Skating

Skateboarding Jonathan Garcia English 11A T1 Skateboarding, although it’s a very popular thing to do today, it is almost illegal everywhere. Not in the way that you will get arrested but you will be kicked out of anywhere you try to skate at. I see signs everywhere that say “No skateboarding” or “Skateboarders are prohibited”. Of course people say “Well the signs are up, but skaters still don’t obey them.” and that is true. Skaters do not obey these sign, mainly because there are no good places to skate at. Some cities or urban areas do not have skate parks so the skaters are forced to go miles away to another place that might have one. And even though there are skate parks around, they may not always be in good condition. Now property owners have the right to complain about damages that skaters have caused. There are of course skateboarders out there that ruin it for others. So I would propose two good ideas that can one, save property owners money that they spend on security guards that they hire to keep us out. And second help skateboarders get a better image in society rather than the one that the all mighty Hollywood has portrayed us to be. Which is as kids that always just skate and destroy. The first idea is to improve the condition the skate parks or actually build inside the city or urban area. That way skateboarders will not have to go all the way to another city to go to a skate park that probably sucks. Now I know that skate parks are not cheap. A good concrete park could cost more than what the city is willing to offer or donate. So instead of having the city pay for the whole park, the skaters and even the surrounding community can pitch in to help pay. They can hold fundraisers or even donate some money themselves. Okay, now the payments is not the only issue. There are skate parks here and there but they are not good enough to attract the attention of most skaters. So how can we fix this problem' Well, it’s simple. Just include the skateboarders’ opinion on how the skate park should look like. It is always best to include the people that will be using the complex instead of having people, which most likely have never stepped on a skateboard, come up with the design. Another idea is to reserve some land, which doesn’t have to be that big, and just let the skaters add to it. This will eliminate having to pay for an expensive skate park. This idea is also quite simple. Once the city has set aside the land, and course it would have to be suitable land, the skaters can add to it themselves. They can bring their own rails or boxes to skate on. And since it’s not in the complete jurisdiction of the city the skaters can save up money themselves and hire contractors to add other things. For example some stairs to do tricks down on, or maybe some ledges. Now concerned property owners of the surrounding area might be worried that things will get out of control or the place will look like a mess causing trouble for them. To calm them down and get their support with this idea there will of course be a set of rules that skaters will have to follow. One of them could be that we have to maintain the spot well organized and a respect the surrounding area. There is one professional skater that has already put that idea into practice. He has bought so far two parts of land in the Los Angeles area. His name is Rob Dyrdek, and he has a program called Safe Spot Skate Spot. In this program he works with the city and a certain sponsor to help him with the financial things. The first spot he got is now one of the best skate parks in the Los Angeles area. Rob has recently opened a new spot. This was sponsored by seven-eleven. What does have to do with anything that I am talk about' Well that’s just an example on how the plan about giving land to skateboarders can work out, without a lot of problems. It also shows that it can have a financial output for whoever decides to sponsor the area. They can set up billboards so people who are in the spot to can see. Just like in the Lafayette skate park in L.A. has a Carl’s Jr. star logo as a skate ledge. It’s still advertising but it is also not distracting so much that it would end up being taken down or ignored. So to help the community, the property owners, and the skaters, these ideas would be very helpful. Like I mentioned before the city and property owners do not have to invest a lot of money since they are not the ones that cause this problem. However, the skateboarders should not have to be the ones that come up with all the money. Even though its mostly the skateboarders fault that they get kicked out of mostly every place they skate at. But teamwork would best help these ideas become reality. For the skate parks, there can be fundraisers or donations to help pay for them. And the city can help by also helping with the payment. As for the sections of land that can be donated or bought, whichever works best, the skaters can put whatever they want into it. They can bring pieces they have or save up money themselves to hire contractors to build certain things. We can even work to try and get a sponsor and try to great our very own “Safe Spot Skate Spot”. At the same time this can help create a better view of skaters. Instead of seeing them as vandals that destroy property they can be seen as people that also want to work hard to get what they want whether it’s a skate park or a spot reserved for them.