It is high time the Ott YMCA is embarrassed on a national level. There are plenty of YMCA's around the country that have skateparks which allow bikes. This particular YMCA's leadership harbors an extreme bias and hatred towards bike riders. If they didn't, bikes would have already been allowed in the park.
The Ott opened excluding bike riders, segregating bike riders from skateboarders just as easily and conscious-free as public pools in the South forbade black people before the civil rights movement took hold. Bike riders then broke into the park after hours to ride. The Ott's leadership took it personally as an offense by CHILDREN who only wanted to practice a POSITIVE ACTIVITY, instead of repenting of their own discriminatory actions and changing their foolish little rule.
A good, old-fashioned boycott and protest at the Ott Young Men's Christian Association is certainly in order, Mike. My personal sign will read, "Jesus hates bike riders!"
Actually, Lake Perris doesn't have a skatepark designed by Site Design Group. I believe the reporter was referring to the Lake Forest Skatepark in California. When it opened, it did not allow bikes, then about a year later they allowed bikes, for 2 and then 3 days a week. Also, Santa Clarita, CA has an SDG-designed skatepark that didn't open allowing bikes, but now does. I have a letter from Sandy Lehmann, Recreation Supervisor for
the City of Santa Clarita's Parks, Recreation, and Community Services Department, telling her experience in allowing bikes into the skatepark. It can be found in the "Resources" section of The Bike, Blade and Board Coalition page on my website, at http://www.psychicflyingmonkey.com/The3BCp…
Tucson needs to start allowing bikes in their skateparks NOW. Eighteen Arizona cities allow bikes in their skateparks, fifteen of which are concrete parks. SDG has designed at the very least four concrete skateparks that "were not designed for bikes" and now allow bikes with absolutely no problems. (Oklahoma City's park was designed with bikes in mind, but has the exact same 3000 PSI concrete and no extra steel reinforcement behind the coping, just like the Santa Rita, Henderson, and Santa Clarita skateparks and for that matter almost all of SDG's concrete skateparks) I have talked with the administrators of the Oklahoma City, Henderson, Santa Clarita and Lake Forest Skateparks numerous times, and they have said they have experienced absolutely NO PROBLEMS with bikes in their skateparks. All the perceived problems with bikes in skateparks are MYTHS and are not based in fact. They are based on a very real bias against bike riders in the skatepark designer, skatepark builder, and skateboard communities. For an expose on the "Bikes damage skateparks" myth, please read an article I posted on my website dealing with the issue at http://www.psychicflyingmonkey.com/3BC%20p…
Also, a very in-depth and well-researched discussion paper on the "bikes in skateparks" issue was written in 2005 by Landscape Architect Rodney Wojtanik for Portland, Oregon's Parks and Recreation Department, and can be accessed in the "Resources" section of The Bike, Blade and Board Coalition page on my website, at http://www.psychicflyingmonkey.com/The3BCp…
Mayors, city councilmembers, city managers, and especially parks and recreation officials MUST DO THE PROPER RESEARCH ON THIS ISSUE. Sitting back and letting biased skatepark design and build companies dictate policy for taxpayer-funded skateparks is THE ULTIMATE IN SLOTHFULNESS AND INCOMPETENCE, and is completely UNACCEPTABLE to constituents!
Jason Ryan
President
The Bike, Blade and Board Coalition
Tempe, Arizona
Recent Comments
The Ott opened excluding bike riders, segregating bike riders from skateboarders just as easily and conscious-free as public pools in the South forbade black people before the civil rights movement took hold. Bike riders then broke into the park after hours to ride. The Ott's leadership took it personally as an offense by CHILDREN who only wanted to practice a POSITIVE ACTIVITY, instead of repenting of their own discriminatory actions and changing their foolish little rule.
A good, old-fashioned boycott and protest at the Ott Young Men's Christian Association is certainly in order, Mike. My personal sign will read, "Jesus hates bike riders!"
Jason Ryan
President
The Bike, Blade and Board Coalition
www.psychicflyingmonkey.com
the City of Santa Clarita's Parks, Recreation, and Community Services Department, telling her experience in allowing bikes into the skatepark. It can be found in the "Resources" section of The Bike, Blade and Board Coalition page on my website, at http://www.psychicflyingmonkey.com/The3BCp…
Tucson needs to start allowing bikes in their skateparks NOW. Eighteen Arizona cities allow bikes in their skateparks, fifteen of which are concrete parks. SDG has designed at the very least four concrete skateparks that "were not designed for bikes" and now allow bikes with absolutely no problems. (Oklahoma City's park was designed with bikes in mind, but has the exact same 3000 PSI concrete and no extra steel reinforcement behind the coping, just like the Santa Rita, Henderson, and Santa Clarita skateparks and for that matter almost all of SDG's concrete skateparks) I have talked with the administrators of the Oklahoma City, Henderson, Santa Clarita and Lake Forest Skateparks numerous times, and they have said they have experienced absolutely NO PROBLEMS with bikes in their skateparks. All the perceived problems with bikes in skateparks are MYTHS and are not based in fact. They are based on a very real bias against bike riders in the skatepark designer, skatepark builder, and skateboard communities. For an expose on the "Bikes damage skateparks" myth, please read an article I posted on my website dealing with the issue at http://www.psychicflyingmonkey.com/3BC%20p…
Also, a very in-depth and well-researched discussion paper on the "bikes in skateparks" issue was written in 2005 by Landscape Architect Rodney Wojtanik for Portland, Oregon's Parks and Recreation Department, and can be accessed in the "Resources" section of The Bike, Blade and Board Coalition page on my website, at http://www.psychicflyingmonkey.com/The3BCp…
Mayors, city councilmembers, city managers, and especially parks and recreation officials MUST DO THE PROPER RESEARCH ON THIS ISSUE. Sitting back and letting biased skatepark design and build companies dictate policy for taxpayer-funded skateparks is THE ULTIMATE IN SLOTHFULNESS AND INCOMPETENCE, and is completely UNACCEPTABLE to constituents!
Jason Ryan
President
The Bike, Blade and Board Coalition
Tempe, Arizona