Only five times does his camera stray from the kids. Once is when two Korean storekeepers try to deal with the kids, who are stealing from them. Once is where a wide-eyed little girl is given a peach by Casper, and throws it away. Once is when Telly briefly visits his apartment, talks to his uncomprehending mother, and steals some money from her. Once is when the kids are on a subway train, and a legless beggar wheels himself through the compartment.
Skateboards provide the way the kids move around town.
They gather in Washington Square Park, dope is bought and sold, sexual conquests are related, and they beat up another kid so brutally that he could have been killed. They are color-blind, or perhaps it is more accurate to say they comprise a race of their own. It doesn't tell us what it means. But safe sex is not going to civilize these kids, make them into curious, capable citizens. What you realize, thinking about Telly, is that life has given him nothing that interests him, except for sex, drugs and skateboards.