Last week a group of 8 of my son's friends were issued tickets for skateboarding. I was told that these boys will now have to go to court and pay a fine. Although my boys were not ticketed I am really outraged at this. I mean seriously? I know all of these kids and they are all good people, do well in school,are very polite, and don't commit crimes, yet is seems to me that they are now being turned into criminals for skateboarding?
It is understandable, and I agree, that business owners dont want them skating on their property, and that behavior that clearly damages property or poses a safety hazard is inappropriate and should be outlawed, but prohibiting skateboarding in so many areas seems unfair to the kids that live on the "old side" of Belle Plaine. These kids skate to get around town-to school, to their friends houses, and to the skatepark. Are they supposed to walk carrying their skateboards for the fear of getting ticketed? Rather than making skateboarding illegal in so many areas, only RECKLESS skateboarding should be prohibited.
People's opinions on skateboarders in general are not positive and this is unfair. They see a group of kids wearing baggy clothes with long hair and immediately the word "hoodlum" pops into their heads. Why is assumed that most skateboarders are heathens and juvenile delinquents? These boys are not hanging out in the park doing drugs, smoking, or vandalizing property, they are practicing their sport. Alot of them are sponsered by skateboarding companies or working on getting sponsered. They compete in various competitions throughout the state and dream of being in the "X-games". We should all look at skateboarding as a sport, just as we would football or baseball in which you can practice at any park in town no questions asked. These sports come with a possibility of property damage and injury, but people who are ignorant to the sport of skateboarding feel these activities add to the goodness of the community while skateboarding diminishes its value.
Having one place in this growing town that allows skateboarders to practice their sport is unfair, not everyone lives on the other side of the highway, and not all parents are comfortable having their kids go 2 miles away from home to the skatepark using the highway underpass. There should be some other place in town besides in my driveway that the skaters of this town should be able to skate. If we as taxpayers are going to pay for another ice skating rink and warming house on the other side of the highway that will only be utilized 3 months of the year, it only seems fair that another skatepark be built for these skaters on the old side of Belle Plaine that could be used 9 months a year.
