Mildly Interesting

It's kind of like a library but not that many books, more condoms and snacks, often a projector and screen for movie Nights, and access to Community Resources like food banks and clothing places and counseling for gay people and stuff

Its different from a teen left-justify

Ours had a big TV for movie night, a snack bar, a Nintendo room, and an arcade in the basement. It was built in the mid nineties, and is still there, though I haven't been inside since then. It's probably all updated.

My small town (<3000) had one in the 90s, we had a dance floor with music Friday and Saturday nights, a projector for movies and a concession stand, and a mini golf course downstairs. In my later teens I helped convert an unused part of the second story into a haunted house/maze for Halloween.

The building was originally a warehouse built back when the town had industry around the turn of the 20th century. It was brick built so still in great shape even today and it’s been abandoned again for 20 years now

In the 90s, original teen center in my neighborhood was the YMCA or rec center. The adults complained and restricted a lot of the access to "teens with parents". Malls were kinda popular. But so was the nearest game store or comic store.

In the 2000s-2010s, it was coffee shops. But you had to pay to be inside.

The new "teen center" in my neighborhood was the library. Quality place.

My public library has one and has a bunch of teen books, manga, video games, board games, they just got some arcade machines, and they got some 3d printers. They got events going on from time to time for the kids as well.

They don't really exist anymore. 3rd places have more or less been killed off.

You must now own a car and pay money to exist somewhere, at all times.

TV makes it seem normal, but I've never seen one IRL. But then, I've also never seen a school that is entirely inside a single building or has multiple floors, either. And I'm sure those exist somewhere.

The closest thing I've ever seen to a teen center was a sports facility that had a room for kids and teens to hang out, but that was closer to a babysitting service. Paired with the facts that you had to pay monthly membership dues ($25 to $100/mo these days, apparently) and the whole facility was meant for something else entirely, it's not something I would first describe as a teen center. Not any more than I'd call a high school a chemical R&D facility just because of its chemistry classroom.

Outside of that one room, I'm not aware of anything else nearby me that would be even remotely similar.

We should bring all of that back. Well, maybe not the doo-wop.

Dude, I fucking hate people. Drive-ins ftw, I don't need to hear about how Rebecca on the 7th floor is such a bitch for sucking Andrew in the break room when she knew that Elix (spelled with a silent k) wanted him first, and the group of four are all on Instagram and Facebook starting drama, on their phones, in light mode, with no end in sight as the movie is about to start.

When me and my best friend still went to the movies, we'd always have this kind of shit happen, and we had a routine where one of us would loudly start talking about how we didn't think dinner was settling right and we might shit ourselves, or retelling how a couple rows down (where the annoying people are at) is about where my ex blew me and the mess was still there last time we checked, or we'd just start letting out some (not so) silent-but-deadly farts. Whatever it took to make sure the movie was enjoyable, we'd go pretty far with things, but it worked 100% of the time, the group would always move away.

Not having to do that, having the a/c exactly as we want it, the volume at the level we want it, would be so much better. Really, less interaction with people in general would be a wonderful thing...

Is it because you're in your 40s?

They CAN be, depending on the area. My local neighborhood doesn't have one, and there isn't anything like that within the area of the city I'm in. "Third places" where you can just hang out with no expectations on you to purchase things or otherwise interact with that place's services are rapidly disappearing in the US.

40 years

Drinking alcohol. After saying "'just say no' may not be enough" or something like that.