My local skatepark was closed a couple days ago when I stopped by to skate during my lunchbreak…the weather was perfect to where I could skate around without working up a sweat in my work clothes, but after I had opened my trunk, changed my shoes, grabbed the board outta my trunk and walk up to the fence, the gates were chain locked and a sign was hanging “Closed Due to Vandalism” I looked around and it appeared that somebody stole the launch ramp or maybe something else happened to it (that sucks) and well the usual thing I noticed was the gray paint all over the place covering graffiti which is a familiar occurrence at this skate park and it never goes unnoticed. Maybe they should hang a sign stating, Graffiti will close this park down so don’t do it. I mean, hopefully anyone who enjoys skating this park would think twice about it if they knew that the next day the park would be closed and possible for a couple days. In a town with only one skatepark, we can’t afford to have it be closed ever. Maybe afford is the wrong word, but you know what I mean.
Personally, I think are park could use some grafiti but not the curse words or profanity. But anything that is artistic would be great, I’ve seen some nice grafiti done in the park and it really did look nice, but I understand the dilemma. I mean, who is to judge what is okay graffiti and what is not? The best policy is to just not allow it. It wouldn’t look good for a county run park that is FREE to use to have grafiti all over it. I know I can’t stand grafiti in our town anywhere else, it makes it look like Williamsburg is turning into the slums or the hood or something.
Anyways, the argument of whether it is vandalism or art can be made, but I think we as skaters should leave the park alone and keep it clean and free of vandalism so that we can have the assurance that the park will be open for us to skate as long as the weather permits. Let’s face it, when you take the time to get to the skate park only to find it is closed because other skaters thought it would be a good idea to decorate the park, well, it just plain sucks. So come on guys, take care of your park and keep it open. I’d hate to see the park close for good or start charging entrance money to pay for the cover up paint!
