Absolutely. You realise how ideological a lot of the push back for this stuff is too (especially here in the UK). If you'll indulge an old man his local story time...

Where I live now the council spent a lot of money regenerating a few local areas (shopping, transport, local attractions etc) and as part of it spent a few million quid on a building and a small handful of part-time underpaid staff to be a community hub for young people to use and events and activities to be put on for them.

It was two floors, with some outdoor space, on the edge of a park. It took a few months for word to spread, staff to advertise stuff etc, but after about six months it was pretty busy. Events, activities, or clubs four or five evenings or afternoons a week getting anywhere between 35 - 150 kids each time. Art clubs, homework clubs, dance lessons, anime clubs, mental health and family help sessions, and on and on. Pretty good for a low investment of grant money in a much larger project.

But local councillors decided it wasn't making enough money. Mostly because it didn't make any money, because that's the point. So they cleared out the majority of the bottom floor of activity and hangout space to install and then rent out a commercial cafe ran by a private corporation. The corporate tenant running the care pulled out after only 3 months because, as it turns out, a load of 10-16 year olds aren't a great market for £7 salads and £3 espressos. And not many passers by ventured into the unadvertised cafe inside a building that had spent its entire time and long build up being pitched as a community hub for under 18s. Especially when there's another cafe already in the park.

So now the council has actually spent a lot of non-grant non-free money to make the bottom floor an expensive, empty, unoccupied cafe while halving the amount of space for its intended purpose. Which of course all the lib-to-Tory councillors are using as a cudgel and making a big stink about it (despite the fact most of them voted for the cafe idea, I suspect cynically knowing how it would go).

But worse still, the downstairs they turned into a now empty, unopened cafe is the bit that's visible to the streets and the park for passers by. So all the events and clubs and activities happen upstairs. As a result I constantly hear people talking about how it's always empty, a waste of money, no one uses it etc. Hostile councillors are happily running with and reinforcing that sentiment to make the point that it was a waste of money to provide a space and programs for young people when they're not interested in using them.

I've rebuffed this frequently at council meetings and to local people, even citing the fact that due to the part time staff and reduced space they actually can't keep up with demand. And I know, because I know the person in charge of running and organising the events. But people aren't interested, they don't want to hear it. And I know that councillors have access to the reports and numbers that show consistent demand and success.

But people still don't care, doing the thought terminating thing of it's always looks empty. And it's because they don't want any services or activities for young people. Even if it makes anti-social behaviour worse, even if it increases crime, even if it means kids staying in a playing FIFA every night or hanging around on street corners, the same people who complain about that stuff prefer that over doing something for young people. Because they fucking hate young people. And the entire society encourages it because - no matter how liberal or offended by anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry or anti-immigrant sentiment you are - young people are the group you're allowed and encouraged to fucking hate.