About Me

Some people call me crazy. I'll take that -- I am crazy, but it's a kind of insanity that happens when you're blessed with the opportunity to see a side of life that you know most other people don't see, and you badly want them to. And I'm not knocking anyone who doesn't see it -- my now-grown son used to skate and had lots of friends who did, and yet there was so much I never knew, about the kind of people many skaters are, and what the fascination with skateboarding is all about.

Going to and from work back in the '80s I often used to see skaters around the Silver Spring Metro Station. Almost all of them were white, and they tended to be dirty, raggedy, and bloody. I thought it was stupid. I'd see them try to do tricks again and again, and I could't understand why they would risk bodily harm for that.

East of Maui, the interim skatepark that used to be on Ellsworth Drive

When my son was small we used to pass East of Maui Skatepark that used to be where the fountain is now, and I would pray that my son wouldn't ask me to go. He's a musician and I worried about his hands. And what the kids were doing in the skatepark looked so scary and dangerous to me.

The perceptions I had back then, of skateboarding being a really dangerous sport, were in some ways accurate but mostly not. Skateboarding is statistically safer than playing basketball. When I saw those kids with bloodied and skinned knees...in all likelihood they would not have been so bloody had they been skateboarding in a skatepark rather than at the Metro station. 50% of all skateboard-related trauma is caused by skating on irregular ground, such as broken concrete on sidewalks and stairs.

Why skating means so much to us

And I now understand fully the attraction of skateboarding, and the near-obsession with skating that most skaters seem to develop. Many skaters think of skating as a sport, a creative outlet, therapy, a connection to community, and most of all, a source of pure joy and happiness.

Teenage boys and no fights?

One of the first things I noticed about skaters that shocked and surprised me was how often I was around them and no one was fighting or even arguing. As I skated with local kids more, I kept waiting for it to happen -- just a subconscious expectation based on the fact that so many teenage boys were hanging out together, and it just seemed inevitable that sooner or later kids would fight. But I didn't see it -- ever. I do know of a couple of fights between skaters, but I've been around these kids a lot and I never saw one.

I don't know of any other sport that sees large groups of teenage boys regularly self-organize events and activities and no one fights. I hear about crazy arguments and fights at sports events such as local soccer games or football games, and I even hear about parents getting involved in fights.

What I have seen is not a group of angels, but a group of kids who just want to skate. And if they're skating, they're happy, and they're not fighting. We've visited skateparks and skate spots and kids would just skate for hours and hours, and just be happy.

Kids who don't have much to be happy about

And many are kids who don't necessarily have a lot to be happy about in their lives. We haven't lost any skaters to suicide, but in the past year alone, there have been several suicides among kids who were part of our skater community -- they were friends with a lot of skaters and they often hung out with skaters. There are skaters who've gone through foreclosures and evictions. Quite a few skaters live with grandparents or other guardians, and many have lost relatives or friends to suicide and/or violence.

Few camps and after-school activites

Many of our kids have few other activities available to them, like summer camps or after-school activities. But unlike those kids in our community who lost their way and got caught up with gangs and crime, these kids have identified something that makes their lives make sense. Something that gives them a little bit of happiness to carry them through the challenges they face in their lives.

Amazing diversity of Silver Spring skaters

There's such diversity among skaters, in terms of race and class. There are skaters who come from families with stables homes and finances, and those who do not, and in this community I've seen the most real diversity I've ever seen in Silver Spring -- not just people of different races living near each other or going to school together...but actually building real relationships across races.

Skaters aren't perfect, and neither are you

I don't see these kids as perfect by any means. But, there are other kids in our community who are sometimes seen as the 'perfect' kids, and I don't share that view. I think all human beings are flawed, and I don't differentiate the value of human lives based on what group someone is in, or the value of what one group in a community wants over what others want.

We need to listen to our kids

We're supposed to be able to listen to each other, and talk to each other, and if there's a large group of people in a community, regardless of their age, who want to do an activity that's completely legal, that helps them stay on the straight and narrow, and that will keep them from developing childhood obesity, then I think they deserve to be heard rather than being ridiculed.

