Seventeen-year-old best friends Tre and Byron would probably be the last people to attend a teen takeover. They say they aren’t drawn to crowds and keep their social circle small. To describe it using Byron’s words, they’re part of the pack of teens who “just be chilling,” not the ones “trying to do dumb stuff.”
The City Charter High School seniors said they don’t agree with the “disrupting the peace” nature of teen takeovers — planned large gatherings of youth that have occurred this year across the country in cities such as Detroit, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Chicago. The takeovers that make the rounds on social media are rowdy, and sometimes fights and petty crimes follow. A few have occurred in Pittsburgh, and in at least two cases police deployed pepper spray to break up crowds.
To discourage the events, the city and private entities enacted “chaperone policies” in several teen-friendly spaces around the region, including Market Square, city pools and Kennywood. The policies barred entry to people under specified ages without an adult. At the same time, concerns about disruptive teens factored into changes to neighborhood events in the South Side and Shadyside.
Mayoral Press Secretary Molly Onufer said most of the new rules fall within special events — not policies — and don’t indicate any rise in youth restrictions. She said the city has offered a “ton of programming” for young people and their families throughout the summer.
Still, many community members questioned the lack of transparency in how the chaperone requirements were implemented and criticized the exclusion of youth voices in setting them.
Digging deeper for Pittsburgh
“I get them trying to shut it down, but ruining it for everyone else isn’t completely fair,” Tre said.
The two Downtown high school seniors, along with many other parents and youth activists, feel there must be another way to address the takeovers.
Sheldon Williams, Pittsburgh’s public safety director, said in an interview that the department seeks to understand why young people gather in certain public spaces and welcomes community input. However, he said decisions about how to respond to public safety issues ultimately rest with city officials, not the teens affected by the policies.
“I’m not going to take direction as to how we respond to certain things. That’s a public safety concern,” he said. “I have to be concerned about the safety of the individuals who are gathering and the broader public.”
Over the summer, Public Source examined how decisions about the policies were made, what evidence was used to support them and who had a say. Public Source reached out to 20 city officials and members of organizations involved in making the policies. Most officials declined to comment or did not respond. Some, like Williams, pointed to real safety concerns, but available data does not always show the improvements officials attribute to the measures.
City adopts ‘business-initiated’ chaperone rule
It’s not hard to imagine why Market Square became a favorite hangout spot among high school students in Downtown. With its collection of shops and eateries, Tre said it’s a good place to unwind with friends. But the revamped courtyard has attracted problems, too, including spiking crime.
In late April, city officials implemented a rule requiring all minors to be accompanied by someone 21 or older in Market Square between 3 p.m. and midnight on Thursday through Sunday. There was no official announcement of the rule, but multiple media outlets began reporting about the policy’s implementation on May 4.
Onufer told Public Source that the city didn’t publicize the policy because it was classified under a special events permit.
“The city issues hundreds of special event permits for community-led events each year and we do not put out press releases about them,” she said.
Onufer also said the Market Square rule is a joint effort between the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (PDP), the city and its Public Safety Department. The PDP is a nonprofit organization formed by Downtown businesses, communities and residents to implement programs and initiatives in the neighborhood.
The policy is enforced by city police officers, youth outreach teams and private security hired by PDP. Onufer described it as “a focused, temporary response,” but as of last month, an end date was “yet to be determined.”
Williams called the policy “business-initiated,” catalyzed by complaints from some Downtown business owners about large gatherings of teens creating a nuisance.
The PDP holds special events permits in Market Square for about 300 days in a year. These permits are the reason they could enact a chaperone policy, according to city officials. Williams said he didn’t know the exact terms of their permits, but said PDP has the ultimate say on the policy.
“They can enact that, or they can change it, or morph it, or whatever the desire is of the space,” Williams said.
After exchanging multiple emails with Public Source, a PDP spokesperson said the organization was going to “pause on this for now,” referring to a request for comment.
Public Source submitted a Right-to-Know Law request for city officials’ communications with PDP about the policy, but it was denied for lacking specificity. The request was revised and resubmitted, and awaits a final response.
At a May 20 City Council meeting, Councilor Barb Warwick questioned how much power PDP was given in implementing the policy.
“The idea that a nonprofit organization … can come in and have a permit in a public space that restricts movement of residents, just because they feel like it. I understand that you can have a permit for a private event, that’s fine,” she said. “But this is not what that is.”
Councilor Bobby Wilson, whose district includes part of Market Square, said in a later interview the chaperone requirement doesn’t amount to a firm policy, saying it’s a term that is being used “pretty loosely.”
Wilson said that while PDP holds the permit, the decision to implement age guidelines was done off the advice of the city’s violence prevention team.
Williams and DeVon Madden, an outreach worker and founder of nonprofit Shadow Student Athletes, said the policy was not strictly enforced, with teens generally allowed to pass through the square or stop for food.
