Revisiting the Canyon for a Skatepark

Editor:

Last Thursday night, a meeting was held at Moulton Meadows Park to discuss the possibility of locating a skateboard park there (“Residents Object to Skateboard Park,” May 17 edition).

Some personal observations:

Kudos to Steve Dicterow and Kelly Boyd for calling this gathering.  A great example of democracy in action and the courage of a couple of council members to take a difficult discussion head on. Thank you Steve and Kelly – great job. I hope that your fellow council members will follow your example with the same level of courage on other city issues.

Thanks to our neighbors for showing up. We should all get together more often.

Good job to the kids who spoke up. You all made a “brave choice” to speak in front of sometimes hostile crowd of adults.

To those adults who were rude to the kids, shame on you.  You know who you are.

To the kids, the best thing you can do to promote a skateboard park in Laguna is to be excellent “ambassadors” of your sport. By the way, stop signs mean stop for skateboarders as well as cars. The double yellow line also means you stay on the right side of the street just like those of us driving cars. Those of you who blow through the stop sign at Balboa and Nyes know who you are.

To the skateboard moms who drive the “chase car” down Nyes following your kids, you are not helping your children get a skateboard park by your irresponsible actions.

By the way, a skateboard park in Laguna is a great idea, just not in Moulton Meadows park. Wrong location for a lot of reasons. Steve – Big Bend is still a great option. I’ve watched in the last couple of weeks the city waste a great deal of money we don’t have install “native” landscaping there. A skateboard park is a much better use of this property. Another option is to locate it at the dog park. What could be better than dogs and kids? We just don’t need such a large area for dogs to poop and pee (I’m a cat person, where is our cat park anyway?).

Jim Van Dalfsen, Laguna Beach