Sector Plan for the CBD

I know my recent blog posts were mean. But when you get to know a group of kids like this, and get to know their challenges and issues, and you see them working so hard towards something, and so badly wanting something as simple as a place to skate...the only way to react to some of the crazy excuses against it is to make fun of them, particularly considering the fact that a skatepark in downtown has been in the recommendations of the Sector Plan for the CBD since February 2000.

That document, the notes from a Planning Board meeting in '05, explain why Park & Planning made the recommendation to build a 14,000 square foot skatepark in 2007, in Fenton Gateway Park:

Recommendation

The Community-Based Planning Division recommends that the existing 0.286 acre Fenton Street Urban Park be expanded to 1.3 acres in order to achieve the recommendations in the February 2000 Silver Spring Central Business District (CBD) Sector Plan, including the recommendation that a site be identified within the CBD for a replacement skateboard park.

Objectives

1. Address the demand for a skateboard facility in Silver Spring as demonstrated by the popularity of the interim facility. [Blogger's note: the interim facility was East of Maui, that closed in 1998.]

2. Provide recreational opportunities for people in different age groups with varying interests (i.e., augment the facilities at Jesup Blair Park and the planned ice rink at Veterans Plaza.)

3. Provide an appropriate site for skateboarding in the downtown to discourage skateboarders from damaging public spaces in the new revitalization projects.

4. Create a facility that will be an asset to the CBD and draw people to the downtown.

5. Create an attractive gateway to the Silver Spring CBD.

So way back in 2000, planners saw the need for a downtown skatepark in order to protect property in the coming development (much of which is now here), and they saw the growing popularity of the sport, and that a skatepark would be an asset to downtown that would attract people.

With regard to a skateboard facility, the Sector Plan describes the growing demand for such a facility at length on pages 129-130 and recommends that a site be found for a facility to replace the temporary skatepark that was located in the Core; this recommendation is repeated on pages 134 and 148. The Sector Plan recommends "considering sites throughout the CBD for the relocated park, including under-used parking garages, the Ripley District, and South Silver Spring." (p. 129)

and also

On July 12, 2001 park planning staff presented the Roller Hockey, In-line Skating and Skateboarding Report at a public session of the Planning Board.

This report identified Damascus, Germantown, Olney and Silver Spring as "areas with highest unmet need for skateboard facilities in the County..." Of those areas, only Silver Spring continues to lack a skatepark (Woodside is a skate spot -- not a skatepark.)

So clearly Park and Planning did their research and saw the growing popularity of the sport, and planners recognized the benefit of having a downtown skatepark to discourage skating in inappropriate places.

And even back in '05, park and planning recognized that Woodside Urban Park was too small for a skatepark. Explaining why they made the recommendation to build a skatepark in Fenton Gateway Park, Park and Planning talks about other spaces they looked at but ruled out:

"Other sites considered for skateboard parks but deemed too small were Woodside Urban Park and Jesup Blair Local Park. The Jesup Blair Facility Plan approved by the Montgomery County Planning Board includes a small skateboard park; however, the available space is only 5,000 square feet, which is too small to accommodate this type of facility. Therefore, staff is no longer recommending construction." (pp. 26-27) The staff report also included a memorandum from Councilmember Silverman to the Planning Board encouraging the Planning Board to include a skatepark in the next CIP.

So even back in '05, when Silver Spring had far fewer skaters than it does now, Park and Planning saw Woodside Urban Park as being too small for a skatepark. And, even with 5,000 square feet of available space in Jesup Blair Park, that was still considered too small. What we have now, Woodside Skate Spot, is 2,000 square feet smaller than that.

The Silver Spring Urban District Advisory Board voted in favor of a skatepark in Fenton Gateway Park, and sent a letter to the Planning Board and noted that the proposed location for the facility was "very appropriate" and even requested it be done "on a priority schedule."

But, neighbors didn't want the skatepark, and the plans died.

Skating by Chick-fil-A

The consolation prize given to skaters, was weekend skating on lower Ellsworth Drive, between Chick-fil-A and what's now Veterans Plaza. The streets were blocked off on Fridays and Saturdays, and even though skateboarding is completely legal in all of Montgomery County, that little piece of Ellsworth Drive was the only place in Silver Spring where a group of kids could gather and skateboard, and know they wouldn't get kicked out.

