To: Redondo Beach Mayor Michael A. Gin
Mr. Mayor,
My name is Stu Mark and I am a resident of Redondo Beach, where I live with my wife, my ten year-old daughter, and my fourteen year-old son. Our family loves Redondo Beach, we're big fans.
As you are aware, Manhattan Beach has just adopted Ordinance 2091, which prohibits luge and destructive skateboarding. While Luge boarding is seen by reasonable people as dangerous and worthy of the consideration of a prohibition, criminalizing "destructive" skateboarding is highly questionable. It attacks a class of people as an exercise in vanity. Certainly no one would suggest that skateboarding doesn't weather curbs, benches, etc. But to criminalize it with such focus is a naked attempt to further the desires of the wealthy, sacrificing the culture of those of lesser fortune.
Please, Mr. Mayor, take a proactive stance to protect the skateboard culture in Redondo Beach. Do not consider any legislative action that would limit skaters in the way Manhattan Beach has. There are positive alternate steps available to protect both skaters and the community that they effect.
For example, instead of prohibiting skating, consider creating a tax on skateboard purchases, with the revenue earmarked for fixing skateboard damage. Consider enhancing Perry Park to better serve the skating community, adding grind rails, ramps, etc. There is much we can do to protect our young people from the alternatives of gangs and drugs and serious crime. Skateboarders are not criminals, they are athletes with style.
I do not have any fiscal connection to the skateboarding community, but in full disclosure, my son skates. As such, I am witness to the skating community and their culture. They are, for the most part, young people who are socially responsible, sensitive, and caring of others. They support each other, are respectful, polite, and willing to make efforts to help others, skaters and non-skaters alike. As many skaters are teenagers, this behavior is remarkable, and should be praised and protected and nurtured. As they are not old enough to vote, they deserve even more consideration and support.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Stu Mark
**UPDATE**
Here is the text of the ordinance:
"...it shall be prohibited throughout the City, whether on public or private property, for any person to ride or propel a skateboard in a luge, prone, or seated position or ride or propel a skateboard in such a way as to make contact with a planter, retaining wall, wall, railing, or decorative architectural feature of any kind."
Cars drive through this same city, spewing fumes that causes respiratory illness. According to the September 5th memo by the chief of police for Manhattan Beach (which lays out the ordinance), skateboards cause "scuff marks and paint damage". Gasoline-powered cars are not prohibited from continuing to cause illness and death, but skateboards are prohibited from causing scuff marks and paint damage. Ok.
8 Comments:
I particularly like the "... not criminals, they are athletes with style" line.
Stu, I admire anyone who takes the time to try and become part of what happens politically, even if I don't agree with them. Of course, I do agree with you here. Good job!
Thanks Sully, I appreciate the compliment.
I am focused on this, not just because of my kids, but all the kids who need to feel like they belong.
Also, I am baffled by the concept of creating legislation specific to the damage created by skateboards. Isn't vandalism already a crime? Isn't destruction of property already a crime? Why single out skateboarding? What about bicycle damage? Dolts!
Mr. Fabulous,
Skateboarding has such a reputation because skaters are out of step (pardon the pun) with conservative society. Conservative society are the ones who create negative myths. This is why I am a progressive (liberal), because we have a tendency to celebrate diversity, not see it as a weak link in the chain.
Thimbelle,
Thanks for the good wishes.
We have a few skateparks in the surrounding area, but not near enough. Also, in the South Bay (lower Los Angeles County), skateboarding is wildly popular. In order to prevent kids from doing tricks off of walls or railings or whatever, you'd have to have a skatepark every two blocks. As that is impractical, one would think society would yield to the prevailing culture, just as pedestrians need to yield to the prevailing culture of automobile drivers.
And, to be clear, the police aren't getting complaints of chewed up curbs so much as chewed up decorative items (planters, walls, railings). These are items that only skaters damage. Oh, except that isn't true, as bmx bicycles also do tricks off of these surfaces. So maybe there will be a new law in Manhattan Beach that makes "destructive bicycling" illegal as well. We'll see.
welcome to the nanny state. it makes me sick. around here, in addition to watching your every move with cameras, they've passed enough "because it's good for you" legislation that it is impossible to be a completely law abiding citizen.
i do not have children, so this is an observer's perspective but from where i'm standing, i am not really surprised that more children go postal now than they did when i was young. society today seems to be doing its utmost to control every second of their time and every motion of their behavior. maybe that's not what this new law is and my conspiracy-theorist tendancies are just in full swing, but i hope you're successful in your quest!
Ericka,
Absolutely! I hear ya.
I don't think it is far-fetched to consider things that way, to see that control is at the heart of it. People in Los Angeles want to control every single bit of their lives. Don't skate on my wall, don't park your RV near my house, don't smoke on my beach.
Hell, a neighbor of mine actually had the chutzpah to ask me to take down our holiday lights because it was February and holiday lights are just for the holidays, not every day. I tried to explain to her that my wife and kids loved them (they were wrapped around the trunk and large branches of the large pepper tree in our front yard). However, she politely stood impassive and I yielded.
My choice for the word for 2007 is "acceptance". Tolerance just won't cut it, I'm pushing for Acceptance.
and there, my friend, is a major difference between us. in the interest of harmony with your neighbors, you took the lights down. i would have added more, possibly set to music...
"don't smoke on my beach" you're kidding me!?! right, 'cause your air quality is so great that the smoke will make any difference. *eye roll*
ooh, maybe you can provide an answer for me. i lived in california for several months, including one holiday season. why do so many people wrap the trunks of the palm trees with aluminum foil? and then attach red things to it? i've never understood what look they were going for.
Ericka,
I want to be that way. I wanted to tell her to go fornicate herself with an iron bar. But I have a wife and kids to look after and I know that these kinds of confrontations lead to serious unpleasantries. It wasn't like she asked me to take down my mezuzah.
Yes, it is now illegal to smoke on most of our local beaches. The air quality argument aside (you're right on, by the way), I think the physics of it bear investigation. Is there really a chance that the smoke from my wife's cigarette will, in any significant way, find its way into the lungs of the person on the blanket next to me?
As for the tinfoil tree tip, I don't know the origin, but my guess is that it makes the tree look like a present, and tin foil makes for some shiny wrapping paper.
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