City of Atlanta looking to create safe community options for teens wanting to hang out

The City of Atlanta is taking steps to give teens more places to gather, awarding a $50k grant to help create safe community spaces in response to recent social media meetups.

The teens CBS News Atlanta spoke with said the issue is not wanting a place to cause trouble, but simply wanting a place to go and hang out.

For Marietta brothers Yinka and Deji Karunwi, home is the easiest place to hang out.

They said it's not because they always want to be there, but because there are not many other options.

"Sometimes it's very hard because, mainly because, like, you know, we're tired of going to the same place over and over again," said Yinka Karunwi. "For example, we may go to a bowling alley, like not too many times, but it's something that we can do, like maybe once or twice a week maybe."

As more cities respond to social media meetups, the City of Atlanta is giving two Atlanta Public Schools students a $50k grant to help them create safe community spaces for young people.

Once the school year starts, a city spokesperson said the pair will produce pop-up events and help the city reach out to teens.

For the teenagers, they told us the answer is not keeping them out of public spaces; it's making sure everyone respects them.

"If they're going to hang around, like, the Beltline, just don't affect other people. That's all I got to say," said Deji Karunwi.

The teenagers said skate parks, bowling alleys, and other public gathering places like Decatur Square are safe places to spend time with friends.