, the reality was a dangerous situation for all involved, especially our youth."
Jessica Meyers, Director of the St. Louis Area Violence Prevention Commission, disagrees.
“I think the headline is really that we had 300 youth downtown for this party from 7 to 11 p.m. and we had no injuries,” she said. “We had no major problems, and we were really able to listen to what the kids were saying when they were saying, ‘We don't have a safe space to go,’ and we were able to partner with groups to provide that.”
St. Louis Police Capt. Pierre Benoist called previous Downtown Youth Zone events “calm" during a weekly safety briefing with reporters. The most recent event, however, was different, he said.
“At the conclusion of that event, probably about 10 or 11 p.m., there were a lot of juveniles in the downtown area and at times they were creating a few incidents,” he said. “And so we used a lot of police presence in the downtown area to monitor their behavior.”
That’s not the best use of police resources, said Les Sterman, a downtown resident and Chairman of Citizens for a Greater St. Louis.
“The mayor herself has said that teenagers don't belong downtown late at night and she wouldn't allow her own kids to be downtown late at night, and yet here is the city sponsoring an event that attracts all these kids downtown and then ends the supervisory portion at 11 p.m.,” Sterman said.
Meyers said there was a security plan in place for the event. Her organization partnered with the Downtown Community Improvement District for security, which included violence interrupters and other adults who used wands to check for weapons.
“Another misconception is the idea that there were 300 kids that were downtown until 3 a.m., and that's just not the case,” Meyers said. “We had our security.
“We had team members. We had our partners. We had volunteers that were downtown well after the party ended, and the party ended at 11 p.m. We had adults down there to supervise the end of the party, the dispersal. The vast majority of teens left downtown by midnight. We had folks that were down there even later than that to make sure that there were no problems and there weren't. So there may have been a few teens that stayed downtown, but the vast majority did not.”
5 On Your Side analyzed the list of calls for police service to the area between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. Saturday through Sunday and compared it to the same time frame the weekend before.
There were 29 calls to police in that window between July 29 and 30.
There were 33 calls during those hours Saturday and Sunday. The only call that resulted in a police report involved the arrest of a 15-year-old boy at 3 a.m. – about 1 ½ hours after the party ended – for possession of a handgun with a device known as a switch on it that can turn it into a fully automatic weapon.
Police say they saw a group of people arguing near 7th and Chestnut, and two of them appeared to be holding guns. One person ran, and the 15-year-old was taken to Juvenile Family Court, where he was released to a parent.
The mayor’s Public Safety Department released a statement, which read:
“As a city we came together with partners such as St. Louis Violence Prevention Commission, to provide safe spaces for our youth this summer and we accomplished that. In 2021, the city entered an intergovernmental agreement to administer and fund safe spaces and events for youth and provided $1 million in ARPA funds to VPC to conduct youth programming through December 2026. As part of that agreement VPC entered into a partnership with the community organizations Community Improvement District and the St. Louis Association of Community Organizations. The Mayor’s Office of Violence Prevention took over oversight of the funding July 1. We will take a break from downtown programming this week and will provide programming in other parts of the city the rest of the month. The event budgets are funded through VPC. OVP will continue to partner with VPC to provide space spaces throughout Fall, Winter and Spring.”
Meyers said the Aug. 8 event was the last Downtown Youth Zone event planned for the year.
“We had 300 youth being young, playing, listening to music, getting free food, hanging out, and there were no injuries, and no one was shot,” Meyers said. “It was a safe event.
“We can't control every person that comes and then leaves our event. But the vast majority of people left around the time that they were supposed to, and no one was injured, and 300 kids got to be kids for a night in the city of St. Louis.”
Sterman isn’t convinced.
“It makes no sense to hold an event to actually attract juveniles downtown when one of the things we're trying to do is not bring them downtown,” he said.
As to whether the downtown youth events will return next summer, Meyers said that’s undetermined.
“This party was a direct result of youth saying that this is what they wanted and what they needed and so we will continue to listen to you,” she said. “If they want to go somewhere else, we will look at that if they want to come back downtown, then we'll explore that.
“I don't think we've committed one way or the other as to whether there will be any more events downtown.”