Thursday, July 2, 2009
City Can't Skate It...
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 11:20 AM
...might as well tag it.
Funny, I don't remember ever seeing graffiti—or garbage—on or near the Wall of Death back when it was a skate spot. It still looked pretty pristine when I took this picture just days after the city decided to ruin the Wall of Death. Now there's graffiti on the columns and on those pointy conical posts and garbage strewn all over the place. Mission accomplished, SDOT.
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6
Dan's right. I ride by here frequently and it's become a homeless hangout. I preferred the skaters.
7
I walked or biked by daily for a few years, and never had issues with the skaters. Mainly, they were using a multi-use trail in a reasonably responsible way, not a problem; although the potential was clearly there, I really don't recall seeing collisions or near misses with cyclists. In fact, I felt safer for the skater presence on an otherwise pretty deserted section of trail late at night. HOWEVER, I do recall pretty large quantities of graffiti, trash, and homeless folks on that section of the trail throughout that time.
9
@8 - good idea.
We're going to toss people's metal garbage cans on there once the line starts running.
We're going to toss people's metal garbage cans on there once the line starts running.
11
Can we get Frizzelle and Gurldoggie to provide commentary on how this is qualitatively different from tags on houses or public property?
12
People need to realize skaters are like private security you don't have to pay. They enliven urban space and keep it safe.
13
Hm, I seem to remember Dan indirectly advising taggers to hit that spot right after the city screwed it up. Huh.
16
@15,
"You are generalizations"? You're the cute one!
Assuming your comment is in response to mine, I don't think all skaters are criminals, but I do recognize that this: "People need to realize skaters are like private security you don't have to pay. They enliven urban space and keep it safe," is patently absurd.
If skaters scared away graffitiests and hobos, it's because skaters, and especially skateboards, are fucking annoying.
"You are generalizations"? You're the cute one!
Assuming your comment is in response to mine, I don't think all skaters are criminals, but I do recognize that this: "People need to realize skaters are like private security you don't have to pay. They enliven urban space and keep it safe," is patently absurd.
If skaters scared away graffitiests and hobos, it's because skaters, and especially skateboards, are fucking annoying.
17
The similarities between a lone person swinging a skateboard into someone's neck and a group of friends doing something active in an otherwise dead space are striking, 14.
18
Dan, I'm sorry your kid can't skate there anymore, but I personally like biking by there NOW without having skate punks whizzing by trying and knock me off the fucking trail.
19
some people took it as a personal jab. It benefitted bikes. So now watch out all types of broken glass. ROCKS+skateboards=F'd GLASS+bikes=F'd FAIR.
20
You know what they could've done? They could've put barriers on the bike trail at the Wall of Death -- not blocking it, but staggered barriers that would've required cyclists to slow down and navigate their way through them, slowly. Two gates at either ends of the trail, but open... like, um, this (use your imaginations):
I____ l
l ____l
That way no one goes whizzing through, no one gets hit, no one gets hurt. The bike trail would still be a bike train, the skatespot would still be a skatespot. We could've saved the skatespot by making cyclists slow down for all over thirty feet along the BG trail.
I'm a cyclist, not a skater. My kid didn't skate there. No dog in this fight -- just thought it was an asshole move on the part of SDOT, and anti-urban in spirit (cities are about shared space, right?).
I____ l
l ____l
That way no one goes whizzing through, no one gets hit, no one gets hurt. The bike trail would still be a bike train, the skatespot would still be a skatespot. We could've saved the skatespot by making cyclists slow down for all over thirty feet along the BG trail.
I'm a cyclist, not a skater. My kid didn't skate there. No dog in this fight -- just thought it was an asshole move on the part of SDOT, and anti-urban in spirit (cities are about shared space, right?).
21
Ack. That diagram got all fucked up between typing and posting. The "fence" bits should be less wide, etc.
22
@20 - I disagree. Most of the time I used my skateboard thru there, going east-west along the actual trail, so putting up barriers would have increased the chance of a cyclist hitting me or me hitting a cyclist while boarding.
Based on the years I spent along that path, I'd say probably the majority of boarders actually don't stop there to use it for jumps, they tend to be skateboard commuters who use the Burke-Gilman for commuting.
Based on the years I spent along that path, I'd say probably the majority of boarders actually don't stop there to use it for jumps, they tend to be skateboard commuters who use the Burke-Gilman for commuting.
23
Hmm. It was only sometime after Savage was born that we got into simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I know correlation is not causation but shit if it don't make ya stop and think.
24
Nickels called Grace the best transporation manager in the country at the DSA event. I'm certain he thinks this is one good example. I've done thousands of miles of cycling on that stretch of the BG and might have had to pause a half dozen times for the skateboarders. I always enjoyed watching them and was happy to slow down to watch them as they perfected some new move.
If SDOT is looking for something to do, there's a crosswalk on 5th NE they can paint in memory of the 97-year old man who was killed by a car there last month... Of course, they just told him to walk three blocks up the steep hill and cross there so I'm sure they sleep fine at night.
If SDOT is looking for something to do, there's a crosswalk on 5th NE they can paint in memory of the 97-year old man who was killed by a car there last month... Of course, they just told him to walk three blocks up the steep hill and cross there so I'm sure they sleep fine at night.
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