The city’s Public Safety Department did not respond to a list of questions sent by Public Source, which included asking how the Market Square policy is enforced.
Are restrictions the answer?
Since the policy was rolled out, Williams said there has been a “remarkable difference” in the level of criminal activity in Market Square, as well as a reduction in surrounding areas.
Onufer also said there has been a significant reduction in violence, arrests, citations, use of force and seizing of weapons on days during which the chaperone policy is in place.
Available police data does not show a clear overall decline since the policy took effect.
Between January and June, 145 crimes took place at Market Square — almost double the number than the same period in 2025. Some of the crimes have involved teens, including two fatal shootings in May and June, which occurred after the chaperone policy was enacted.
In June alone, areas around Market Square had 52 crime incidents, higher than all previous months this year. There were 10 crime incidents reported in June 2025 and 20 in June 2024.
Out of the 72 arrests made in the area from January to June, 26 were of minors. Last year, there was only one arrest of someone under 18 within the same timeframe, and eight arrests in 2024.
Thirteen of the minors arrested around Market Square this year were charged with misdemeanors, including theft, resisting arrest and possessing firearms. Seven involved felonies.
Research shows “mixed evidence” on the effectiveness of curfews, “and some evidence of negative effects,” according to an extensive review by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Jonathan Jay, a public health professor at Boston University, said: “In terms of preventing the problems that might come up around teen presence … city policymakers face a decision about whether they want to try and keep teens out of spaces, which is generally ineffective and not beneficial for young people, or whether they want to make investments in the young people themselves and their communities in order to create safe spaces.”
Jay said it’s often Black and brown youth whose neighborhoods lack safe spaces. And there’s a “knee-jerk reaction to police and criminalize young people when adults don’t like their behavior.”
Some Pittsburgh community leaders believe the chaperone policy in Market Square disproportionately targets Black and brown kids by responding to the actions of a small number of individuals with restrictions that apply to all minors.
“If there was a large crowd of white people, I don’t think people would bat an eye,” 17-year-old Tre said.
Farooq Al-Saïd, director of operations and education at 1Hood, said the policy is exclusionary and makes Black children an intended target, leading to hypervigilance around their presence.
Referring to a forum on the policy held in May at Point Park University which Williams attended, Al-Saïd said city leaders should have consulted with community members and youth-serving organizations before enacting such policies, rather than expecting those groups to initiate the conversation afterward.
Others like Madden disagreed, saying the policy was “putting the onus back in the community where a lot of responsibility should be, putting parents back at the forefront and trying to hold them accountable for where their children are currently at.”
Madden was among those that the PDP consulted to frame the policy. He said the policy addressed a genuine safety issue and provided an opportunity to re-engage the community and create conversations around youth safety.
The issue, Madden said, is not the lack of third spaces for kids, adding that the city has a number of youth-serving recreation centers dotted throughout different neighborhoods. Instead, the challenge is they lack capacity for larger events and gatherings.
“The children are intentionally, deliberately creating large social environments that … become unsafe,” he said. “That is the bigger narrative.”
Still, Al-Saïd worries the approach could spread to other neighborhoods, particularly those that already lack welcoming, multigenerational public spaces for young people.
Fears spread beyond Market Square
While Market Square has been the most visible example, it is not the only place where concerns about teens changed access to public spaces this summer.
Email records returned to Public Source show a connection between fears over disruptive teen activity and the cancellation of Shadyside’s Jam on Walnut concert series as well as the adoption of a 21-and-above policy at the newly launched South Side Street Fest, which shuts down parts of East Carson Street on the weekends.
Pittsburgh Police officers and security stand at South 14th Street and East Carson Street during the South Side Summer Street Fest on Aug. 14, in the South Side Flats. The South Side Summer Street Fest shut down six blocks along East Carson to cars on Friday and Saturday nights from June 20 to Sept. 12. Identification and security checks were necessary to enter the 21+ zone with food, vendors and entertainment. (Video by Jason Alpert-Wisnia/Pittsburgh’s Public Source)
Both of these decisions were announced within days of each other, prompting questions from community members about the respective decision-making processes. Neither neighborhood has had any documented teen takeovers.
In emails dating back to February, city officials and members from neighborhood groups in Shadyside and the South Side discuss concerns with teen nuisance, including underage drinking and public urination at last year’s Jam on Walnut.
Don Berman, one of the founders of the South Side Community Action Network, was involved in planning the South Side Street Fest and included in email threads.
South Side has suffered from bad press over the years due to the confluence of bars and clubs, particularly on East Carson Street, and some high-profile violent crime incidents. Berman’s group has been one of the major drivers of a push to rebrand the neighborhood as family-friendly and safe.
Those behind the South Side Street Fest, which includes vendors and live music, say the event’s mission is to reinforce the business district. Berman called it a “kind of public-private partnership” between East Carson Street businesses, the community and public safety, and a direct response to an incident on the Fourth of July last year at which people threw fireworks at police officers. The officers had minor injuries as a result, and a 19-year-old was later charged with aggravated assault.
