BOSTON GLOBE - By Christine McConville, Globe Staff, 10/30/2003

LOWELL - Hoods up to buffer the cold, the two young men walked down Merrimack Street with high hopes and fistfuls of fliers.

Sovannaro Oum and Josue Coloma had just left a bustling youth center, where video technicians were taping cords to the gym floor and sound engineers were tap-tap-tapping on the microphones last Wednesday afternoon. That night, the center was hosting its first-ever candidates night, and eight city councilors and their seven challengers were scheduled to show up.

Lining up the politicians less than two weeks before the Nov. 4 election wasn't difficult, but convincing teens to attend the event was.

"A lot of kids aren't interested in politics," said Oum, 18, making his way past the city's sandwich shops and cellular phone stores. "A lot of teenagers don't know what's going on."

And many of those who do keep up with current events think the councilors can't relate to the issues facing teens, he noted. "They are all rich lawyers," Oum said in describing how many teenagers view local politicians.

Four of the nine current councilors are lawyers, and only one, Rithy Uong, is a minority. But some of the challengers in this race are trying to change that. So out on the streets, Oum and Coloma have crafted a different approach to draw a crowd to the forum.

"We ask them if they have a moment, and then we talk to them about what they
want changed in the city," Oum said.

When teens say they want cleaner canals and parks and better treatment from the police, they get a flier. When they say they want buses that run later into the night and quicker cleanup of horse dung from the city's mounted patrols, they get a primer in local politics.

With budget cuts, "we lost a lot of summer jobs here, too, so there's nowhere for kids to go in the summer and no money to be made for clothes and stuff," said Coloma, 17.

Here in the state's fourth-largest city, 47,048 people -- a little less than half the city's 105,167 residents -- are registered to vote. While senior citizens have been one of the city's most powerful voting blocs, the United Teen Equality Center is hoping to change that by tapping into the city's younger crowd. Lowell has 17,003 residents between the ages of 15 and 24, and 11,323 age 65 and older.

"Basically, a little over 30 percent of the total population is youth under 19," Gregg Croteau, the youth center's executive director, explained in a recent e-mail. "Youth between 15 and 24 represent 16.2 percent of the population. Those 65 and over are 10.8 percent of the total population. . . . Pretty interesting stats when you think about young people as a potential political power."

Four years ago, Croteau established the teen center in downtown Lowell. Housed in a vacant church next to the high school, the center serves as a drop-in spot for all types of teens. On any weekend afternoon, some are playing a fast-paced game of pickup basketball, while others are toiling on computers. The walls in the hallways are cluttered with posters and brochures, spelling out the dangers of drug abuse and the importance of self-esteem.

Now Croteau and his staff are embarking on their next step: encouraging teens to harness their political power to bring about change. And they appear to be making progress.

After going door-to-door this past summer, Oum, Coloma, and others registered 150 people to vote. Then they organized last week's candidates debate.

"We really wanted the councilors to know that [the center] is committed to working with them to make changes in the community," Croteau said.

The forum was a success, he believed, "because we took one more step forward in helping to build up young people as a political power in the city."

"In general, a lot of them don't see the relevance of it, but when politics affects you, whether it's budget cuts at the center or bus schedules, then . . ." he said, his words trailing off. After the forum, longtime City Councilor Armand Mercier said the effort to involve teenagers in the political process may not be as difficult as it seems.

"What they want is the same as everyone else wants," he said of the teens' requests.

Out on the street, Oum and Coloma encountered a few blank stares before they met Kayla Diaz, a 15-year-old Lowell High student who nodded as they made their pitch. Then she told them, "I'd like to go and see, and I'm going to tell my mom and her friends, too."

A few hours later, Diaz was sitting among rows of folded chairs in the converted gym. She was among the 200 people of all ages who showed up. And when the teenage MCs took over the microphone, the city's most unconventional candidates night quickly became the city's most successful candidates night.

"Tonight it is our youth making a difference," said Lowell Mayor Rita Mercier, whose term is coming to an end but who is running again for city councilor. Mercier, like the other candidates, chose to deliver an inspirational message instead of her usual political platform. "It's not easy being mayor, and it wasn't easy getting here, but I made a goal. You can, too, if you set your mind to it," she told the crowd.

Darius Mitchell, a 29-year-old college student who hopes to become the first African-American city councilor, was quoting the rapper Nas when he told the audience, "I know I can be what I want to be."

Later in the forum, the teens asked some of the pointed questions that they had prepared in advance. They wanted to know what the councilors and challengers thought about Cambridge's move to lower the voting age to 17 for local elections, about changing the city bus schedule to offer service later in the night, and about creating initiatives for more jobs for teens.

The candidates promised to look into longer bus hours and job initiatives. They also said they supported the younger voting age in local elections.

Then it was back to the inspirational messages. As longtime City Councilor Eileen Donoghue told them, "If you get involved, you can make a difference."

After the session, Croteau echoed that sentiment.

"We are trying to start a movement where young people get involved in politics," he said.

He already had a convert in Rothy Soun, a 22-year-old student at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. Soun, who attended the forum because it was a class requirement, found it more interesting than he had expected.

"I'm intrigued," he said. He wasn't registered to vote but said he planned to tell his voting friends about what he had heard.

Christine McConville's e-mail is cmcconville@globe.com.

© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.