Shortly after I started skating in January '09, after years of kids skating at that spot, downtown officials suddenly stopped blocking traffic to allow skateboarding, and stopped letting kids skate anywhere downtown.

String of broken promises

When this skate spot that was hugely important to many area kids was suddenly taken away, with no conversation and no explanation, Gary Stith (then head of the Regional Center) told me the reason we lost the space was because "businesses complained." He couldn't even tell me what they complained about. And he also told me he was trying to identify an alternate location for skaters, and he said he was likely to have one for us within 2 weeks. That was 2 years ago.

After Gary said that, Lillian Buie, a Peterson Companies employee, told me we could skate in the alley behind the DTSS security office. That was fine -- for 2 weeks, after which security suddenly started kicking us out. It wasn't ideal, and as Lillian told me, we'd have to dodge trucks making deliveries, but still it was something, and it was suddenly taken away. And again, no conversation, and no explanation.

Next was Jennifer Nettles, Manager of DTSS, who repeatedly told me she was trying to find us a space near Whole Foods. That space never materialized.

In all this time we have asked again and again for an alley, a closed off street, a parking lot -- any place where kids can skate and not get kicked out.

Woodside Skate Spot can accommodate 7 skaters. Any more than that and collisions start happening. When we had Ellsworth Drive to skate on 30 or more kids could skate with no problems.

Park and Planning's parking lot

In my mind, the space that makes the most sense for skaters to use is the parking lot behind 8787 Georgia Avenue, Park and Planning's headquarters. This is the organization that encourages county residents to walk, bike, and ride buses. And yet even though they're blocks from a major transit center, they have a huge parking lot where their employees park for free. So if their employees are all driving to work...how can they ask other county residents to use alternative transportation?

Meeting with Reemberto

At our last meeting with Reemberto in the Civic Building, he asked how many of us know how to build things to skate, and 20 of us raised our hands. DIY (Do It Yourself) is a huge part of skateboard culture and virtually all skaters have some experience building things like boxes and kickers. I've seen skaters build things out of what looked like a pile of trash. They're an extremely creative bunch, and they're willing to do it and they want to do it. They only need the space.

Homemade Skatepark

K-Town in Kensington is a homemade skatepark that's been around for years. At various points there have been issues with the community, particularly with skaters leaving building supplies around. But what I've been saying for a very long time, is that in Silver Spring we have a real community, and there's an adult (me) who knows virtually all of the skaters and who has relationships with these kids. All we ask is for the county to work with us, and we can work amongst ourselves to build and maintain whatever we need to.

Skater-hating in DTSS

Most kids who skateboard in downtown Silver Spring will tell you there's a very intense anti-skateboarding and anti-skateboarder atmosphere in DTSS. Here's some of what contributes to that atmosphere:

• The DTSS no-skateboarding rule and its enforcement. I and many skateboarders in the area have not just been asked to stop skating on Ellsworth, we've been yelled at, harassed, and threatened with police action, and two skaters reported being physically grabbed by DTSS security, and one said his skateboard was taken (the skater said he was able to snatch his board back.)

• I and other skaters were threatened with police action for simply standing on Ellsworth Drive while carrying our skateboards. Some kids had been skating, but they had definitely and clearly stopped when we were told to leave Ellsworth, and when a DTSS security guard actually reported us to the police via his walkie talkie.

• I'm not aware of a no-skateboard sign in the Majestic Theater, but they don't allow patrons to carry skateboards into their theaters.

• Fuddruckers has a sign near the entrance stating that patrons cannot bring boards inside the restaurant.

• Several skaters reported being kicked out of Potbelly's for carrying skateboards. I have not seen a no-skateboard sign in the store.

• The new Rainbow store in City Place recently asked me to leave their premises, (I'm a 48 year old mom), for carrying a skateboard inside their store.

There's a long history here. Richard Jaeggi wrote about it back in 2005:

Nowhere in Silver Spring is the prohibition of skateboards more rigorously enforced than in the heart of Silver Sprung on Ellsworth Drive.

