The New York Times web site has a feature about skateboarders capitalizing on the mortgage crisis by finding, draining, and skating pools of houses that are in foreclosure. Skate and Annoy even gets mentioned due to our heads up on Billy Runaway’s photos of said pools. It seems like whenever we get quoted by the legitimate press, (Hard to believe, but it happens) they provide a link to web site, but never the article in question, so here is the original post for all our newfound friends from the New York Times. I wasn’t aware that we were a site “where skaters trade tips about how to find and drain abandoned pools.” Maybe they are rerring to Kent’s old article on how to drain a pool using existing plumbing in the DIY section. Aside from SnA being highlighted, it’s also intersting that the mainstream press picked up on this. There has to be a skateboarder on staff.
-Thanks to Maureen, Pribble and Hass for tip.
52 comments
Courtney
I read this and the first thought that came to mind was possibly this could be turned into a charitible thing…perhaps charge money to help get those people back into their homes, just a thought.
Huckleberry Hart
Skaters are brilliant!
Fitz
And yet I feel pretty working class after 40 plus hours of good times in the transportation business…
Curious.
xfryarx
Fitz said “I
Fitz
Hey Daddy-Yo,
I’m 100% Scot–and I know all about my country. Furthermore, I’m quite likely far more educated than you, and I know all about this country too.
You on the other hand, are quite possibly the dumbest motherfucker I have ever run across. You are ignorant, uniformed, antagonistic, and under it all, I bet you’re an utter coward.
Now fuck off, and stop wasting space.
skaterdave
Marek, our gasoline prices went up thanks to Republican introduced legislation that was desired by Greenspan, and signed into law by Clinton in 2000… the Commodities Futures Modernization Act also has a nifty loophole inserted by then Sen. Gramm (R) that is often referred to as the “Enron loophole”…blaming Clinton would be a bit simplistic, as he was bending to the will of our very powerful investor class…most of us make money using our bodies and minds;the investor class profits by using other peoples’ money and other peoples’ labor…they flocked to the commodities markets when they realized everything else was a house of cards – now the cards are tumbling…
bk
100% Fucktard
DaddyYo
Simply Stupid – you live up to your screen name.
Marek – you sound like a child that has been influenced by the American hating American hippies.
Have either of you heard of the oil speculation market being responsible for the high cost of oil that we experienced?
This is part of the best explainnation I could find. Why don’t you both do a little research instead of parroting back the liberal class warfare of Obama?
“The large purchases of crude oil futures contracts by speculators have, in effect, created an additional demand for oil, driving up the price of oil to be delivered in the future in the same manner that additional demand for the immediate delivery of a physical barrel of oil drives up the price on the spot market,” the Senate report stated. “As far as the market is concerned, the demand for a barrel of oil that results from the purchase of a futures contract by a speculator is just as real as the demand for a barrel that results from the purchase of a futures contract by a refiner or other user of petroleum.”
DaddyYo
skaterdave – Yeah, what happened about not responding to me. Why are you still doing it? I do my own research. You just repeat what you heard on NPR and CNN and read in TIME and NEWSWEEK.
I don
DaddyYo
Fitz – no your are one of those ignorant idiots who disregards his own country to hide an utter lack of knowledge of it.
Simply Stupid
It is funny to me they are just finding out how to use Google Earth. I have been hunting down skate spots for years with that program. There was a program 3 years ago that could be purchased from Google where Google would give updates on almost any spot on earth every 30 seconds to 15 minutes. It was expensive but a friend let me use his computer where it was already paid for. IT IS THE SHIT. The best thing about google earth is the ditches that can be scoped out most of the time all that is needed with them is a little cement. There are not as many pools in NY or Oregon that is why the pool scene is not big there. Arizona, Nevada, Texas, New Mexico are all hot for this shit though. NY times are lost in Cali blur again.
marek
it is also very hard to scope, drain, and clean pools in california from lets say portland or new york. so not only amount of work but also distance from pool paradise in california makes it pretty impossible to really “blow it out” pool-situation-wise 🙂
davoud
regarding the ORIGINAL TOPIC, i dont think they had a skater on staff. i wondered how they got the idea for this because they called me as well (probably via google search for pool foreclosure). and blowing it out-wise, at least they talked to the right people who are doing this shit instead of dave ruel and salba. whatever, probably one or two more people who weren’t already finding pools with the internet will now, but the amount of work and time it takes to scope, drain, and clean pools that are foreclosures or for sale is more than most people are up for.
marek
about that gas price drop… besides the undeniable decline in demand for gas (however i think it is not as substantial to justify such a price decline) i think that political reasons are definitely valid thoughts coming to my mind. somebody might point out that price of gas is set on free market but free market is definitely affected by political news and outlooks.
i also have a theory about gas producers having some sort of deal with car manufactures. i think it would be stupid from oil producing countries, where some of the biggest money reserves are to not let car manufactures tap into those profits one way or another. profits of oil producers are simply incredibly dependent on how much gas those cars use and withholding gas saving technologies for years is a proof on its own. current problems of car manufacturers all over the world would almost call for short term decline in price, kinda like a favor form oil producers? i got this thought when i saw bunch of people checking out some SUVs again after long time of nobody even considering to buy such a car. people are so stupid.
hey, but thats just my theory and anybody is welcome to explain to me how wrong i am.
