If you travel to skateparks, as I do, it’s impossible to not notice the trend- younger and younger users are appearing in greater numbers. The prevalence of scooters is undeniable. Many scooter users begin their riding careers soon after they get solid on their feet as walkers.
If you travel to a city, it’s striking how many youth travel the sidewalks, often rolling alongside their parents pushing a sibling in a stroller. There are adult scooters too, and it wouldn’t be exaggeration to speak in terms of an army of scooters flooding a street.
To my way of thinking this represents a very hopeful development. And not just that scooters serve as gateway vehicles to bicycles and skateboards. Taken all together, it shows a demographic pushing away from reliance on cars, and embarking on a lifestyle that embraces human powered, and highly efficient modes of local transport.
Within the skatepark there are issues to iron out. Bikes, scooters, and boards take different lines on the same terrain. But overall it’s a lesson in tolerance and accommodation. Not crashing, practicing yielding, and paying attention to modes other than one’s own is a valuable skill, and very transferable.
It’s gratifying to see that our school grounds are prominent on the list of potential skatepark sites. The marriage of healthy lifestyle, and future green development is a community virtue that’s practically priceless. Having easy access to recreational outlets is a natural bridge between education and true empowerment.
Legislating skateboarding into a box canyon
One of the greatest flaws of American lawmaking is that too many lawmakers share a driving need to enact laws for everyone to protect us from ourselves.
In this country that incarcerates more of its young people than any other country, it shouldn’t be surprising that American political mindsets are more puritan than prudent. Neither, then, is it surprising that to this day our young folks still bear the brunt of overprotectiveness.
Indeed, we never got over the Plymouth Rock syndrome of heavy-handed moral laws and treating your populace as kids.
Spinoza is one who understands good compromise. He’ll need it to overcome the local impetus to legislate skateboarding into a box canyon.
I’ve not been very outspoken on this issue but I feel strongly that the view presented in the extract of Spinoza’s quote above is the only part of this issue I’d support: the freedom of youth and adults to integrate “sidewalk” skateboarding in their common locomotion.
Skateparks are fine. Boxing everyone into them is not.
Free Speech Zones
You are standing in a barricaded free speech zone while you write that, I assume. : )
Don't wear a fig-leaf
That’s an interesting comment about my “zone.” As outspoken as I am, most people know I’m not shy and that I do not require a protective barricade.
Neither do I wear a fig-leaf. 🙂
Why can't I edit my own comment?
I tried to edit my comment, which I’ve done before but cannot edit it now…so: I meant to include Spinoza’s quote that I’m referencing, which is:
“If you travel to a city, it’s striking how many youth travel the sidewalks, often rolling alongside their parents pushing a sibling in a stroller. There are adult scooters too, and it wouldn’t be exaggeration to speak in terms of an army of scooters flooding a street.”
Please
Please don’t confuse “green development” with developing our cherished neighborhood green areas shared by many who may not be seeking a certain sports activity but rather enjoy openness amongst the older trees even during the winter months or make that especially in the winter without tripping over the dormant obstacle of concrete.
"green development"
I was right with Spinoza until he slipped in the phrase, “future green development” to (inaccurately) describe concreting over previously green areas. Whatever one’s opinion on the best use of public parks, let’s at least use accurate language. Had plans for a skateboard park in Crowell Park have succeeded, it would have been highly inaccurate to describe covering over part of the park with concrete as, “green development.”
Until that point, I felt that Spinoza was making good sense about the use of all kinds of human-powered, wheeled locomotion. When I was a kid, no one would have dreamed of banning skating from public streets. We used to spend joyful hours skating on the blacktop in parking lots, and on the sidewalk. I do not understand the Town of Brattleboro making it illegal to skate on public streets, it makes no sense to me whatsoever.
Has there ever been a serious accident with a skateboarder hurting a pedestrian? I know of at least one instance of a bicycle hitting a pedestrian on the sidewalk, but we don’t ban bicycles. I am 68 years old, and due to some knee stiffness, I often walk with a cane, but I have no fear at all of skateboarders. The young people on skateboards have fast reaction times, good instincts, they are quite alert, and every one of them whom I have spoken with were friendly and good natured.
Slice or Hook?
Interesting point SK-B. I agree that language should be precise. Maybe I should have used the term, ‘carbon benign development’..or something on those lines.
It raises the question, if trees are cut to make way for a bike path, or a field converted for solar arrays, does your problem with my ‘green development’ label persist?
'green development
A phalanx of solar arrays at Crowell Park?
Depends
Are these familiar trees kids play under providing deep appreciated shade and who have earned their place over a long period of time, that people admire the presence of, identify with, have made an effort to protect and value still standing alive?, the answer is; it’s a (big) problem they are removed, cease to exist, and are sacrificed for concrete. Or are they just first generation scrub saplings and poison ivy trying to take over an under utilized area, not so much of a problem, not that poison ivy isn’t a problem.
I agree with Vidda in that responsible skaters should not be outlaws in our own community having a certain amount of freedom to travel within reason and it would be nice to have a place downtown they can congregate such as at a skate park to tune their skills and doesn’t require permanently turning over, exploiting and exchanging our valued green spaces.
The trend
Last time I was in NYC, every little kid seemed to have a scooter. They rode them down sidewalks, into the plentiful, paved pathways of parks, on playgrounds, and with parents.
They seem to be a bit sportier than, say, a bike with training wheels to the small riders, I’d imagine. A bit easier to control, too. They are lighter, take up less space, and one can jump off more easily in a panic.
Anyone else remember building scooters out of 2×4’s, old crates, and skate wheels? Come to think of it, we use to build all sorts of transportation devices as kids.
…
And, as I look outside today, four kids go by. Two on scooters with helmets, one on a bike, and one walking. All happy.
Paradigm Slide
As much as the passage from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age changed the world (weapons, wheels), we experienced the same radical shift when the Age of Plastics oozed forth.
Back in the day we made jalopies, go carts, scooters because the materials were at hand and the knack not lost. Now you’d have to be a card-holding antediluvian practically to bypass the knock-off version of something.
–
And just as the laws from age to age need revising, I agree with Vidda that we’re lumbering the Dark Age on this, and don’t seem to mind.
That really was my main point all along…That Education and Progress should roll forward together like hands and feet.
Scrap Plans for Skatepark - Change Mission of Committee
I really think instead of going through with a costly park, as well as displacement of longtime “green” areas, this town, the skateboard committee and the Selectboard should reexamine the skateboard issue to channel it as a basic right of the users to navigate and to provide education and provisions for safety and the Selectboard should overturn the current law.