Since Montgomery County does not have an anti-skateboarding ordinance, I find it difficult to understand how and why the lawful act of riding on a skateboard or even carrying a skateboard is often treated like some terrible crime in DTSS. And I can't understand any of this in light of County Executive Ike Leggett's letter to DTSS, after photographer Chip Py was almost arrested for taking pictures in in DTSS back in 2007:

"The County considers Ellsworth to be a public forum permitting the free and unfettered exercise of First Amendment rights by residents of the County and its visitors to the extent as those rights are exercisable by residents and visitors to the County on any public sidewalk or public street within the County...I trust that you will agree with me and will ensure that your rules and regulations for the use of Ellsworth by the public appropriately recognize and protect the First Amendment rights of residents and visitors."

And I can't understand why, after emailing the DTSS Property Manager and her head of security on November 14th, asking what legal basis they're using for prohibiting skateboarding on Ellsworth Drive, I still have not gotten an answer.

I question the rule and the way its been enforced. And I seriously question the logic of essentially criminalizing kids for participating in a sport.

Let the Skateboarders Skate

On Friday evening I sent an email to Jennifer Nettles, Property Manager of DTSS, and Mike Petty, Head of Security, asking what legal basis they're using for kicking out skateboarders on Ellsworth Drive. We previously blogged about the Gazette quoting Nettles saying that Ellsworth Drive is public space, with Paul Liquorie of MCPD confirming that. And since it is public space, DTSS Security needs a legal basis for telling people they can't skateboard on that street.

While the main part of Ellsworth Drive is far from an ideal place to skate, and while we know that DTSS management doesn't want skating going on there, those facts don't provide justification for kicking skaters out, and for telling anyone they can't skate there.

I have often attempted to argue this point with DTSS Security Guards, who always resorted to telling me "we have a no-skateboarding sign!" But that's incredibly weak. Anyone can post a no-skateboarding sign...on private property. But we're talking about PUBLIC property here. Property owned and governed by Montgomery County, and subject to Montgomery County and Maryland laws.

What laws are you using to tell me and other skaters that we can't skate there? I think that's a very reasonable question. I'm still waiting for an answer.

And that no-skateboarding sign? It's gone. So if DTSS Security can longer point to a sign as justification for kicking skaters out, what justification are they going to use now?

Back in 2005 Gandhi Brigade leader Richard Jaeggi wrote about DTSS' rigorous enforcement of the skateboarding prohibition, and his daughter Lisa Jaeggi, a skateboarder herself, made a short film of a skate-protest to encourage skaters to stand up for their rights" and skate on Ellsworth.

Here's what Richard said in the Takoma Voice:

Nowhere in Silver Spring is the prohibition of skateboards more rigorously enforced than in the heart of Silver Sprung on Ellsworth Drive. White shirt security guards, red shirt Urban Crewmembers, and brown shirt Montgomery County officers are vigilant in their goal of making the town safe from skateboarding teens.

While Lisa Jaeggi's skate-protest may have lessened the heat momentarily, I have personally been harassed and kicked out of Ellsworth many times over the course of the past year. Same street, same rigorous enforcement of the same suspect policy.

I can't make anyone answer an email, and they can ignore my question if they want to. But they can't ignore this issue. And without a legal basis for prohibiting skateboarding, DTSS Security is going to have to cut the crap, and let the skateboarders skate.

From 2005 to 2009: Same As It Ever Was

Ineteresting. Richard Jaeggi is the first community leader I approached back in early 2008 when the Downtown Silver Spring Shopping District along with the Silver Spring Regional Office, stopped allowing skateboarding on lower Ellsworth Drive. I didn't get a lot of support, other than him strongly encouraging me to get skaters involved with Mixed Unity.

After attending my first Mixed Unity meeting, I told Richard I didn't believe I'd be able to interest skaters in those meetings. Our needs were more immediate — we had just lost the one legal place for skateboarders to skate in all of downtown Silver Spring.