Simply Stupid
“I love my country but it
skaterdave
I’m a world traveller with relatives in Canada and Australia. I’ve been to enough other countries to understand that “Land of the Free” is a slogan not reflected by reality…you know it Marek…I love my country but it’s sad that so many of my fellow citizens have been tricked into voting against their own economic self-interests by our corporate controlled media…
skaterdave
I won’t forget about the Gramm Leach Bliley Act either, speaking of reasons for our current economic woes…
skaterdave
What happened to the idea of not responding to the “BattyHo”? It shows off it’s limited choice of “news” outlets by repeating Fox news lies…yeah, blame the near collapse of the WORLD’S economy on poor minorities in the U.S. hahahahahahahaaa…it probably wants to blame union labor for the auto industry’s ills…IndyMac,Lehman Bros etc didn’t have unions, why did they fail? ( don’t answer, cuz I won’t respond) Credit default swaps were referred to as “financial weapons of mass destruction ” years ago by someone far better versed in economics than you or I…derivatives have never been fully understood, even by those using them!!! Your beloved free market is failing spectacularly world-wide…several years ago when responsible and honest economists were pointing out the fact that our economy was propped up by a real estate “bubble” , Alan Greenspan DENIED it was a bubble…he said there might be “a little froth”, but even if there was a bubble, it wasn’t going to burst, but would likely deflate gradually…hahahahahahahahaaaa…perhaps the BattyHo missed it when Greenspan recently admitted publicly, that his belief in unregulated free markets was a huge mistake…many of the world’s poor right now are victims of students of Milton Friedman who have been travelling the globe since the seventies, pushing privatization and free markets on dictators and democracies alike…from Chile and Argentina, to Poland, China, and Russia, the game has been the same: take advantage of crisis to push privatization by secret or strong-arm rule changes and watch the investor class get dizzyingly rich while the ranks of the poor swell unchecked…Bush has done it in Iraq (Grover Norquist helped write their constitution), and New Orleans post Katrina… Oh yeah, Greenspan’s mistake was that he failed to account for human greed…hahahahahahahaaaa…go back to Little Green Footballs or wherever else they believe the pap you swill and spew…
Fitz
Hey Marek, I care about Czech history, and Czech people.
Then again, I’m not one of those ignorant idiots who disregards other counties to hide an utter lack of knowledge of them.
czech yo self!
tata yo jeden detatko Dravy. Ignorovat jemu.
not a fan
Clearly you do, Daddy Yo, as you commented and responded, and are keeping it going. See, when normal people lose interest in something(i know,hard concept)they let it go. thats why you are getting fewer responses to your posts.
Theres no point, and since God wont drop a rock on you and no one has killed you yet,the option more are taking is to straight up ignore you.
i doubt you are even managing to piss anyone off anymore,you’re just boring and unwanted now. that statement also likely applies to your childhood as well.
ps:your mom was a single mom
pss:and a whore
But im glad marek responded and i couldnt have said it better.
Kilwag
I’ve been to Canada!
marek
for example us army thanking czech chemical troops for saving their really sorry pathetic ass in both gulf wars. ever since your government lies to its people they have to rely on other armies special troops to do their dirty work.
you wanna know what right we have (and whole EU with us)? same as yours plus little things such as universal healthcare, consumer rights protection, employee rights protection, right to party and drink where the fuck you want and bunch of other freedoms you cant even imagine. i bet you dont even have a passport, idiot. im fucking done with you.
Kilwag
Czechs do.
DaddyYo
marek – who could gives a shit about Czech history or Czech anything for that matter?
marek
buddy, right to own private property was never taken away from czech constitution during last hundred years. what was strictly limited was right to have your own business, but even that was possible, granted in very limited manner. you obviously dont know shit about czech modern history and yet you think you can school me. it doesnt surprise me that it comes from idiot of your magnitude.
its getting boring to answer your very stupid and misinformed posts. have good day and eat dick.
DaddyYo
rollerboardandannoy.com
carvin marvin
flowboardandannoy.com
DaddyYo
Josh – was wondering who would be the first to use your response.
My goal here is to educate and entertain. I’m polite to those who are polite to me.
I ride a skateboard of sorts so I guess that makes me a skateboarder of sorts. A skateboarder rides his skateboard. I have ridden mine every day for the past four days. How about you?
