Letters to the Editor

by the Readers

Skate Speech

(Re: “Bye Bye Love,” on plans to end skateboarding in Love Park, Rick Valenzuela, May 2)

Big up yaself, man. On behalf of skaters everywhere, thanks for writing a positive article for us. I traveled from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Philly on three separate occasions (that's 1,500 miles each time!) just to skate Love and the rest of the city. The destruction of Love is another attack on our culture (Embarcadero being another). These are sad times in skateboarding, and skaters around the world are mourning the loss of Love. How ironic that more and more corporations and non-skater-owned businesses are profiting more than ever from skateboarding, and yet we skaters are losing our freedom to skate as every day passes. Damn. Thanks again. Peace.

Stephen Eichenbaum
Brooklyn, N.Y.

Editor’s note: Skateboarding’s two other renowned public urban plazas were San Francisco’s Embarcadero, commonly known as EMB and formally Justin Herman Plaza, and Pulaski Park, formally Freedom Plaza, in Washington, D.C.

I just read your article from a link on Crailtap [www.crailtap.com]. I think you conveyed every feeling that every skater who has ever skated Love, Pulaski or EMB feels. The skateboard culture has definitely lost an incredible piece of history and fun. Though I am from D.C., I took many trips up to Philly just to skate Love, and I had a positive experience 100 percent of the time. Because of the lure of Love Park, I discovered how incredible the entire city of Philadelphia is.

Alex Dunn
via e-mail

That whole Love situation really pisses me off. And fuck skate parks -- I love the freedom of street skating and adapting to the surroundings. I thought having that circus we call X Games would open the city's eyes to street skateboarding and skateboarding in general.

Craig Metzger
Queens, N.Y.

I'm writing this because I get the impression City Paper thinks of itself as telling the truth when other papers don't, in down-to-earth, unvarnished, like-it-is language. So as for your spin on skateboarding: bullshit.

A "positive" activity that damages property and harasses people (Mailbag, May 2)? Bullshit, or should I say, oxymoron? If kids can't skateboard, they'll have nothing to do but drugs and alcohol? Bullshit. Here's a brief list: read a book, do some art, play chess, program computers. Too intellectual? Listen to music, watch TV. Doesn't get you out of the house? This is a city. It has museums, movies, concerts. A lot of it's free some of the time. Not social enough? Sit in a park, talk to your friends and watch the world go by. Not active enough? Volunteer. Not athletic enough? Sports, dancing, gyms. Not "alternative" enough? Form a band, play video games, skateboard, just somewhere other people don't want to be.

That's the real skateboarding message, isn't it? Get out of our way or else. We're going to do what we want to do or else. That's what it feels like on the streets; that's what it sounds like in print. If skateboarding weren't "alternative," weren't "young," weren't part of pop culture, you'd probably see what's wrong with that attitude.

Building a skate park between a ramp and the Vine Street extension sounded good to me, but no way do I think the city owes skateboarders anything. Here's another activity: fundraising.

Lucy Tinkcombe
vie e-mail