Last week, Crossroads Mall in Oklahoma City announced it would introduce a curfew that would prevent teens under 18 from being on mall property Friday or Saturday evenings after 6pm unless accompanied by an adult.

My first reaction when reading that was, "I wonder if Central Mall in Lawton will do something like that?" Well, I don't have to wonder any longer.

Starting November 1, Central Mall will be off limits to kids under 18 after 5pm on Fridays and Saturdays unless they are accompanied by a parent or adult guardian over 21 years of age. IDs will be checked.

Central Mall hasn't had quite the amount of trouble experienced by Crossroads Mall in the city. However, a number of high profile incidents (including a shooting right in front of the Dickinson Theaters 12-plex lobby) have made a lot of people avoid the mall during certain hours. In recent months a significant number of teens hanging out at the mall (and not buying anything) have been deliberately stirring up trouble with adult mall customers.

Overall, I'm in favor of this move. However, I will acknowledge a downside of this: what are all those teens, especially the trouble-making ones, going to do when they cannot loiter at the mall? The mall is a well-lit, centralized place with a decent number of adult witnesses to anyone feeling the urge to do something stupidly violent. Once this curfew goes into effect, I'd expect a significant rise in the number of gang related assaults and other kinds of street crime.

My daughter and I drove into town for a movie a few years ago. It was melee in front of the mall. I got onto crowds of young men, just so we could get in the mall. I had to be mean, just to get out. It was like a concert crowd and my daughter was frightened. She's been to concerts her whole life and she was clinging to me!

I got grumpy and I haven't been back. I'd rather drive to OKC and spend a nice day shopping with lunch and a movie, no crowds at the door.

I don't care about the curfew, I haven't been to the Lawton Mall in years.

Central Mall is really going to have problems once the new shopping center being planned a few blocks north is built.

"Phase 1A" of Lawton's Downtown Redevelopment project will be a new shopping center built in a "lifestyle village" sort of concept and feature a few "big box" retailers, restaurants and other businesses. It's still going to be at least another couple of years before the shopping center is finished. Right now the parties involved are acquiring the 12 city blocks of land needed for the project.

Once that new shopping center is open, the folks who own Central Mall won't be able to charge such high rents.

The older I get the less I like malls. Seems like many malls have enacted curfews to reduce this kind of needless unproductive youth activity. If I have to go to a mall anymore I usually patron the outer anchor stores anyway. I generally have no use for the interior stores. Thank goodness for the Internet!!