Written on July 25, 2010
On July 12, 2010, Dan Reed wrote an article titled "Silver Spring plaza instantly becomes de facto skatepark". Here is my response:
Summary of article: Silver Spring recently completed a community plaza just downtown called Veterans Plaza. The space includes many public amenities that create a friendly and relaxing environment for community residents. Dan Reed, a Greater Greater Washington author, covered how this space also immediately became a sensation for skateboarding. Reed writes the ugly truth that skateboarders have no legal place to skate in Silver Spring (as of now). He says the new community plaza is presenting skaters with a friendly place to skate as an alternative to other nearby spots where they get hassled at by security.
The most interesting piece of Dan's article is actually it's comments by local anti-skater and pro-skater residents.
Anti-skater comment reads: "Brand new county property will soon be destroyed by a group of irresponsible and destructive teenagers from the bottom of society. Unfortunately we have people like Dan Reed and immature adults like "Sk8ter Mom" that advocate a voice for the skating community when we should be discouraging such distruptive lifestyle." writes Cyrus.
He continues: "Glorifying immature adults such as "Sk8ter Mom" in Mr. Reed's blogging is a huge disservice to the Silver Spring community as these destructive thugs are vandalzing public property. This is not a legitimate activity and the county should not condone this. Skateboarding encourages young people to become involved in drugs and other illicit activities. If we legitimize skating these drug addicts will seek their own facilites to conduct their illicit activities. Hence the County will be condoning drug use."
Startling huh? Cryus is a great example of a stereotypical anti-skater who hasn't done much research on skateboarding. Generally labeling young skaters as thugs, drugies, and from the bottom of society is just about the worst comments you could spit out. Having these opinions in the first place without knowing these skaters or about the skateboarding culture, Cyrus seems to be an immature individual at best. The fact is, skateboarding actually drives out "crime, sex, and drugs" - proof from Vancouver's skate plaza. Cyrus's unpleasant comments were immediately diverted and corrected for the truth thanks to other residents.
Unfortunately, this happens to a lot of people, judgment on skaters is based on a bad experience or an old 1970's skateboarding story which instantly creates hatred toward this recreation. Without modern research on skateboarding or how local Silver Spring skaters are working toward building an actual skatepark, his false assumptions are destructive on the sport and his very own community.
Read this article and its comments at http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=6515.
Take a deeper look into Silver Spring's skatepark project at www.mongomeryparks.org.