Carl
I skated with Welsh Pete once.. didn’t catch a word he said.
carvin marvin
citizenship and nationalaties are overblown, i’m a foreigner wherever i go, and i’m stoked to skate with red necks and communists, ahteists, fundamentalists, moslems, hindu, budhist, yoga, vegetarian? i don’t care, let’s skate. no english? no problem
josh
It looks like a non-skateboarder coming to a skateboarding web site would have some manners.
DaddyYo
Carl – you are right. Now is the time to start coming up with skatepark design that isn’t modeled after stupid “swimming pools”.
DaddyYo
Back to suplementing your third-world education :
What about all of the derivative mortgage backed security products bought and sold by Frannie and Freddie and the private banks and sold around the world? Do those also have the guarantee of the Federal Government because they are based on sub-prime mortgages that the government guaranteed?
That
DaddyYo
“coming from land of imaginary freedom”
Don’t think I didn’t notice that slam against the US. I guess you think the Czech Republic is the land of actual freedom. I mean, you have had the freedom to own private property ever since 1989!
It looks like a foriegner coming to an American web site would have some manners. I guess you have some catching up to do with the rest of the civilized world.
Carl
Now I get to go to skatepark meetings and complain about natural tranny being everywhere and how there is no reason to build bowls anymore.
Rintoul
What is old is new again. Isn’t this what was kinda going on in the mid to late seventies when all this pool skating stuff got started?
Carl
HELLO! ARE YOU NOT PAYING ATTENTION???
Before you submit this, are you Daddy Yo?
ARE YOU RESPONDING TO A COMMENT BY DADDY YO?
If you answered yes to either of these questions, please consider NOT submitting your comment!
DaddyYo
No BrantW
PRBL
levered up to the hilt, the GSEs collapsed while choking on the credit risk of Alt-A mortgages (Fannie) and private label subprime securitizations (Freddie)
Kilwag
For the love of Bjork, I won’t tolerate any anti-Icelandic sentiments on this site!
marek
now that is a discussion using facts. however in this case i have to say that european BANKS and NOT europeans bought those packaged mortgages. plus there wasnt any lending to idiots. i guess i dont have any arguments left… wait, im from czech republic, which means im from the country where bankers stayed relatively away from those opportunities coming from land of imaginary freedom saying it sounded too good to be truly safe investment. i am gonna take credit for it and say that bankers in my country are smarter than… lets say iceland bankers.
Kilwag
You forgot about the stupid europeans that ended up buying those mortgages mixed in with a bunch of of bad american debt.
marek
brantw might not be paying attention but hes dead on and why not to tell the truth in the face of badly misinformed or just simply lying idiot? plus i have to applaud to using very politically correct term “warped sense of risk” for something i call : FUCKING STUPID AMERICANS on both sides of lending process.
i know i know we shouldnt point and laugh at retards they might take it personally and spit back at you. i gonna get kicked out of the team AND the cuntry all because one post. i am not sorry, randy
Simply Stupid
Yeah for banks wanting to issue bad loans for houses. Now we can skateboard pools. There is too much snow here for me to do that though. FUCKING New York Times not including that in the article.
Fitz
HELLO! ARE YOU NOT PAYING ATTENTION?
bdg
Funny
The chimps at The Big Picture blog
are referrencing you…. congrats
BrantW
DaddyYo…it is YOU that are ill informed. The housing bubble was a side effect of the credit bubble…and AG was the #1 credit peddler of all time. For 15 years he was a one trick pony…every time things looked to be going wrong…he pumped credit into the system.
This created a warped sense of risk. No one thought anything could ever go wrong…so they took way too much risk…too much leverage. That is what enabled the securitization boom…and thus the nonsensical lending standards in RE that enabled the RE bubble.
As for blaming the GSEs..get a clue. The dicated lending practices were a drop in the bucket. All the Wall Street IB’s went under because of privately originated, non GSE securitized loans. From 2003-2006…the GSE were lamenting their loss of market share, and subprime and jumbo (non conforming) share ot he marketplace dropped. The GSE’s went under becuase they had too much leverage. Again this arose out of warped sense of risk….which in an of itself was a direct result of the Greenspan put.
You are a moron.
DaddyYo
Sorry to disagree, but the Greenspan quote made skateboarders look ill informed. Greenspan had nothing to do with the real estate market over valueuation and bust.
I guess the skateboarder couldn’t have said “Gob bless the Clinton-era CRA rascist lending, Frannie Mae and Freddie Mac subsequent purchase and repackaging of unqualified sub-prime loans and the spread of the bad loan dirivatives through out the international lending system.”
That would have been the truth but a little complicated for a NY Times quote.
Milo Janus
Love the Greenspan quote!
But still, editors at S&A, take note: just because the NYT covered a skate-related story in Cali, that doesn’t mean that there is no need for such coverage out east! We need to start seeing more E coast coverage (and not just NYC)!