I knew that skaters, almost all teens and many of them very young, would be roaming the streets of downtown in search of places to skate. I did not believe then nor do I believe now, that it's safe for them to do that. And I didn't believe they should have to attend meetings or be involved with planning a concert in order to get help and support in addressing such a pressing, immediate need.

The one thing — the only thing I was looking for then, was for someone in this community with a voice to have our backs and help us get skating back on Ellsworth Drive. Or at the very least, to help us to get an alternative location, particularly so that skaters wouldn't have to spend the entire summer without a legal place to skate.

Since that time, many of our skaters have reported being harassed and even physically attacked by security guards, and they've run into all kinds of safety issues, like when a skater was recently body-slammed to the ground near the Metro Station by a man carrying a fake badge and pretending to be a cop.

What I had no clue about when I went to Richard about skating on Ellsworth Drive, was just how much work he and his kids had done to speak up for skaters' rights in downtown. They did great work back then — amazing work. And just like his kids and other skaters in Silver Spring needed his support back then, they continue to need it today — not just for a tiny skate spot in Woodside Park, where the 100 or so Silver Spring skaters can't possibly all skate (and which the Woodside Civic Association has asked to have delayed) — but for the same thing he and Lisa fought for back in 2005, the right to skate on Ellsworth Drive, and any other public space in Silver Spring.

I just found the minutes for a Citizens Advisory Board meeting from April 2005, in which Richard Jaeggi spoke passionately about the need for skaters to have a skating facility in Silver Spring. He and his daughter Lisa did a video presentation of a skate-protest they staged in DTSS. The skate-protest set out to take back Ellsworth Drive, a public street, from a private company which had been denying kids the right to skateboard there.

Following are some of Richard's comments in support of skateboarding in Silver Spring.

Skateboard Park Video Presentation

Richard Jaeggi presented a video of his daughter's promotional piece focusing on the need for a Skateboard Park in downtown Silver Spring as follows:

• Mr. Jaeggi stated that the presentation was not taking any positions on the location but the need for a Skateboard Park.
  
• His daughter had interviewed skaters, security guards, businesses, Glenn Kreger at Park and Planning, and Gary Stith, Director of the Silver Spring Regional Center, to compile the presentation you are about to see.
  Skateboarders in the video said:
  
• Skateboarders are always being kicked out of places they skate. They look at skating as part of their life, not just a fad. It’s their way of experiencing freedom. “You can do what you want, when you want and how you want while skating. It‘s better than video games. You get to be outdoors, getting fresh air and be with friends.” Most skaters skate every day if they can.

Following are some of the comments that came after that presentation.

Discussion: Richard Jaeggi concludes that: We should make a commitment; these kids spend a lot of money in the downtown. Let's not just focus on adult needs. It's a really good chance to do something for the kids. There is a lot of energy here and it's a great way for the next generation of Silver Springer's to get inoculated into the County process. There are a lot of reasons not to do certain things, but I would encourage us to find a solution and a site that's good for neighbors and for Silver Spring.

Marilyn Seitz: I don't see many things for children to do. We need a place for them to go. Back when I was a kid a lot of churches had teen nights. We had places to go and they were safe. There are not many places for them to go.

Korey Hartwich: Only commercial places like movies and of course kids don’t have that much money so they don’t get to go to the movies that often. There are really not that many places to go.

Who Knew? Richard Jaeggi Proved My Point In 2005

In September 2005, Richard Jaeggi who is currently leader of Gandhi Brigade and an adult supervisor of Mixed Unity, wrote an article for the Takoma Voice in his column Big Acorn...addressing exactly the same issue Silver Spring skateboarders are struggling with today.

Richard's kids all skateboard, and in this article he explains how his daughter Lisa researched the issues and found this:

"In her research my daughter discovered that the eastern portion of Ellsworth Drive, the part in front of City Place, was not covered by the lease agreement. One third of the street remained public and was presumably governed by the public laws of Montgomery County — and, it seemed, still subject to the First Amendment. Despite their policy, security guards had no jurisdiction to enforce PFA rules on a public street."

Now I don't know what the managers of DTSS have been telling their security staff because they sure seem to think they DO have the right to restrict peoples' rights on ALL of Ellsworth Drive in DTSS. Somebody needs to send them a memo because I and virtually every skater I know has been harassed and chased off of Ellsworth Drive for skating.

