corrente

Here is a prime example of the fecklessness, mental torpor, petty-mindedness, and tubularity of Philly's deeply entrenched (Democratic) administration, an administration whose motto might as well be "Philadelphia: Ever third rate!" Read this and weep:

Skateboarders have been pining for one of their most cherished public venues - LOVE Park - since its granite ledges, benches and stairs were declared off-limits to them in 2002.

On Tuesday, as dozens of skateboarders cheered, a California shoe company pledged $1 million to return skateboarding to [LOVE] park where many skateboard professionals honed their skills. But the offer got a chilly response from the city.

DC Shoes of Vista, Calif., announced it would donate $100,000 a year for 10 years to maintain the park. The park attracted skateboarders from around the world before Mayor John Street imposed the ban, saying skateboarders were damaging the park.

JFK Plaza is known to locals as LOVE Park because it is home to a well-known Robert Indiana sculpture of the same name.

"Baseball has Wrigley Field. Skateboarding has LOVE Park," said DC Shoes President Ken Block who presented a ceremonial check to the city at a news conference at the park. "It's absolutely irreplaceable."

However, funding depends on the city dropping the skateboarding ban - a prospect very much in doubt.

"We don't support skating in LOVE Park," said Barbara Grant, a spokeswoman for the mayor. "It damages the park, it creates difficulty for other people who use the park for different reasons."
(via AP)

Let's leave aside the millions from the Extreme sports conventions that Philly used to host when LOVE Park had skateboarding, and lost when that idiot, Street, banned it. Heck, it's only money—and Philly has so much we can afford to throw it away.

Let's just use our eyes.

Readers, I've walked past LOVE Park almost every day for three years. When the skateboarders were there, they were entertaining, didn't "create difficulty" for anyone, and kept the park safe in the evening by their presence. (Jane Jacobs, the "eyes on the street" concept.)

And when Street banned the skateboarders, he didn't fix the (alleged damage) and did it on the cheap. Street (a) put these cheesy "improvements" in place to make it hard to skateboard there—these pink stucco-like planters that are already dirty and disintegrating—and (b) didn't fix the stone that the skateboarders supposedly damaged!

Bringing skateboarding back to LOVE Park may not be good for whichever small time "pay to play" grifter got Street to impose the ban.

But it would be good for the city.

It's enough to make me vote for the next Republican candidate for mayor! (As soon as we get Bush out of office, of course).

Philly—WTF?!?!