This will be a bit of rant post given that the monthly HOA meeting for my building has ended. One of the residents complained about the noise of the two skateboarders who skate in a lot across from our building. Then the person said the kids skated our sidewalk which honestly, I've never seen them do.
So now, my HOA is thinking of getting a "no skating" sign just for two kids and told the resident they could call the cops if they wanted to. The president of the board said skating wasn't allowed at our building which is a lie because there is nothing in our rules and regs or bi-laws that prohibit skateboarding. I checked.
Instead of buying a stupid sign which will surely be ignored and spending money to put one in, why not ask the skaters, all two of them, to simply not skate on our side of the parking lot? It's a reasonable thing to do.
As for the noise, it's daytime and guess what? The sound of skating bothers this woman but not the constant beeping of cars backing up, car alarms, the visit of the trash trucks at 5am, the loud music by residents sitting in their cars, the crying kids or barking dogs? Sure...lady...that's all fine with you but not the sound of skateboarding?
This woman lives on the second floor, and I live on the fourth so I imagine it might sound louder but complaining about the skaters just irks me. It's two of them and it's not like there are there all day. They come for an hour at most, and they aren't screaming or anything.
The one kid pushes pretty well but has been trying to figure out how to ollie up a curb. He's getting better but has a bit more work to do. A little more speed and more snap of his board and he'll have it. I am not a skateboarder, but I've watched enough to know how close this kid is to success. Neither of the kids are doing grinds, slappies or jumping up on hand-rails. They aren't doing any damage to the concrete or paint. They aren't out there skating like Jonny Giger although I bet, they might want to if they could.
Instead of being bitchy people, simply talking to them would be ideal. I haven't spoken to either kid much, except to ask if they wanted my old issue of "Thrasher" or some grip tape. I did that yesterday. I gave them a zip loc bag of stickers, a sheet of grip tape and a Thrasher. They were so damn happy. Smiles on their faces.
This is Vermont, there are two skateparks where I live but neither is easy to get to and these kids live in the low-income house development across the street. I would venture to guess that they don't get to go to either of those parks often. You have to pay to skate at one of them.
The next time the kids come out to skate and I'm around, I'll ask them to not skate on our side of the parking lot and warn them of the lady in my building. She bitches about everything, so I not surprised too much by her complaint. This is a woman who complained for 6 months that the staircase by her unit wasn't clean enough.
Let kids be kids and most of all - let them skate! Okay, the rant is over. To all the skateboarders out there, go do your thing. Skate to your hearts content and DO A KICKFLIP or in the case of the two kids in the parking lot, an ollie up a curb.
For today's musical treat we're travelling all the way back to 1981 for Kim Wilde's "Kids in America".
Rock on!
~Maynard
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