In their desire to escape public criticism, skaters have searched for parks almost as long as they have owned skateboards.
The search is on for a skate park in the Twin Cities and we encourage city officials and teens to plan together.
Skateboarding is legitimate recreation. It’s not expensive so almost anyone can participate – if they have the patience and athleticism to develop the technical skills necessary to ride the board.
And, yet, skateboarding gets little respect from adults and some towns have banned skaters from downtown areas – day and night – to quiet complaints of noise.
Teens are going to skate. If they don’t have a designated place to do it they will take to the streets, not to annoy adults specifically, but because that’s the space available.
In Norway, skaters successfully lobbied the school district a couple of years ago to establish a park with set hours, set rules and safe cement. It wasn’t easy and it took years to accomplish, but these teens found sponsors, collected donations, designed the park themselves and made their dream come true.
Teens in Lewiston and Auburn want the same thing.
They want a park where they can skate without hassle. A place where they can gather and hone their skills without being chased off by police.
They should have it if they are willing to do the footwork to plan and pitch their ideas to city councils.
There are plenty of empty parking lots and underused green spaces that could be easily converted to permanent skating parks. Teens could get a place to gather and adults could get the teens off the sidewalks and streets.
California and Oregon are way ahead of the rest of the country in building public parks, probably because skateboarding originated in the west and is better accepted there.
Lewiston and Auburn, in establishing new public places and updating the city’s image, should look at park planning and incorporate a place for young people in the cities’ redesign.
Answering the recreation demands of young people will help keep them in Maine, enriching our communities and staffing our businesses. Skateboarding is growing in the young world of extreme sports and providing that recreational outlet for teens honors and acknowledges their importance in our communities.
Stealth lawmaking
Dirigo Health passed through committee Tuesday. The plan is so complicated and so compromised that the committee endorsement will likely sweep it through the House and Senate without scrutiny.
If there’s been a theme of Dirigo Health, it’s been “rush it through and keep it secret.”
On Tuesday night, before the committee vote, it took a forceful argument by three reporters to stop what had stretched into hours of secret negotiations. In previous weeks there have been many such closed-door meetings and lawmakers are unapologetic about slamming the door shut on constituents.
No matter what the Legislature decides to do with Dirigo, the secretive nature under which this law was drafted will forever shadow its intent. Dirigo may or may not be bad legislation. Time will tell.
What is bad is the way it was crafted and the willingness of lawmakers to seal themselves behind closed doors, locking out the public they are duty bound to serve.
jmeyer@sunjournal.com
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