Vexing issues

The skate park is in the news again. The Commission is going to address it at a work session tonight, at 5:30. Now there are a couple things I see here. The commission is going to address and discuss. The public is welcome to comment. This is a opportunity to see what the commissioners identify as problems, solutions, and how they receive input from the public. I know there are other people out there who have opinions on the park.

This would also be an excellent opportunity for a civics lesson. Most of the people who will be affected by more regulation at the park are younger people.  They might be interested in attending, and seeing how the policy makers of the City view them, and their ideas, and what kinds of options are going to be pursued.

“Stebbins said the vandalism appeared to have been caused by five or six young toughs who other kids try to avoid.

“The kids know who they are and they’re all afraid of them,” Stebbins commented at a city agenda-setting meeting last week.”

There is a young fellow who commented some time ago on a Greaterfalls post about the park. He has commented several times more recently on the Tribune forums. He has repeatedly mentioned that the cameras do not seem to work, and the lights are not turned on at dark. I would think if those two things were addressed, the City might be able to identify “five or six young toughs” who would obviously now be caught on tape if they were, in fact, violating the rules or vandalizing the park.

Ed McKnight chimes in on the comments.”Parents of children at the park detest the idea of punishing their children for the criminal actions of a few.”
“There is a huge amount of community involvement in this town and all it would take is one volunteer to be on site and inform violators to stop or the police will be called.”

He urges us to use community involvement and show that our community can take care of itself before turning to authoritarian measures.

Mr. Steele concurs wholeheartedly with Mr. McKnight.  

But this guy is an ass. “If those kids can’t manage, take care of and patrol it themselves, then plow it under.” The average age of the typical skatepark user is around 11 years old.

“graffiti art contest” How nice, you mean hoodlum art right? Gimme me a break McNight. Stop coddling these creeps, you are beginning to sound as nambly pambly as our current group of commissioners. You want public hood art? Let them do it on the side of their parents house. Not on public property I’m paying for.”

This comment offends me. My son and his friends visit the skate park regularly. Some asshole arbitrarily paints him with the same brush as kids who go there to break the rules, and calls these kids, our kids, “creeps” because they share a public property with other kids who break the rules? And as for that public property, I am paying for it too, and I have probably expended far more time and effort researching things that can be done than this guy has.

I found this website in some of that research. This is a quote, you have to read down a ways to find all of it.

“Who is responsible for the kids? What if drugs are being done at the park?  What if the local residents complain about the noise of the kids? What about graffiti? What about loud music? What about late night skateboarding? What about insurance? What about accidents? All valid concerns that need to be addressed individually. But the one answer that seems to hold true for all questions is the involvement of, skateboard moms and dads. The average age of a skateboarder in the USA is 11 years old. I do not know any 11 year old who are involved in anything other than XBOX and just like with more traditional sports parents are involved. There are skateboard moms just like there are baseball, football, tennis, and soccer moms, (and dads). But mostly moms. Who do you think buys those $40 dollar skateboard decks and those helmets and pads. Who else but a mom would make sure Little Johnny wears his protective equipment?  Skateboard moms are going to make sure their little boy or girl  is happy, having fun and safe all at the same time. God bless anyone or anything that prevents that from happening. So, just like we have baseball and football bleachers we need more bleachers for the skateboard moms to help police our skateparks. What better Crime Watch program than that a mom with a cell phone?“ Emphasis added.

Here is a skatepark board.

Here is some art, and a couple good ideas/comments. “Part of their plan included having the artists on call to paint over illegal tagging within 24 hours, removing any incentive for tagging” “Most of the bikers and skaters appreciate it,” Nile says of the legal tagging at the skatepark. “They’d rather have that than a fence around it.”Many skateparks in England actually encourage graffiti, and promote this type of art is promoted as a community enhancer instead of a curse.

So all you skateboard moms and dads, and brothers and aunts, lets show up and let the City know, we are not ready to let the park die, to lose a free, healthy activity center for our kids for the crimes of a few. Some will put up graffiti. If not at the skatepark, then somewhere. They will all skate. We just have to decide where.

4 September 2007 | Life | Comments