Washington, PA, is our quiet town we all know, yet not everyone loves. Teenagers today seem torn on whether or not they love this town given the scarce amount of activities within the area. As it stands now, there aren’t many things to do or places to go aside from the Alpine Club Lanes, retail stores and Tanger Outlets.
The Washington Crown Center has been around since 1968 and was an extremely popular and lively place back in the day. Now, the mall is practically forgotten due to the outdated stores and run-down buildings. Many don’t even consider it a mall anymore. In addition to the lifeless mall, the only movie theater in Washington has permanently shut down, leaving residents to drive an average of 40 minutes just to get to the nearest theater.
Senior Ivy Zheng enjoys going on frequent outings in Washington and expresses what businesses she would like to see come to Washington.
“I wish there was an arcade or a big mall that is still lively. A movie theater would be nice, too, especially since the closest one is about 30 minutes away. Drive time influences where I go most of the time because many fun activities are far from Washington and driving takes a lot out of my mental battery,” Zheng expresses.
Students also believe new businesses would help the community as a whole. Teens can become more social and experience fun things to do, while businesses could benefit from a teenage audience.
Trinity High School Senior Lauren Bliss explains, “I think teens can gain more social skills, make new friends and get to know others from having new places to go. It would grow the community greatly, creating a wider spectrum of friendships within teens.”
Zheng describes the business aspect: “I feel like businesses could benefit a lot more from gearing activities toward teens because there’s a lot of school districts filled with students who are looking for activities to do or things to buy, but there’s not many places for people our age. Many teenagers just wander around retail stores and buy Crumbl Cookies or Starbucks, but there’s nothing that’s specially geared toward teens.”
Washington has recently added new businesses around town including 7 Brew and Panda Express. There are also plans to implement a Costco in South Strabane, which leaves many teenagers to wonder: How many grocery stores and fast food chains do we need?
Students and teens all around Washington must decide if they are content with far drives for fun activities or if they should continue to advocate for more activities to be added to this town.
