Skateboarding = fresh air and not sitting slumped in front of the TV. That's the good news. The one shown here is frighteningly similar to ones we use to blast around on, sans kneepads, helmets or anything safety-oriented. What were we thinking?
When we had our store downtown I noticed more and more kids flying full-tilt down our sidewalks, scaring the daylights out of everybody. The noise alone was deafening enough to stop a conversation: the real worry was someone stepping in front of three kids going as fast as a car on the sidewalk. We had this goofy glass door that was flush to the sidewalk (not recessed at all), so swinging the door open meant a perpendicular angle straight across the sidewalk. Which left maybe two feet of passing room between it and the very inconveniently placed bike rack right in front of us (even less passing room if the bike rack was jammed with five bikes). It made me cringe to imagine this scenario right out of a Mr. Bean movie: our glass door swings open and a skateboarder comes crashing through it at 20 mph; pedestrians jump and scatter and end up entangled in the bikes.
According to the news, the city council just passed an ordinance to levy high fines on downtown skateboarders. Kids need a place to skate; just glad it's not going to be the downtown sidewalks anymore.
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