Newport Beach adds skateboard restrictions

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- When skateboarding is outlawed, only outlaws will

skateboard. That was the sentiment among the 11 people who spoke Tuesday

against an ordinance to tighten rules on skateboarding in city parks.

But council members, who unanimously approved the added restrictions,

were quick to point out that the rules hardly amount to an all-out ban.

Further, some said, the sport does seem to attract scofflaws.

“There’s definitely a skateboarding subculture -- a culture of

defiance,” said Mayor Tod Ridgeway, who added that crimes such as

vandalism are disproportionately associated with older boys and young men

who skateboard. “All we’re trying to do is protect our parks. We’re not

closing them to skateboarders. On the contrary, we’re leaving them open.”

The revised ordinance, approved Tuesday, adds certain areas of city

parks to the list of places already off limits to skateboarders. Areas in

parks where skateboarding is now forbidden include any paved surface with

a slope of 6% or more as well as on things like benches, planters,

railings and other structures. Signs will mark many of these areas.

“I don’t think there’s a park in the city you can go into that doesn’t

have damage and injuries from people playing basketball, baseball,

soccer, tennis,” said Mike Kranzley, a city planning commissioner

addressing the council as a resident and father. “Somehow, we take a

different approach with skateboarding. We punish the sport, punish all

the participants in the sport.”

The rules were created as a remedy for a citywide problem with damage

to things like the broken decorative tiles at McFadden Square and the

metal anti-skateboarding devices torn out of the concrete at Arroyo Park

-- damage officials attribute to rogue skateboarders.

As predicted by some city staff, the issue has reignited the question

of whether Newport Beach should have a skate park. Many officials predict

that it will never happen. Attempts in 1999 and 2000 to build a

skateboard park were killed by community opposition.

“Everybody on one side of town says, ‘Let’s put a skateboard park on

the other side,”’ Ridgeway said. “But no one wants it next to them.”

* June Casagrande covers Newport Beach. She may be reached at (949)

574-4232 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .