Skateparks: PROs and CONs

Reasons to have a skatepark

• No unsightly, timid, complacent, pale, politically correct citizens to deal with.
• Depending on what your type of terrain is, if it's built from your input then it rules (provided you get real updates)
• Unfortunately for some purists, as the number of pro models encreases year after year, the contest scene will get more and more important as time goes by. Experience on all kinds of transitions helps would-be contest ragers a lot. May even provide some of you beginners out there with a fulfilling job some day.
• If there's a food area, pool tables, viewing area, etc., then you've got a regular hang-out on your hands. Some of you more hormone-enslaved skaters might even meet the hook-up of your dreams at a well designed park.
• Notwithstanding the above, my idea of a park is something either out in the country or in the desert, away from the diorama we call society. So that can be a heaven too.

Reasons NOT to have said skatepark

• Most people at a beginner/intermediate level think not in terms of lines, but in line-ups. I don't know how those signals got crossed, but running into someone waiting in line or even being forced to become the snake are not my idea of fun. Especially if I'm paying to skate
• Paying? Did someone mention paying? As if! I'm already paying all kinds of income taxes. One more tax, especially on skateboarding, is not the solution. Especially if the streets are free. The day I pay to skate is the day they actually offer something that was impossible for me to find in the public domain.
• On the other hand, a public park is usually an insurance nightmare, and public officials are notoriusly less adept at working around such difficulties (exception- Benecia public "ampitheatre") I'll definitely wear pads if I ever rode vertical, but I don't feel I need all that gear to safely navigate a PVC bench or mellow pyramid hip.
• A plywood park with bad maintainance and/or obstacle refreshment (in case of a street course) will soon a defunct park be.
• Which leads me to an important reason I skate--- *freedom*!!! Skating in a closed space is not my idea of freedom, although when I'm in a contest, that's almost always the case; a confined space.
• But, one might say, aren't you being a little unfair to those who actually chose ramps to skate? I respond, the DYI ethic is the best way. Ever heard of something called the Burnside Project?
• Remember, if there is any kind of alternative to skater owned ramps and public streets (as well as backyard pools and desert pipes), the very existence of such an option would strengthen the authorities' position on free skating. Especially skating so close to the average pedestrian/car dependent I mentioned above. Because the argument "where else we gonna do it?" just doesn't ring quite as loud to the Man with even a low calibre public excuse for a park in city limits.
• If the park is *too* successful as a hang-out it can all too often become a haven for the weak minded jellyfish we call Cliquers. Cliquers are amazing and fascinating enough of a species to warrant a whole post-secondary academic *journal* on the topic. Their mating habits, call, rituals and even multi-staffed predatory to prey ratios are truly a wonder to behold. If this message wasn't about something intelligent they might even get more of my attention then they've already gotten. Bottom line- kids/beginners can't stand this, and negative vibes from skater to skater have caused more bitter ex-skaters and irate voting-age parents then anything else has.

Call me a bitter old man if you will and can't vote yet, but I myself gave up the idea of trying to institutionalize my art/sport years ago. As more and more mainstreamers hop on the bandwagon, I pessimistically believe they'll do good enough damage themselves. (I still have faith in the Visalia Y though).