Skateboarders are not bad kids

Despite the blame being put on budgets constraints, the way it was done made it clear to us that skateboarders lost out at Myrtle Park because of dark mutterings and portrayals of evil from a very few people living on the "right side" of 35th Avenue.

There has been a contingent of people since the idea of a skateboard park in the park created largely by the lidding of the Myrtle Reservoir and the creation of a park there. When the idea first came up there were the usual concerns about noise and that someone could get hurt.

What bothered this newspaper were the rumblings that we refused to buy into and publicize. This paper received a score of letters and phone calls complaining that "those kids" would come to skateboard, then to rob homes, vandalize property and perhaps physically threaten the residents of the area. One letter said the kind of people who lived across the mythical boundary of 35th Avenue were not wanted in their neighborhood and that any skateboard park should be put in High Point, "where it belongs."

The letter writer insisted it be printed in the Herald anonymously. The writer refused to have his name used. We have a firm policy of not using anonymous letters, except in the most severe of situations, which this was not. We did not print the letters despite some heated conversations.

The issue appeared to have gone away as the park planning went on its slow city course.

Suddenly last week, the city caved into to those in the community who seem to view anyone who has fun on a skateboard - and do some amazing physical feats on these little boards with wheels - as evil and harmful bullies or thieves and ruffians.

"There are a few bad kids in every group of kids but it seems like all skaters are singled out," said a skateboarder who attended the meeting with his sister also a skateboarder. (See story, Page One).

There was a group of disappointed teens seated quietly in the back.

"I feel bad for these guys who have no safe place to go," said an adult at the meeting. "I ask Parks and Recreation to step up to the plate and stand behind kids like this. West Seattle is way deficient in building skateboard parks."

A woman commented, "There are a million safe places for my 2- and 12-year-old to play. There is no safe place for my 14-year-old skateboarder."

For its part, the city folks made no comment except to say that a skateboard park would put the project over budget. The city seems to have come down on the side of non-confrontation with the anti-skateboard park residents. No city comment on the issue spoke volumes.

That a small number of kids who skateboard are bad is true. Also true is that a tiny minority of the residents in the Myrtle Reservoir area are overreacting - or worse.

We strongly believe the city parks people made a terrible decision, one that will force the youth of our part of the city to do without a prime place to work off their frustrations and to hone their skills.

The city gave way to hooded and black mutterings of a very tiny minority of West Seattle. This decision makes us sad.

- Jack Mayne