Brookings needs more places

Sarai Medina

April 4, 2024

Brookings is a small town with very few things to do. You can’t hangout with your friends anywhere, there are no theme parks, skating places, nor trampoline parks near. There are barely any options for going out for lunch and dinner as well.

People here in Brookings need more restaurants because there are very few options. For going out to eat, there are only seafood restaurants, Mexican restaurants, a Burger King, a McDonalds, a KFC, and 4 pizza places. 

“There’s not much for teenagers to do so most of the time, so they just walk around town,” said Bailey Stover

When Brookings does get new fun places to hangout or stores to go shopping, it only lasts for a short while. For example, the skating rink shut down in Harbor awhile ago. The same thing happened to a Nutrition Drinks place in Harbor. That one didn't last more than a year as well.

The only fun places to visit here are the beaches and rivers, but the problem is that we always have bad weather in Brookings. The annual high temperature is 62 degrees Fahrenheit and the annual low temperature is 46 Fahrenheit.  It's always cold, rainy and cloudy. 

In the Summer, when we get weather above 61 degrees, it's the only chance we get to have fun-- when we have beautiful sunny days.

When people want to do something fun with their families or friends, besides going to the beach, they’d have to drive 2 or more hours to get to a town with fun places, like Medford, Eureka, Grants pass, North Bend, or Portland.

All those places have fun things to do that Brookings doesn't. They have trampoline parks, malls, more restaurants, and tons more options for clothing stores. They especially have more fun places for teens to hangout in.

We also need more shopping places. If you live in Brookings, you know it's hard looking for clothes. There are no malls, clothing stores. The closest place with a mall is about 1 hour and a half.

In an interview with Bailey Stover, a Freshman in Brookings Harbor High School, she was asked her about her thoughts on town. She thinks that Brookings needs more places for her friends to hang out outside. 

“There are no places to hangout,” Stover said. She feels like there's nothing else to do as well. When kids don't have anything to do, they prefer to be on their devices instead.

Being on devices can cause a lot of  problems for their mental health. Teenagers can also stress out that there's nothing to do, which can also lead to a problem with their health, like for example, depression.

Depression is real, it can get to anybody that has nothing to do in their daily life. Depression can lead to alot of  bad things like, suicide, feeling upset all the time, not sleeping enough, and  having  a lack of feeling to do anything.

People should open new stores and more fun places in the future so this town could be exciting and fun! People wouldn't have to be traveling to other places for shopping for clothes and foods that we don't have right now, nor driving hours away to have fun with friends and family.

Photo Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brookings_Harbor_%28Brookings,_Oregon%29.jpg