LISTEN TO TIFFANY SPENCER
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Youth organizer Tiffany Spencer
At the grand opening of the $22 million Silver Spring Civic Building this summer, one elected official after another hailed the occasion as a major achievement for Montgomery County. But not everyone in the crowd felt the same way. Several young protesters raised signs and disrupted the proceedings with chants in order to highlight the lack of dedicated youth space at the new Civic Building, as well as in downtown Silver Spring.
Among the protesters was 20-year-old youth organizer Tiffany Spencer. Spencer said of young people in downtown Silver Spring: “[T]hey spend their money here, they hang out here, they don’t have anywhere else to go so they hang out in the streets, which upsets the adults because they feel like they’re just loitering and not doing anything constructive. Which is why they need a space and the Civic Building is the perfect place to have it. It’s a public space, there’s a lot of rooms.”
Spencer is concerned that one organization is being given preferential treatment to the detriment of Silver Spring’s youth. She said, “The Roundhouse Theater gets more than half the building for a dollar a year… They don’t need that space, they have two other spaces in Silver Spring. But the youth groups and the other non-profits in downtown Silver Spring that actually need the space, doesn’t have it. And that’s a problem.”
Spencer discussed possible next steps, “I think what’s next is a financial protest. Just stop spending money in downtown Silver Spring. Anyone under the age of 25… We should just organize and have everyone under the age of 25 stop spending money in downtown Silver Spring. Let’s see what downtown Silver Spring looks like after that.”
This Saturday, December 4th from 1:00-4:00 PM at the Civic Building (One Veterans Plaza at Ellsworth and Fenton) there is a Youth Charette taking place to address the need for “dedicated youth space in or near downtown Silver Spring.” For more information visit http://silverspringskateboarding.blogspot.com/2010/12/banned-in-silver-springagain.html .