Apparently skateboarding IS a crime

Having spent many years of my youth in a Jersey shore town, I've never ceased to be amazed at the asinine laws and regulations they pass during the off-season. They complain things like kids on skateboards are bad for tourism, yet turn a blind-eye to the thousands of drunk and disorderly assholes that invade towns like Wildwood and Seaside heights every year, simply because they infuse millions of dollars in cash to the local economy. Well then, by that rational, why don't they do something to turn the potential these areas have to be a skating hot spot, into real gains?..one has to look no further than LOVE Park here in Philadelphia and that opportunity to see how a jerk-off mayor and moronic city council have squandered one of the best money making and tourist attacting sites the city has ever known.

Oh man...where do I start?

Well, to start, the problem is that if they have enough votes, it can be legal. It certainly isn't right, and reaffirms my belief that youth are certainly just numbers in the majority of lawmakers' eyes.

At the same time, I find that things like this are the result of indifference from all sides. A warning beforehand, I realize that I will be making generalizations here, so please don't take these statements word for word. They're simply examples to make a point.

Joe Citizen, a 30 year old blue collar worker, isn't interested in promoting positive activities for the youth that he's been so far removed from. Why should he? 'Parents aren't willing to take responsibility for their kids, why should the burden of parenting be left to society, to me?' says he.

Angsty McAngst, a 15 year old kid just getting into high school, will grow up with fewer and fewer positive influences, because no one's willing to speak up for him. And he will find out more and more that he really doesn't matter. By the time he is old enough to make a difference, he's grown so indifferent to it that it's hard for HIM to remember what it was like.

Oldie McSenility, a 68 year old member of the state legislature came from a different time. For better or for worse, that's not for us to decide, but the point is things are different than when he was younger. To him, those damn skateboarders are a nuisance, and honestly, why should he think otherwise? He doesn't understand something like skateboarding, and he has little reason to. Those involved are either too young or too indifferent to vote, the precious votes that can keep him in office. So the cycle continues...

I somewhat expect to be torn apart for this, but...we'll wait and see.

[Edited on Nov 22, 2003 by rockepidemic]

Well it's a tourist town do ya want sum dumbass kid popping a tourist in the shin with his skateboard or worse scaring off money I think not.

Skateboards are a accessory like handbags not everybody who own's one knows how to use one like Tony Hawk should gramps pay the price for a trend?

Beaches are zoned off doing the day, breaks are stolen for tourist ( money, money, money ) it sux but the town has to make money too that's how I see it.

[Edited on Nov 26, 2003 by fiendish]

You're assuming someone will get hit, which is a possibility, but what's to say they won't get hit by a bike? Or a jogger paying more attention to his radio than the road? Or a car? I could easily substitute cars for skateboards in your statement, because they aren't required to live, they're a convienence. An accessory to life. And we know damn well not everyone who owns a car knows how to use it. Just because the potential is there doesn't mean it's going to happen.

If a serial killer with a propensity for beating people to death with baseball bats goes through the area, are they going to hold baseball bats responsible and ban them? Same logic. A dumbass kid is going to be a dumbass kid, whether he's on a skateboard, on a bike, on a bus, or behind the wheel of a car. We need to hold individuals responsible.

Why should an entire group suffer because 'gramps' is inconvienenced by something he has no knowledge of, and wants to hold the actions of a few against many?

We've got the same attitude where I live fiendish.They banned skateboarding in the downtown core about 10 years ago because city council felt skateboarders were a nuiscance and a hazard to the tourists and elderly.
The thing that pissed me off was that they wouldn't support the building of a skate park even though the local skate community got together and raised the funds themselves.One was finally opened in one of the outer communities and ,shockingly enough,the world didn't end.
The city is a little more supportive these days in regards to building skateparks but you can be sure they are tucked away out of site of the tourists.