Skateboarding's Latest Trick: Reviving Cities | Hacker News Reader

Skateboarding's Latest Trick: Reviving Cities

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44 pointsheavybiscotti23 comments

It's been great to see skaters more welcome and as part of the solution here in SF.

People with a negative view of street skating are completely ignorant prejudiced clowns. Very hard sport, produces better humans, hands down.

Great to hear! I remember skate boarding to my office downtown, 35? Years ago. Dressed in suit and tie, just waiting to be pulled over for "public" skateboarding. I went to work with various early morning bikers(bicycles), on the empty city streets, and returning in crazy afternoon rush hour traffic. Never did get stopped. But was ready with various arguments!

It's almost as if police only go after skate boarders who are trespassing or causing property damage. It's fun to see yourself as a Star Wars rebel though...

i mean i get the cops called on me just skating down the street

Wow, that's a hilarious hot take to hear in 2024. I get that some people associate skateboarding with all that, but then again, there are some folks who just trespass and cause property damage on their feet. Almost as though there's a correlation rather than causation.

Skateboarding 100% destroys property. And skateboarders have sued property owners after getting hurt.

Nobody is arguing with you about skateboarding destroying some property. 100% seems like hyperbole given that many (nay, most these days) skateboarding takes place at municipal or private parks.

Statistics on lawsuits brought by riders against property owners should probably be cited, else it just sounds like perhaps you have had one of these lawsuits brought against you and have anger about it.

I assume the above commenter never witnessed how abusive authorities were historically to young kids, from 8-18, who were just skateboarding for fun, wherever they could. Having skateboard parks - with safe skate zones, is relatively recent in cities and towns.

On a more positive note, I love to see municipalities embracing community rather than shunning. I personally wouldn't session those things just cause it seems crazy public. But I'm glad skateboarding isn't quite so marginalized anymore. Really, across the board it's awesome seeing people okay with differences and gives you hope for the future.

the skate community is so welcoming to all walks of life, is very supportive, and very creative. Promoting skate boarding is nothing but a win for city’s. It dose everything a city wants, gets people outside moving, part of a community/ positive social environments. Good to see

Great video on the topic in Vancouver https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m5MJQsPeMIo&pp=ygUQQWJvdXQgaGV...

There's a great quote in Vox's "Tony Hawk breaks down skateboarding’s legendary spots" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omigBsOmtjw) from Iain Borden, an architectural historian:

"[...] I think what skateboarding's always been good at, is it tests our idea of what we want public space to be. Whether it's at the Southbank in London, the ledges at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, The Warschauer benches in Berlin, or a 25-foot stair set in Lyon... skateboarders, I think, are a constant reminder that our cities can be creative and rich places."

I have nothing against skateboarders personally. But the reality is that they need dedicated spaces to do their thing, otherwise they damage the public infrastructure that everyone else uses. Given the ... personalities of the typical skateboarder, that public infrastructure will also usually get populated with graffiti and stickers.

Also, it's not helpful to lie about this. I concede the points about creativity etc but let's not pretend that there aren't downsides. These cities should give them dedicated places to be creative so I don't have to walk though damaged sidewalks.

> Given the ... personalities of the typical skateboarder, that public infrastructure will also usually get populated with graffiti and stickers.

So while I can't speak to your local skater culture, over here people doing graffiti and skateboarders are basically perfectly non overlapping groups. Where the association comes from is that a lot of skate parks get graffiti'd because skaters don't mind if their skate park has paint on it.

Again, quite possibly different in your locality but it's worth pondering if a similar association-by-cohabitation is happening there.

> I have nothing against car drivers personally. But the reality is that they need dedicated spaces to do their thing, otherwise they damage the public infrastructure that everyone else uses. Given the ... personalities of the typical driver, that public infrastructure will also usually get populated with tire marks and car fluids.

Sorry but the reality is lots of activities damage public infrastructure, and are asymmetrical in funding. Skaters do less damage than cars when used for transportation, and when given dedicated space for street and vert skating require fewer resources for entertainment (think compared to a race track).

Yeah, I think we're saying the same thing.

If you constrain "skate boarding" to "when used for transportation" and "when given dedicated space", it's pretty tolerable as an activity that people engage in.

damaged sidewalks? from skateboards? shut the front door.

if the city actually cared about skateboarder safety, they'd improve sidewalks. Skateboards and rollerskates have the smallest diameter wheels of all pedestrian class vehicles, making them the most vulnerable to poorly maintained sidewalks. They're not the cause of the damage, but generally the victims of it... youve got it ass backwards.

I do not.

Simply rolling down the sidewalk is not the only thing done on a skateboard. I fact, the second picture in the article depicts this.

Mountain biking is doing something similar to old mining towns or generally rural areas with the right combination of initiative and landscape, see Bentonville AR and Crosby MN as examples.

wow, this is so simple and brilliant solution

skateboard (and not only) community is friendly and welcoming

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