urbanMSP

Because the world is aching to hear the transgressive voice of bored white rich kids getting gnarly.

Way to put millions in one neat little category.

Bitch if you will, but it doesn't matter. it's gonna happen just like that graffiti mural on a highway overpass or freight car. It looks like blight to confused old people, but the more enlightened know it will long be remembered as the voice and soul of a generation.

Enlightened??!! Believing that your "rights" matter more than the property owner or anyone else around you is enlightened? Millenials have such an inflated self worth, God help us if their parents ever need to depend on them, they'll be too busy argueing over who gets their stuff when they die.
Oh, and just because someone tags something it doesn't make it art, nor do I need to appreciate it. Yes, I understand there are graffiti artists and some are very talented, but I don't want to look at bad amature graffiti any more than I want to go to a first year med school student for open heart surgery.
Before you start slamming me because I just don't get it, I used to think like you and believe that everyone was out to take my fun away and stifle my self "expression". Then I grew up, started a family, and started taking time to talk to my parents and grandparents generations, trying to understand what they went through and sacrificed for their families and began to understand how easy we have it now. There is much more wisdom in those old confused people than you could ever hope to comprehend.

Because the world is aching to hear the transgressive voice of bored white rich kids getting gnarly.

Way to put millions in one neat little category.

I mean, is this really any more of an example of cubby holing than saying that all skateboarders are making "art" when they get gnarly on concrete?

Because the world is aching to hear the transgressive voice of bored white rich kids getting gnarly.

Way to put millions in one neat little category.

One over-the-top post deserves another.

Look, the kid getting hit thing is real. It's nearly happened to us on multiple occasions. I am perfectly fine with what most skaters do. I am not fine with reckless skaters or skaters damaging public art and infrastructure.

Then I grew up, started a family, and started taking time to talk to my parents and grandparents generations, trying to understand what they went through and sacrificed for their families and began to understand how easy we have it now. There is much more wisdom in those old confused people than you could ever hope to comprehend.

Very well said.

I didn't believe it myself, but after having a kid I've internalized an understanding of why my parents and grandparents acted the way they did sometimes. Having a family is "holy shit!" kinda scary. You do everything you can to help them flourish.

Couple of things I'd liken interacting with skateboarders in public areas to (in say, 90-95% of situations):
- The mixing of pedestrians and cyclists one would expect behind a floating bus stop
- An ice rink where some 3-year-olds are skating in the same place as tweens (or older!) doing figure skating at high speeds (with 2 blades on their feet)
- Kid play areas in malls where children 18 mos up to 7 years old run/jump around (I just let our 13 month old do this int he Coralville Mall 2 weekends ago)

None of these are particularly dangerous and people make do all the time. I agree there are over the top boarders - loud, swearing, doing repeated stunts where unknowing bystanders may be startled or hit (stair rails, etc) or into the street. But for the most part it's not so bad.

I think the biggest "threat" I've seen is the frequently errant skateboard flying away from a dislodged skater. I've seen them flying into people, traffic, etc.

Most of the time, I really don't mind skateboarders. Many are good at trying to stay out of the way. That said, I'd never call it art or integral to the urban landscape.

Wow, hit a nerve. I think it's funny that people jump to the "and then you grow up" angle and #entitledmillennials. Further supports my suspicion that a lot of people see this issue via the smelly kids at their high school from way back. Like if only you had a family you'd be yelling get off my lawn too. Yet, I'm married with two children and a career job, doesn't mean I don't support guerilla art. And I got a lot more to say, but I got a meeting, so i'm gonna have to argue with you kids on the interwebs later.

I don't recall having two children imparting me with any special wisdom or insight. It just made me slightly more paranoid and highlighted how much "you'll understand when you grow up and have kids and understand everything correctly" is condescending heteronormative bullshit.

Millennials invented neither the skateboard nor blissfully ignorant narcissism, and popping out a kid does not automatically make us wiser. If that were the case, my parents' generation wouldn't have spent the last fifty years fucking the planet. So let's all just agree that skateboarding is not always performance art, complaining about childless millennials is the Gen-Y through Baby Boomer parental circle jerk method du jour, and public spaces are public and sometimes we have to put up with activity we may not like.

Can confirm that one time a skater lost his board and it rolled into my ankle and I almost died.

No, I'm sorry, but when you have kids you do have different concerns than when you don't. You do things differently and it's for a reason. I'm not claiming any great wisdom enhancement here. I'm pretty dumb all around. Thank God I have my wife.

I completely agree that the majority of skateboarders I come in contact with are very respectful. But some are not and I loathe them the same way I loathe inattentive bicyclists on the sidewalk. It is not safe for a skateboarder to buzz by a two-year-old on the sidewalk without announcing his presence beforehand. Two-year-olds are impulsive. Julian can and has wandered away from me suddenly because he seems something interesting on the other side of the sidewalk. If there's a cyclist or skateboarder just behind us passing, Julian is going to get hurt pretty bad.

And there is absolutely no reason to damage public (or private) property. That's why we should have more skate parks. I appreciate and admire the tricks, I really do. I just don't want to see public spaces damaged by them.

So we ban skateboards, bikes, rollerblades, dogs, frisbees, baseballs and footballs, soccerballs and volleyballs, grills, plastic bags, cutlery sharper than a pool noodle, glass containers, water more than two inches deep, benches and ledges less than two feet high, and walking on the grass (think of the maintenance costs!) in all parks except those dedicated specifically to those activities. I know the diverse number of ways my toddlers can get hurt when they're out. They're suicidal drunken midgets. And it's on me to keep them out of trouble.

Oh please. Having a skateboarder or bicyclist buzzing you without warning is not the same as people throwing footballs.

When I say no skateboards in public places I don't mean ban skateboards. I mean no damaging public property (that means no touching public art) and it means being respectful to everyone else.

Please define "damaging public property" because I honestly have no idea what you mean, in the context of skateboarding.

Grinding on things like benches, statue podiums, rails, and almost anything they can Ollie up onto.

You don't think that art just makes itself, do you?

I can think of some examples on this very forum, in fact.

Please define "damaging public property" because I honestly have no idea what you mean, in the context of skateboarding.

https://www.google.com/search?&q=skateboarding+damage

Oooooo, result number three is good.