Caltrans Destroys The Spot

by The Editors on August 26, 2011

Oakland and Emeryville skaters like Alex Fatemi saw all their work at The Spot destroyed as Caltrans brought in the bulldozers and removed their DIY skatepark citing the usual “liability issues,” according to a story on KGO.

There had been hope of leaving the spot open and perhaps working out a deal with Caltrans. But skateboarders say, with redevelopment agencies on the way out and the economy what it is, officials in Oakland and Emeryville were unable to come up with the money for the $5,000 per month lease that Caltrans wanted.

So another DIY park will revert to it’s previous life as a place for trash (both human and garbage) to pile up, and the skateboarders will be back out in the streets.

[Link: KGO]

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

professional skateboarder August 31, 2011 at 11:22 am

“liability issues, and the other uhhhhh….there are errr…. there are crime issues, homelessness issues….errrm…all sorts of issues that arise”

dear bob haus, you are an absolute idiot. clearly your pathetically feeble mind (which can barely sting together a sentence might i add) has no idea on whats actually going on here.

lets address these “issues that arise” one by one, shall we?

liability issues…first of all regardless of WHERE a skateboarder is skating, there is no liability. what skater would actually make a case because they took a bail…genuine bullshit right there. sorry bob, fail number one. most skateparks dont even have waivers and forms to fill out anymore…if you fell you fell. now you going to try to sue someone? get real, bob. we are out here having fun. no one is to blame but ourselves for our own actions and injuries.

crime issues…mr haus regardless of where people are in terms of location there will always be crime. that being said, however, communities have seen massive decreases in crime due to skateboard parks actually giving kids something to do. here is a scenario for you, sir. timmy just got out of school for the day…one group of kids at his school is going to go out to the woods to get high. timmy was invited, but declined because he is going to go skateboard at the park instead to better himself mentally and phsyically. the group of kids decides they can just get high at the skatepark too, so they go there. no big deal. eventually the kids who were getting high will put down the drugs and pick up skateboards….

homelessness issues? is that a joke? surely you dont want me to actually get into that. there were probably more homeless people in the area before the skatepark was erected than afterwards. and even if, again, at least the skatepark gives people something to do, and somewhere to do it. god forbid we SHELTER the homeless…

most depressing thing about all this…now we have MORE skaters in the STREETS than we do in a place they can call their “spot”

im a professional skateboarder. im also an adult, and mentor. perhaps someone will see this post and understand that mr bob haus was literally just rambling off issues that ANY location where people gather would have.

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