REAL SKATEBOARDS
Talking ED
PUBLIC PARKING I'm not sorry for lambasting the
city of Davis, California, last month for the way they handled the opening
of their public skateboard park. What pissed me off was how they dangled
the new cement playground in front of the skaters, then took it away for
two months while waiting to put up a fence. Meanwhile, cops gave tickets
to the skaters who couldn't wait and brazenly took to the fresh 'crete
laying before them. Now, many kids in Davis and outlying Central Valley
towns have criminal records to help them down the road of life.
Of course, since the park was open to the public on 4/4/92, all has been
forgotten. Opening day sessions had all the Northern California boys in
attendance, launching airs over the hips and grinding feverishly on the
metal edged bowls and rails. Others were appreciative just to have such a
place to skate and slam at. Davis mayor, Maynard Skinner was there, all
smiles, even as he pointed out the Stop Skateboard Rapists" graffiti lett
over from when a lady accused skaters of rape, then recanted. So the
park is a little payback that seems to be working. Northern California has
emerged as the public cement skate facility capital of the western world
with five parks in use: HP Dish in SF, Derby in Santa Cruz, Benicia, Palo
Alto and now Davis.
So, on that high note, can I get out of this column without vibing some-
one or something? No way. For some reason whoever makes these parks
keeps coming up with the same useless skinny "snake run" design. That
idea for skateparks was beat when the surfers made them in the seven-
ties, and it kept skateboarding in the dark ages for a long time. We don't
need narrow drainage ditches without flat bottom. At Davis park, skaters
ollied clean over the unrideable runs. Even though skaters are included in
discussions about park designs, apparently nobody listens to them before
the final plans are troweled in concrete. Any city planner of a skatepark
will do skaters a big service by not listening to non-skating types. Listen to
the people who will skate it. Or, like Nels Grevstad said about his own
aborted park project in Seattle (story on page 16). "The best skatepark a
city could give to its skaters would be a piece of land with nothing on it."
Kevin J. Thatcher
The public facility in Davis, California, looks nice, but at what price?
First, skaters were threatened and harassed after being accused in a fabricated
rape. Then, they were arrested and fined for skating an unfinished facility.
Thanks for the park anyways Davis, it's the thought that counts.
TIRAMEN
PUBLISHER
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EDITOR
Kevin J. Thatcher
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