|
Edition
of April 20, 2007
| Unhappy
With DelGaudio's Skate Views |
|
To the editor:
|
| Thanks for your coverage of Steve Jefferson's emerging efforts
to build a free public skate park under the banner of Loudoun
County Skate Project ("Skater Continues Pursuit,"
The Loudoun Observer April 13). This type of story has been
told in many cities throughout the United States, and I applaud
what's going on in Sterling. |
| However, I was deeply concerned with Sterling Supervisor
Eugene Delgaudio's comments regarding the apparent lack of
space and support for such a facility. Mr. Delgaudio's assumptions
that skateboarding is an "extreme sport with extreme
risks" and that the skate park would be more successful
if it were based on a pay-to-play model were not made from
an understanding of this popular sport. |
| In addition to its relatively low injury statistics, Virginia's
limited liability laws, like those in my home state of Washington,
make skateboarding a great choice for public recreation in
Sterling. Further, one need only review California's lengthy
track record with supervised, for-profit skate parks to discover
that free public skate parks are a much better investment
of public dollars. |
| I was saddened to read DelGaudio's claim that "To get
from where he is now to where all the other sports leagues
in less than at least 10 years is impossible, and it is not
even proper to be a public interest." Skateboarding has
been an intrinsic part of American culture for more than 40
years, and the fact that it does not readily organize itself
into leagues with teams is an asset, not a disadvantage.
|
| In an era where fewer and fewer youth participate in team
sports, skateboarding offers a great alternative to the type
of recreation that Mr. Delgaudio may have grown up with. The
fact that there is a constituency in his community that supports
this sport, and that is willing to organize and petition the
government to build proper facilities for it, should be evidence
enough that skateboarding is certainly a public interest—one
that would make a positive impact in the lives of the people
he serves. |
| Scott Shinn |
| Director, Parents for Skateparks |
Copyright © 2003 The Herndon
Publishing Company
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