LeftHander

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Thu Feb-10-05 12:11 PM
Original message

I went up against the NIMBY types last night....

Edited on Thu Feb-10-05 12:13 PM by LeftHander

At our local planning commission meeting on the agenda was a motion to extend or revoke the conditional use permit for my neighborhood's small skatepark.

I skateboard (at 42) and so does my daughter. the neighbors around the park have for a longtime lived next to this aging inner city park that was for the most part empty and under used.

They fought the skatepark from day one with all the narrow mindedness, discrimination and selfishness they could muster. Five alder people from the city spoke out in favor of having the park removed or moved to a remote location. 2 1/4 pipes and a fun box is what these people are all bent out of shape about.

Their complaints are foul language and litter. Oh my imagine that from an inner city park.

One by one the aldermen presented their broken, stammering, arguments with little logic or reason.

They lumped all the skaters into one group and one called them "rotten brats". These people have tried time and time again to stop any alternative sports. They are narrow minded and selfish and I called them on it.

I was the first from the audience to speak after hearing nothing but negativity and attacks on the youth, I told them the good that park does. First in providing our young teens the facility to practice this very difficult sport and for recognizing that the 12-15 year olds are part of our community too. I shamed the opposition for singling out these young people. I told them I know many of these kids and yes some have issues. One kid's mom is sick and he works in a pizza place near his home so he can buy boards and bring pizza's home for him and his brother to eat because their mother is sometimes in capable to doing so. His sport is skateboarding and he live two blocks form the park.

I said if not for the park my daughter would not have embraced babysitting as much as she does. She raises her own money to buy decks and to pay for skateboard camp in the summer. She has gained a ton of self confidence because of this park. There are businesses that benefit form kids buying food and soda all summer long within a block of the park. There is a skateshop that operates and is in business because of these kids.

I then held up a zine I made of the skaters at the park and around the area. I said these kids in this park are 12-16 years old as the grow older they move on to other places and frequent the park less. So these "kids" you talk about are basically a new group nearly every two years. I pointed at one picture in the magazine to a young man now serving in Iraq. I said "this kid here is now in Iraq he's a marine and he's a skater. Has anyone here taken the time to know any of these kids? What will they think of this community when one day there skatepark is gone? It is our duty to show these young people that they are part of our community. They are our sons and daughters and we need to show that we care about them. For a group of people to believe that a sport causes behavior problems is deplorable."

I said that skating does not create behavior problems. They are created by the domestic situations these children live in and the fact that our society as a whole cares little for inner city kids between the ages of 12-16. When I finished heads were bowed looking at the floor. They knew they were wrong and in rebuttal one by one said how they support the kids and think skating is a good activity for them. A near 100% reversal of what they said not 30 minutes before.

I was mad that I had to rally the skating community to come down because of this group of organized regressionists. They have done nothing but complain and offer little else. If it wasn't the skatepark they would find something else to bitch about. Wait until they get a load of the parking issues when the new water park is done this summer.

The mayor shamed the aldermen and citizens for their selfish behavior. One commission member said their "not in my backyard" behavior was completely unproductive and discriminatory.

The board voted 4-1 in favor of the motion to continue the operation of the park, indefinitely.

One alderman said under guidance of the city-attorney that he was appealing the initial acknowledgment activity of skateboarding in the parks and rec charter as "reasonable activity" he will appeal the decision to the Zoning commission. That made the Mayor visibly angry.

Typical rethug tactic of questioning the legal definition of "reasonable activity" under which the skatepark was granted a use permit. The appeal will stand little chance and will likely cost the city more time and money.

Sometimes a boring planning commission meeting can be exciting.

(now to tackle the McMansions)

I went up against the NIMBY types last night....

HORRAY