Imagine a world where playing football was illegal. Millions of rebel kids would dart through back alleys, tossing around footballs while they ran from the police. The University would shut down for lack of funding. People would have to find a new reason to get drunk on Saturday afternoons.
Now imagine a world where rolling down the street on a skateboard was illegal. It's not too difficult - you're standing in it.
"If you didn't have a football field or a basketball court, you'd see people playing in the streets," said LSA senior and 10-year skating veteran Enrique Cesar. "But they have parks where you can play football and basketball and tennis. Why? Because it's socially acceptable?"
Although the popularity of skateboarding seems to have exploded in recent years (who would've thought extreme skaters would show up on ESPN?), there are currently no skateboarding parks in or around the Ann Arbor area. Veteran's Memorial Park, located near the corner of Jackson and Stadium, had a multi-level ramp (including a 12-foot vert ramp), open for a few years in the early '90s, but it was closed due to "lack of use."
"We were down to where there were about five people from Ann Arbor using it," said Richard Schiller, facility supervisor for the park. "It's a skilled activity ... There's just not that many people that will drop in at 12 feet."
Because there are no skate parks nearby, many local skaters are "taking it to the streets." Unfortunately, they are also "taking it to the wallet" if they get caught because it is illegal to skate on sidewalks in downtown areas. Unlike rollerblading, skateboarding in these places can draw tickets that normally range around $5, but could (in rare cases) go as high as $75, said Ann Arbor bicycle patrol officer Martin Morales.
"Those kids are awesome - they can flip over trash cans and everything," Morales said. "But they can't stop ... With rollerblades, you have stopping power. With skateboards, you don't."
Anyone who has ever been plowed into by a first-time rollerblader might question their complete "stopping power," and Morales did admit that "the skateboarders were the ones that were picked on because when the laws were made, rollerblading wasn't that popular."
Architecture senior David Stockwell agrees and says that perhaps the reason "the Man" gets down on skateboarders and not rollerbladers is because "the Man" is out there rollerblading, too.
"I think they use the fact that skateboarding might be a little bit dangerous to let them have their rules. Sixty-year-old people are out there rollerblading. The people in charge of making the laws are out there with rollerblades. They're definitely not out skateboarding," he said.
Stockwell skated when he was younger and picked it up again a few years ago. He considers it "a social sport" that may have as much to do with hanging out as it does with physical activity.
"In some ways that's good and in some ways that's bad," Stockwell said. Apparently, it's cool to travel in the same circles with people you have something in common with, but Stockwell said he has run into skaters who fell a little too deep into the skating counter-culture and became "too cool for their Vans."
Whether it justifies laws or not, skateboarding is indeed "a little bit dangerous" - as 19-year-old Ypsilanti resident Matt Leismer illustrated with his long list of past skating injuries. "I've had a broken elbow, broken wrist, both ankles sprained in the same week," he said.
"I broke my arm, my ankle. I hurt my tailbone really bad," Cesar added. "Falling on steel hurts. Falling 12 feet onto steel on your hip is not very friendly."
While skating may not be for the meek, Cesar pointed out that there are many dangerous sports and life in general isn't always safe.
"If you listen to people who say skating is a dangerous sport, playing football is dangerous. Playing tennis, I mean, did you see what happened to Monica Seles? It's dangerous. Everything is dangerous!" he said.
Impending danger doesn't seem to be scaring any kids away from the sport. In fact, several local skaters expressed a wish that someone would build a skate park in the Ann Arbor area. Matt Powers, 19, from Ypsilanti, would like to see something along the lines of Burnside (a huge and fairly famous skate park in Portland, OR).
"I think (the idea of building a park) is great because the kids are always asking for one," Morales said. "If they gave them a park with rails and stuff, it would be great. It would be used."
Schiller actually hasn't ruled out the possibility of re-opening the Veteran's Memorial Park ramp under certain conditions. "We have not torn it down, and we have talked to different people about selling it. We also talked to different people about what it would take to modernize it," he said.
And if nothing ever changes, local skaters will probably continue to skate where and when they can. Hey, some people stand still in a world without skating. Some people roll through it.
A skateboarder jumps over a trashcan in the street in front of his house.
JENNIFER BRADLEY-SWIFT/Daily