In an unusually passive decision, the City Council concluded last night that it is not government’s responsibility to protect young skateboarders who may be jeopardizing their safety by refusing to wear mandated equipment at the city’s new Skateboard Park.
Instead of cracking down on the hordes of equipment-law violators, as one family has been pleading for the Council to do for weeks, members adopted a laissez faire attitude.
The Mainspring Value
The underlying message of the Council’s 4 to 1 vote was that it valued compliance more than punitive measures.
In the words of Vice Mayor Carol Gross, it is not City Hall’s job to shake a paternal finger at scofflaw skaters.
“It really comes down to ‘what is the role of government?’” she said. “Is the role of government to take on responsibility for how people live their lives and to control them?
“Or is it to provide enrichment, and give families breadth of opportunities?”
Answering her own question, the vice mayor said forcefully: “It is up to parents to be responsible for their children.”
Role of Government
Councilman Steve Rose, who joined Ms. Gross on the subcommittee that crafted the six-part oversight plan that was adopted, took a similar stance.
“Government cannot be every place all of the time,” he said in opposing more stringent supervision of, by far, the hottest park spot in town. “If parents are not enforcing the equipment rules, that is where part of the problem lies.”
Let families choose the bad guys, not City Hall, Mr. Rose said.
Lighter Restraints Favored
Mayor Alan Corlin was equally enthusiastic about the restrained, light-fingered approach.
“I truly believe over-regulation could be worse than under-regulation,” the mayor said shortly after snapping at sometimes-ally Scott Malsin for making a “nonsensical” suggestion that involved close police enforcement.
“I, for one, do not want to see the police going into (the Skateboard Park),” Mr. Corlin said for emphasis.
Rhetorically he asked, “Are we going for compliance or punishment?”
Clearly, there was a difference of opinion between the mayor and Mr. Malsin, who said:
“I think (having police) writing tickets is a great way to gain compliance.”
Hands Off Preferred
From the outset of the brushfire-sized controversy — no community protests have been heard except from the activist Cary Anderson and his wife Tina — Mr. Corlin has stood at arm’s length from a tough verdict. “Before taking draconian measures,” said the mayor, the weeks-old park should have a chance to shake out.
“The recommendation from the subcommittee is adequate to keep the park running, though it is not adequate to allay people’s fears.”
Mr. Corlin acknowledged that “it may not make sense to lay people that we have less liability for the less supervision there is.”
As the sole dissenter, Councilman Gary Silbiger was worried about the safety of assertedly under-protected skaters. He fears that skaters’ vulnerability will swell in inverse proportion to the amount of supervision.
Here is a summary of the supervision strategy approved by the City Council:
Continue to operate the Skateboard Park as an unsupervised park, as outlined by state law.
Continue to enforce the existing Skateboard Park rules and regulations.
Improve enforcement through periodic sweeps.
Install a light fixture to illumine the entrance area.
Prepare large signage re-enforcing the benefits of proper gear.
Offer incentives for skaters who comply with the rules.
COUNCIL NOTES — Councilman Rose authored the blue-ribbon line of the night. For his colleagues who seemed determined to punish rules-flaunting skateboarders, Mr. Rose playfully suggested a City Hall jury could pass on waterboarding and instead sentence the newly criminalized to sit through an overblown City Council meeting…Mayor Corlin, on why he joined Councilman Silbiger in opposing technical last-minute touches to the redevelopment of 9900 Culver Blvd.: “I do not like the way we were handled by the developer”…The several members of the public who showed up early last night in Council Chambers, accidentally walked in on a joint meeting of the Cultural Affairs Commission and the City Council. Dr. Luther Henderson is the very soft-spoken, cultured chair of the Cultural Affairs Commission. As a bonus, the audience was treated to a preview of the way City Council candidate Dr. Luther Henderson might conduct himself next year on the dais…A lady who identified herself as a representative of the corporate dimension of the ousted Edge Swim Team read into the record a rip-roaring condemnation of city officials. She blamed Mr. Corlin, Parks and Recreation Director Bill LaPointe and others for allegedly performing less than honorably in the last days before the large and popular team was evicted because, said City Hall, of alleged actions by coach/founder Patrick Moran…Who said time moves slowly? Ronnie Jayne, new chair of the Fiesta La Ballona Committee, for next August, convenes her people for the first time later today. “After all the organizing Laura Stuart did as this year’s chair, there’s hardly anything for me to do,” said the classy entertainer…