I've been skateboarding for a year now and the harassment started even before DTSS and the Silver Spring Regional Office stopped allowing skateboarding on the lower part of Ellsworth — where DTSS security clearly has no jurisdiction and no right to complain about anything.

But even on the main part of Ellsworth, Richard's kids, Lisa, Daniel, and Isaac, staged a skate-protest way back in 2005, and the security guards who had been aggressively chasing out skateboarders, did absolutely nothing. Why? Because they have no legal right to:

"Lisa and my sons, Daniel and Isaac, concocted a plan to test this theory. On Saturday morning skateboarders began to converge on our house. After feeding them pancakes and orange juice, Lisa gathered the motley crew of about fifteen teens in a circle on the driveway for a pep talk. She told them that this was about their right to stand up and contest something that was unfair. She made them promise to maintain discipline: to be respectful and to let her do the talking if security guards or police confronted them. In high spirits and ready for anything, they set off on their skateboards for their rendezvous with destiny uncertain how this would all play out.

I had volunteered to be their cameraman so I had an insider-outsider perspective on the day. I taped them as they crossed Fenton from the east; skateboards in hand, they were at the same time giddy, anxious, and determined. When they reached the forbidden Silver Sprung they smoothly dropped their boards on to the street and one-by-one proceeded to skate single file around the perimeter of the road-- being careful to avoid the western part of Ellsworth.

Personal experience had prepared each of them for the worst: a stern reprimand with threats of tougher consequences for future disobedience. Nothing had prepared them for what actually happened. The security guards said nothing and did nothing. Wordlessly they did the slow, determined cop-walk past the growing ranks of skateboarding teens."

The drums of Ellsworth — A protest becomes a party

ALL Of Ellsworth Drive Is Public Space

Don't take my word for it. Jennifer Nettles, the Downtown Silver Spring Property Manager, as well as Paul Liquorie of the Montgomery County Police Third District, said so. From the Gazette (bolding emphasis is mine):

Both Nettles and Liquorie said because Ellsworth Drive has been deemed a public street – Peterson leases the property from the county – residents have all their First Amendment rights and a curfew would not be possible.

and...

"We have to maintain First Amendment rights," Nettles said.

In other words, DTSS can't make up its own laws. They can't restrict behavior that is legal and lawful on any other county street.

Nettles' comments were made in response to community demands for a teen curfew following the melee of March 7th, 2009. In this article, Nettles and Liquorie confirmed what skaters have been saying all along — that Ellsworth Drive is not private property and as such, The Peterson Companies (owners of DTSS) cannot restrict anyone's rights.

Since Nettles is fully aware of the rights of citizens on Ellsworth Drive, why is it that for years, DTSS has essentially been creating and imposing its own laws, and restricting the rights of skaters? Montgomery County doesn't have an anti-skateboarding ordinance, and since both Nettles and Montgomery County Police confirmed that Ellsworth Drive is public property, it's clear that skaters have never been involved in unlawful activity while skateboarding there.

And yet, skaters have repeatedly been harassed and chased off of Ellsworth Drive by the DTSS "courtesy officers" who seem to think they're cops with the right to restrict completely legal and peaceful actions.

The only Maryland laws related to skateboarding have to do with young skaters wearing helmets. Oh yeah, and skaters can't attach themselves to any vehicles while riding.

Oh, and About Taking Ellsworth Away From Skaters...

How is it that a PRIVATE company, the Downtown Silver Spring Shopping District, gets to control a PUBLIC street, and tell skateboarders they can't skate there?

When skaters were allowed to skate the lower part of Ellsworth Drive (below Fenton Street), we ONLY skated in the street -- on the pavement, which is absolutely not owned by DTSS. That's Montgomery County property, and I don't understand how a for-profit company is allowed to make decisions about how it's used.

Some years ago a Silver Spring skater named Lisa Jaeggi staged a skate-protest to address just this issue. To my knowledge, no one has ever answered the questions she asked back then -- why is a private company telling members of the community what to do on public property?