Benton Harbor, Mich. ? They gather in front yards, ride bicycles and walk the streets of this southwest Michigan town where young people have plenty of one thing: time on their hands.

Dante Allen is one of them. The 22-year-old has been looking for a job for weeks since returning to his native Benton Harbor from Atlanta, where he had worked in a grocery store bakery.

But jobs are scarce here. And with few summer recreation programs or facilities, even free time is difficult to fill in a city where nearly half the population is younger than 25.

“There’s nothing to do,” Allen says, sitting with a friend in the shade of a maple tree outside his family’s home. “We can’t even pull out a basketball rim on the curb without somebody getting mad.”

These are the same streets where rioting erupted two weeks ago after Terrance Shurn, a young black man, crashed his motorcycle while fleeing police from a neighboring township.

Dozens of people were injured and several houses were torched in a two-day melee that, on the surface, was about black youth protesting the actions of white police officers. But many of the predominantly black town’s residents say Shurn’s death was just the spark that ignited anger over a host of issues — poverty and unemployment among them.

“People just hit their boiling point,” says Dennis Sims, a black 24-year-old father of two who was laid off from his telemarketing job six weeks ago. “They just couldn’t take it no more.”

State Police helped patrol the city for a few days, and it has been quiet since. But Sims and others say it will take more than a visit from Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who came to town shortly after the riots and promised to help to solve deep-seated problems in Benton Harbor.

Here, according to the latest Census, nearly two-thirds of the housing is rental and the median household income is $17,471.

From left, Lutonya McDowell, 19, Deyontae Philips, 17, Brandon Byrd, 18 and Carvail Miles, 22, sit on their front stoop in Benton Harbor, Mich., where there are few summer recreation programs or facilities. Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Friday announced the appointment of a task force to examine the underlying issues that fueled the riots that erupted here two weeks ago after Terrance Shurn, a young black man, crashed his motorcycle while fleeing police from a neighboring township.

Most young people in Benton Harbor don’t condone the violence. But given the national attention it drew, 14-year-old Dennis Davis has come to a conclusion.

“I guess that’s what it takes to get people to notice us — to do something that’s not right,” he says, standing with a group of friends.

Granholm on Friday announced the appointment of a task force to examine the underlying issues that fueled the riots and to make recommendations for helping the city, such as adding after-school activities and job training and improving police-community relations. Next week, the state plans to announce funding for summer jobs in the town.

“I just don’t think she’ll do it,” says Khrystoffer King, 14. “She just came here to calm things down.”