Boarder wars

Part 3

by Yvonne Abraham

"They don't understand the sport," counters Mike Bell, a professional skateboarder. "They think we can't control the boards, but we can." Bell says he's called the police department to find out about skateboarding accidents with pedestrian casualties, but that so far, he hasn't been able to find any. "I called everywhere," he says.

Harvey Bierman, regional manager for Blades, Board & Skate, a fast-growing chain of skateboard shops, says pedestrians' fears are based more on the sound skateboards make than on any real danger they pose.

Most skaters would agree that damaging centuries-old architecture is unacceptable, but many argue that the ordinance punishes all skaters for the sins of the few. "We shouldn't have the run of the city," Bell says. "But they should be dealing with skateboarders as individuals. If I go out to the street and smash someone's window, they're not gonna ban everyone from the street -- they're going to bring me to justice as an individual." Of course, neighborhood groups would argue that aggressive skateboarding is inherently damaging, regardless of a rider's good intentions. Skaters counter that much of the damage blamed on them is exaggerated, or not even their fault.

And any skateboarder will tell you that they're victims of stereotyping: "The public perception is that we're delinquents," Bell says.

"One skater that's a punk gives us all a bad reputation," says Dave Lavalle, a polite 15-year-old from Malden who spent last Saturday skating and avoiding security guards in the financial district. "That movie, Kids, also screwed everything up. Now they think we're all like that."

Bierman, who has talked to skateboarders' opponents, says he is struck by the extent to which adults believe skateboarding is a sport for other people's kids. "Skateboarding isn't a cult or fringe thing anymore," he says. "Stand in our stores on any day and you'll see that half the people between 15 and 25 have their hair cut short, and they're normal suburban kids."

Still, Tom Keane suggests, the skaters aren't exactly being persecuted by this new ordinance. "There's a lot less to this than meets the eye," he says. "Skateboarding is already prohibited in public parks in the city. This just extends it to places that aren't under the jurisdiction of the Parks Department, like the Boston Public Library and City Hall Plaza." (Originally, the ordinance also gave the police commissioner authority to unilaterally designate other areas -- including streets and sidewalks -- off-limits to skateboarders. Keane says that provision will likely be altered to allow for a more democratic process.)

Skateboarders think they're being singled out. If the city is going to restrict skateboarding, Bierman says, it should also restrict inline skating on the same city property.

"Inline skaters have the skates on. They wear padding and helmets, and they don't do anything on structures," counters Abrams, who has apparently come across only the most angelic of this city's inline enthusiasts. "If skateboarders lose control, that skateboard goes flying. We have a projectile here."

And although the bill only extends bans already in place, skateboarders see it as immeasurably important in symbolic terms. Boston's rules barely approach the restrictiveness of those in communities like Brookline and Malden, which are so strict that they drive skateboarders into Boston -- where no one knows them, and where they can move on to another area when police shoo them away -- but skaters say the law's effects will be felt beyond city property.

"This is criminalizing a sport," Bierman says. Skateboarders worry that the ordinance will throttle skateboarding just when it's on the brink of becoming a legit sport, by discouraging kids from getting into it. "At 13 or 14, you don't want to get arrested," says Bell, who has been skating for the last 10 of his 22 years. "You spend 140, 150 bucks on a board -- there's no way you're not going to run at that age, to stop [the police] from taking it. And now parents are going to go, `Oh no, we're not going to let you do this if you're going to be arrested.' "

For that reason, Bell and other riders, having heard about the ordinance at a Hard Rock-sponsored skating event about a month ago, have been mobilizing to make their voices heard in the controversy, and to push for the city to provide skaters with alternatives to Copley Square and other tempting public spaces. Several of them spoke eloquently at a hearing last week at City Hall, surprising some of their critics by bucking the stereotype.

"I was very impressed with the articulateness of the kids at the hearing," says Parks Commissioner Justine Liff, who spoke in favor of the ordinance, and confesses to being scared by skateboarders near the fountain in Copley Square. "We're not just ignoring their side of it. But we're trying to balance public safety with the needs of and demands on the park system. We're under an obligation to protect the public from flying boards, and to protect our parks from damage. At the same time, we're listening loud and clear to the skateboarders."

Forward to part 4 - Back to part 2

Yvonne Abraham can be reached at yabraham[a]phx.com.