A2 skaters launch political campaign

After racking up a mountain of fines and confiscated skateboards in recent years, local skaters are getting political.

Local skaters have banded together to try to change city and University policies that they say make Ann Arbor an inhospitable place for skateboarders. The skaters plan on organizing a petition, lobbying the Ann Arbor City Council and conducting a public relations campaign to loosen the policies.

"We're going to try to get organized, but it's going to take a lot of work," said Aaron Blumhardt, a skater who works at Amer's Deli on S. State Street. "Part of our lifestyle is a lack of organization."

Skateboarding is prohibited on some sidewalks in Ann Arbor. "Roughly it's the downtown area," said Lt. David Lovell of the Ann Arbor Police Department. Fines vary from case to case, he said.

DANIEL CASTLE/Daily LSA junior Matt Grossman skates on the steps in front of the School of Dentistry Building. Local skateboarders want the city to change its policies about skateboarding.

Manager Bob Stevens of the Maize and Brew said that skateboarders bother some of the store owners by being loud and running into customers.

"Young kids being loud is what it is. But you don't really see them haranguing people on the street," said Stevens.

Department of Public Safety spokesperson Beth Hall said that skateboarding, unlike rollerblading, is prohibited on all campus sidewalks. The prohibition exists, she said, because the skateboard wheels might physically damage the pavement.

The skateboarders' plan divided the group into committees that met at East Quad last week, RC senior Douglas Song said.

One committee will handle public relations, possibly by advertising the group's agenda on WCBN radio and cable access television, Song said. Another committee will write and publish a pamphlet on "Skater's Rights," and a third will manage a petition. There is also a committee to develop a presentation for the city council.

Philosophy Prof. Eric Lormand attended the meeting to advise the skaters.

"I thought they had a good cause," Lormand said. "I don't skateboard or anything."

Song said that about two-thirds of those attending the meeting were University students.

Song said he hopes to work out a compromise with the city on exactly where people can skateboard.

"You shouldn't really be able to skateboard on the sidewalk in front of the businesses, but you should be able to skate on the sidewalks around the rest of the town," he said.

Paul Friedman, owner of the Treetown skateboard shop, said that if the city and the University deny skateboarders access to most public places, then the city should be responsible for providing a place open to skateboarders.

Friedman said that the rationale for their agenda was very simple. "If you take something from skateboarders, you should give them something back," he said.

A skate park called Sun and Snow does exist in Ann Arbor, but some skaters said they are frustrated by the place because of safety restrictions.

"It's full pads," said Mike Schmidt, a skater and student at Huron High School. "The ramps are bad. It's too overcrowded. It's just not worth it."

The skaters said they admit that a decent skate park is a distant goal, largely because of the enormous insurance costs necessary in designating the area.

Not only are skateboarders often fined, but sometimes their skateboards are confiscated.

Some skaters said they blame the policies and local laws rather than the police officers handing out fines and confiscating boards.

"It's not really their fault. I mean, they're just doing their job," skater and former MSU student Brett Bauder said.

Blumhardt, who said he has gotten five tickets and had his skateboard confiscated twice, said many police officers are sympathetic to the skateboarders' cause. He said that several officers admitted willingness to signing petitions but said that they "would have to talk to their (commanding officers) before signing anything" out of fear of being reprimanded.

The Ann Arbor mobilization was largely inspired by a similar movement that took place in Brighton, Song said. A group of skaters successfully lobbied the city council for a skate park there. They held a fundraising pancake breakfast so that the group could install a set of rails, some ramps and other skateboard accessories.

Song said the Brighton skaters owed much of their success to their alliance with a group of older citizens called the Brighton Optimists Club. Song said the Ann Arbor skaters were hoping for similar patronage, possibly from the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

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