Berman said the incident was a “black eye” for the neighborhood, and the street festival grew out of brainstorming “outside the box” to “tackle the root causes of violence and danger for community members and visitors.”
Underage people from other neighborhoods hanging around bars at 2 a.m. were identified as a root cause, according to Berman. Not allowing them entry into the street festival is making the neighborhood safer, he said, and is not part of “some kind of conspiracy against young people.”
“It’s hard to visualize a downside really as far as safety and the lives of people,” Berman said of the festival.
In a Feb. 16 email, the city’s STOP the Violence coordinator identified 4-8 p.m. on weekends as “the peak hours of concern” for disruptive teens in the South Side. The email reports that a store owner was spat on, but does not spell out concerns of violence or danger.
Onufer said there has been a 57% decrease in arrests, a 93% decrease in firearms recovered and a 61% decrease in overall incidents in the South Side compared to last year.
She said that any recent issues in the area have occurred on nights when the street festival wasn’t taking place.
It is unclear whether there are any metrics to determine the festival’s success in curbing underage drinking or presence in the neighborhood. Berman said he wasn’t aware of any, and the city’s Public Safety Department did not respond to Public Source about it.
Asked whether those behind the festival considered working with youth-focused organizations to deal with underage activity near bars, Berman said it’s “important that young people have a place to go,” but “that’s not the problem we’re trying to solve.”
Bringing youth to the table
Some community activists say the city’s youth restrictions have been developed without meaningful input from the organizations that work with young people every day, or from the youth directly affected by the policies.
“Organizations like myself, you know, 1Hood, are excluded intentionally from these conversations because they know we wouldn’t approve of any type of restrictive policy being passed where an impacted group would lose access or receive restricted access to a public space,” Al-Saïd said.
In an email response, Onufer said the city and public safety department leadership met with youth and community members at schools, forums and youth events to encourage youth engagement.
When the Market Square chaperone policy was rolled out, some community members said they struggled to understand exactly what the restrictions entailed or how they had been developed.
Al-Saïd said he believed the policy was intentionally vague to ward off efforts to hold city leaders accountable. He said officials should have been forthcoming about who was consulted and what factors were considered before the restrictions were implemented.
Dara Ware Allen, principal of City Charter High School, who is also on the PDP board, said she was surprised when she heard about the chaperone policy in Market Square about a week before it was put into place.
She said she could not initially determine who was driving the approach and she did not like how quickly it was implemented, without broader input from stakeholders like schools and youth-serving organizations.
“It really was, like, kind of off-brand for how [the PDP] typically are engaged in including a number of representative voices, including young people,” she said.
Like Ware Allen, Carlos Thomas, green initiatives director of Operation Better Block, was left confused by the Market Square chaperone policy when it was first announced. He added that youth-serving organizations are unable to fill the gaps in programming and third spaces because they lack the funding to increase capacity.
Cities like Detroit are actively trying to create more opportunities and programming for youth and have created a Youth Advisory Committee that involves about 50 students to represent the interests of their peers. Other cities like Washington have implemented citywide curfews, seven days a week, for all people under 18.
Attendees of 1Hood’s Fridays On Deck @ The Hill event wait in line food provided by Community Kitchen Pittsburgh at Kennard Park on Aug. 21, in the Hill District (Video by Jason Alpert-Wisnia/Pittsburgh’s Public Source)
Previous Pittsburgh administrations have also used youth commissions and councils to advise the mayor and City Council. Before leaving office, former Mayor Ed Gainey signed two ordinances restructuring the Youth Commission to allow members to be paid and to require representation from young people with a range of backgrounds, including immigrants, refugees and Housing Authority residents.
While Onufer did not comment on whether Mayor Corey O’Connor plans to restart the Youth Commission and Youth Council, she said he has hired a director of youth and families, and applications are currently being accepted for the Youth Civic Leadership Academy.
Leaders of community organizations and people participating in forums and panel discussions agreed on one thing: Involve more youth in shaping policies that impact them.
In East Liberty — a neighborhood that’s seen its own youth challenges — Tre and Byron waited on their buses. After school let out for the summer, they spent that late July afternoon walking around and talking. They didn’t really have a place to go, but that was fine.
“The place isn’t what matters,” Tre said. “It’s the people that you’re with that make the hangout a hangout. So, I mean, it doesn’t matter where we go, as long as we’re allowed to freely hang out and have fun … I’ll take it.”
Maddy Franklin reports on higher ed for Pittsburgh’s Public Source, in partnership with Open Campus, and can be reached at madison@publicsource.org.
Lajja Mistry is the K-12 education reporter at Pittsburgh’s Public Source. She can be reached at lajja@publicsource.org.
This story was fact-checked by Emma Folts.
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