From: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins)
Newsgroups: alt.skate-board
Subject: Re: Boston Globe re. inliners
Date: 19 Aug 92 06:34:40 GMT
Reply-To: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA

In article <1992Aug18.143724.9340@athena.mit.edu> byron@athena.mit.edu (Jack Miller) writes:
> In article <Bt55I3.9oz@monitor.com> michael@monitor.com (Michael Johnson) writes:
> >For those who don't live in Boston and those who missed the article (god  
> >knows it hurts to read the Globe but I force myself) I just wanted to mention  
> >that a SCARY article was just printed about what a tough time in-liners are  
> >having trying to "skate" in Newport & Middleton, MA without getting citations  
> >from the boys in blue.
> 
> >What really makes it scary is how the article treats the skateboard-rights  
> >battle as though it is lost and long gone (and deserved to lose because they  
> >got in the way of self-righteous, shoot-me-I'm-a-yuppie in-liners!) All due  
> >to the "no TOYS on the street" safety ordinance being adopted by many towns  
> >and cities that ignores the fact that bicycles are all over the street and  
> >are just as much a toy as any kind of skate.
> 
> 	The best argument, if you ask me, is the non-polluting
> transportation argument.

 [ good luck, see below ]

> >Okay, okay, I know--same old shit. But these people have serious clout--6.5  
> >million in-liners nationwide and a group in Newport that's got 500 signatures  
> >supporting compromise for in-liners, but NOT FOR SKATEBOARDERS. Important  
> >issue: these people are fighting for and apparently winning back their rights  
> >but they're leaving us behind. Their logic says that in-lines are  
> 
> 	Well it's in their best interests, innit?  They get to "skate"
> without having to put up with us obnoxious skateboarders.  They have
> no obligation NOT to leave us behind.  If we want to continue skating,
> WE have an obligation to keep it legal.  The problem is, 6.5 million
> rich respectable yuppies have much more clout (financial if nothing
> else) than however many skaters there are.  The average Thrasher
> reader is 11 years old....
...
> 
> >maneuverable enough to be exempt from skateboard laws. All I'm saying is  
> 
> 	Bwahhahahahahaha!  I hang out and skate with skateboarders ALL
> THE TIME and have had maybe two collisions (mild ones, like a tenth
> the force that I felt in the grrls' pit at Green Day)(actually, come
> to think of it, the guys' pit was weaker and THAT was a tenth of the
> force of the collisions, like we didn't even fall off the boards) in
> two years, and that was in a situation where ninety skaters all
> sessioned a tiny area before a demo.  I get run into by inliners ALL
> THE FUCKING TIME here!  Maneuverable?  The vast majority don't know
> how to STOP!  If they allow inlining to continue on this basis, then
> cool, we can show them how skaters can usually stop in less time than
> inliners, and bang, they have to let us skate too.  They're gonna have
> to find a better excuse than that.

All I can say is don't blame the yuppies in-liners (stereotyping dude?)
for wanting to skate and trying to change/fight anti-skating laws.  Should
they be helping skateboarders?  Maybe, but as you've pointed out, the
core constituiencies are different and why compromise the chance of winning
with the burden of "obnoxious skateboarders".

Come down to it, skateboarders have an image problem.  In-liners have no
big image liability, just visions of little kids on steel wheels getting
run down and ghetto kids breakdancing on skates.  The activity can be
painted as healthful aeorbic excercise and the skaters not only have green,
but tend to disperse.

Skateboarding, everybody knows (*!!!), is basically a juvenile activity,
where kids hang out, offend the masses, cop attitudes, emulate strange
role models and do drugs/glue/whatever parents wish they wouldn't and
incidentally screw around with tricks on boards that are noisey and
treaten to fly up and break windows or ankles of passerbys or at least
chase away/obstruct paying customers.

(*!!!) means that I'm not claiming this be true, but it's the image that
gets used in those city/town council/board meetings where the anti-skateboard
regs get passed.

I guess all I trying to get at is don't blame the yuppies for the problems
or expect that poking fun at their image/rationalle will do you any good.
There may be some lesson to be learned, but as long as long as a big part
of the skating boarding scene ties in the element of adolescent rebellion
older skaters are going to suffer the side effects of the repression aimed
at the kids.

-- 
George Robbins - now working for,     uucp:   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr
but no way officially representing:   domain: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com
Commodore, Engineering Department     phone:  215-431-9349 (only by moonlite)
Newsgroups: alt.skate-board