Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Skateboarding is not a crime... well maybe

At 7:00 this Thursday, East Hills is hosting a community meeting about a proposed skate park nearby. This is not a religious event, and the church has no position on the park. But it will be our neighbor if it gets built, so there is nothing wrong with EHA attenders showing up to give their two cents. Because of work, I will not be there. Fortunately though, I have a blog, so I can spew my two cents at any time whatsoever.

Personally, my little contact with local skateboarders has made me think their unwholesomeness is very exaggerated. I spent several hours at a skate park in Longview to practice action photography, and I was impressed. Although they were unsupervised, the only bad behavior I ever saw was the occasional underage smoking, and they seemed to get along with each other well. And they were certainly more polite about having their pictures taken than a lot of respectable adults and downtown businesses! Add in the ministry opportunity they represent, and I suggest they would do us more good than harm.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you think a skateboard park at Rotary Park would increase or decrease the number of skateboarders who use our back parking lot as their own private practice zone? I don't think we have all that many now, but our sloping asphalt has been pretty attractive to a few kids. Ann

Anonymous said...

After attending last night's meeting I was impressed that the kids who spoke in favor of the park had better manners and used more appropriate language than some of the adults. They seemed like nice kids, not deranged drug dealing vandals. Ann.

Anonymous said...

I don't believe it is the kids who will be the problem, but rather a problem protecting them. There are drug deals weekly where the road from Minor Road to Allen St. meets Burcham St. There are more deals one block away...the police are spying almost daily on one now.

Also, parents picking the kids up will clog that same area, as I doubt they will take time to park at the parking lot and walk to the fenced area after their busy day at work, and the freeway noise factors in if one tries to call their kid's name.