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<p>Does anyone still cruise anymore?</p><p>I did during the late 1980s, first in my beat up silver 1977 Toyota Celica and later in my blessed 1985 Ford Mustang LX equipped with an aftermarket Pioneer cassette stereo and amplifier. My cars had to be two doors as I believed four-door vehicles were for older people with kids.</p><p>Round and round we went around Public Square in Wilkes-Barre, across the Market Street Bridge into Kingston, Wyoming Avenue, Northampton Street and through Kirby Park only to return to Public Square to do it all over again.</p><p>There were more friends in my car than seat belts blasting Metallica, RUSH, Tom Petty and Guns and Roses on cassette tapes.</p><p>Most of the time, it took nearly one hour to drive around Public Square as it was jammed with other teen cruisers. It was a highlight to stop at a traffic signal next to a vehicle packed with teen girls. I&#8217;m sure there was a marriage or two as a result of traffic light hook-ups.</p><p>I was a scofflaw teen in the late 1980s joining hundreds of other scofflaw teens ignoring Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s cruising ordinance.</p><p>City council in September 1986 (two years before I obtained my driver&#8217;s license) passed the anti-cruising ordinance, a selective law that targeted teen drivers, making it illegal to pass a certain point three times within one hour or six times in three hours. Debate on the cruising ordinance included older people from searching out prostitutes.</p><p>&#8220;Something&#8217;s got to be done. We&#8217;re getting an awful lot of complaints from people,&#8221; said council Chairman Lee Namey in a Times Leader story about the ordinance published Aug. 13, 1986.</p><p>&#8220;Throughout the summer, teenagers in cars flock to and circle Public Square. On Friday and Saturday nights, the cars typically jam the square, backing up center city traffic,&#8221; the story reported.</p><p>&#8220;You can&#8217;t get into the city,&#8221; councilman Jack Jones said in the story.</p><p>Signs were posted along each entrance to Public Square and along South Main and South Franklin streets in December 1986.</p><p>&#8220;With the installation of signs Tuesday, the city made it official <em>and</em> enforceable - it&#8217;s illegal to &#8216;cruise&#8217; on Public Square,&#8221; the Times Leader reported Dec. 4, 1986.</p><p>A first offense of the ordinance levied a $25 fine, $50 for a second offense and $200 for each subsequent offense.</p><p>&#8220;While the police do not intend to take any special measures to crack down on cruisers, they will arrest and cite violators when they are spotted,&#8221; a police watch commander told the Times Leader for the Dec. 4, 1986 story.</p><p>The story reported cruisers were threatened with being arrested? Seriously?</p><p>Almost as soon as the city erected those &#8220;It is illegal to cruise&#8221; signs on Public Square, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation ordered the signs down as Public Square is a state owned roadway.</p><p>After six months of legal haggling, PennDOT in June 1987 determined the city could enforce the anti-cruising ordinance. Signs went back up.</p><p>&#8220;Police wasted no time in enforcing the city&#8217;s re-born anti-cruising ordinance. Two youths were cited by city police for cruising around Public Square,&#8221; the Times Leader reported June 27, 1987.</p><p>The city&#8217;s anti-cruising ordinance remains on the books but it&#8217;s highly being non-enforced due to the lack of cruising teens.</p><p>For me, being much older, somewhat wiser and on cold mornings, slower, than I used to be (I can still run the 40 in 4.9 seconds), I&#8217;d rather stay home with my dogs on Friday and Saturday nights. But I&#8217;m still a Rebel Without a Cause blasting Rush, Tom Petty and Metallica whenever I drive my, <em>ahem</em>, four-door sport-utility vehicle.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/web1_Cruising-sign-TL-12041986.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Picture published in the Times Leader Dec. 4, 1986 </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/web1_Cruising-sign-TL-12041986.jpg</photo0><caption0>Picture published in the Times Leader Dec. 4, 1986 </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Ed Lewis</p><p>elewis@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div>

Look Back: Wilkes-Barre council take on cruisers in 1980s