Homeless folks inhabiting Miyashita Park in Tokyo are understandably upset about the fact that their local government has sold the park out from under them. Apparently there were no public hearings or notices before the sale to NIke became final. NIke has plans to turn it into a well-landscaped skate plaza. The park has a sizable indigenous homeless population that will likely be displaced, and they’ve gained some support worldwide, but it seems to me that everyone is pissed off at the wrong people. Don’t get pissed at the people who bought your home for a bargain, get pissed at the bank that foreclosed on you. According to a short video about the situation, Nike refuses to respond publicly to anyone concerning the park. Not the greatest public relations plan, but maybe it’s geared towards some sort of Japanese culture hook that I’m not hip to. Watch the vid after the jump.
– Thanks to 100% Talkboarder for the tip. [Source: The Smoking Section]
57 comments
tara
no offense to anyone who is homeless. skateboarding is a huge market at this point. I happen to want to see a skateplaza built. Skate spots inprove neighborhoods, they give the kids something positive to do, hopefully giving them enough of an outlet, so they dont have to become homeless. If would be super cool of nike to help out the people of the park..
JF
I’m on it…
I work for NB.
Bob
JF, if you’re not kidding, and happen to check back here, I assure you that there’s a real niche market. Just try googling “wide skate shoes”. None of the “real” companies make them. And the wide sneakers that would go easy on neuromas tend to be too sloppy in the heel to work well for skating. In fact, even in “D” widths an SL-2 last would work well for a friend of mine who has a little backyard bowl (that’s actually shown up on this site, even though it’s at the opposite end of the country)… cuz he just developed neuromas, but has an unusually narrow heel instead of a wide forefoot. And yet another guy who skates his backyard is showing symptoms. So there really is a market. I have tried skating in rockered out New Balance walking shoes with an SL-2 last, and they do keep my neuromas from hurting, but they tend to keep my toe area from contacting the deck much (even with a very concave deck).
Bob
PLEASE New Balance get on it, in an SL-2 (narrow heel, wide forefoot) last, in 6E, so that I can stop wearing “Doc Frankensteins” without lighting up my neuromas. Hell, I’d trade a public skatepark for a pair.
egbert
Get New Balance on it. A simple skate shoe made in the U.S. of A.
baade
It’s easy to hate the swoosh but everyone on the self righteous kick should pull off one of their shoes and read the tag. They’re al pretty much made overseas. While you’re at it check out almost everything you’re currently wearing.
Getting back to the initial point 374 comments ago, it is pretty jacked for cities to sell a park without public input or notice, even if it does become a skate spot.
Welsh Pete
Correct and its been mentioned, plenty of times. But Nike set the standard and so they take the brunt. Still barefoot.
Talentlessquitter
Nikes are overpriced,unfortunately.
houseofneil
Nike make great skateshoes. Better than Vans and way better than “fall apart in 2 weeks” pieces of shit like DC and ipath. That’s all.
RH
‘And don’t even bring up Science Fair; that was a uniform too.’ But wait, at what point since the invention of urethane wheels have “Rockers” been more rebellious than “Jocks”? [I mean, if you’re gonna go with out-of-date references, might as well go WAY back to our parent sport’s origin, which was not with “jocks” but with un-uniformed warrior types. Who found(ed) a more stylin’ and less messy way of winning than spearing each other.] It’s when the style gets forced – like it has been in “Rock” since the mid-sixties – that it gets as shitty as, well, Thrashin’ (or, lately, Thrasher). When not, the not-very-harsh reality is, skating’s only as shitty as one’s last session. (So maybe they should have a game of skate for control of the Japanese park. Childress versus the homeless. And they of course are allowed to ply him with liquor.)
Fitz
That would be pretty core.
Seth
Ollie the magic bum
kilwag
Naked? Painted pruple? In a pinstripe suit? What about in a football uniform?
Fitz
Sorry Kilwag, but that’s a uniform too. We all wear one and we all think we’re above it. Occasionally, somebody comes along who strikes out on their own, and everything in our insular little world is briefly revolutionized.
Consider Gonz, Lee Ralph, Chad Vogt, Ben T, some fat kid from Glasgow… However, hating on this, that, and the next thing wil only stifle the pastime we purport to love. Go ride a bike or something. Too many fucking rules now. This shit is dead.
kilwag
That’s it. I’m going to skate tough in flip flops.
Fitz
You guys simply miss the point. Vans are a uniform. The brands you choose to support are a uniform. The fact you elevate the behavior of those who represent one brand over another is akin to supporting yoiur favorite football team. Skating isn’t a counter-culture because it can only model itself on the mainstream. It’s over. The jocks won.
Don’t be too sad though. You can still do all this on your own terms. Skate for the right reasons. Or admit to yourself your a jock in rocker’s clothing. If you really want to be different, quit.
corncobcock
how many football players ride for Vans? Pussies! PAY ME! I’ll say anything.
bailgun
vans couldn’t afford football players. they also lack the research and development facilities necessary to make the futuristic football moon boots most football players wear.
they do make and excellent yachting shoe, though.
reality
Vans is owned by VF Corp (the largest clothing manufacturer in the world), so I’m sure Vans can afford to anything it wants. And, I’m sure one of their sister brands sponsors plenty of football players, etc.
Welsh Pete
Case closed. Jeff’s the expert on homelessness and Japan, so its all OK. Nike is wonderful. Without Nike, skateboarding, Japan, the homeless, Fitz’s family and the Asian teenage labor force would all go to shit. Hooray!!
It reeks. All of it. Skateboarding, globalization, capitalism, fuck it… I’m barefoot from now on.
Fitz
My family will go to shit with or without the help of the benevolent swoosh… But as to the rest of it, yep, it sucks, it reeks, and it makes me hate skateboarding. Riding the thing, on the other hand, can be pretty fun. The rest of it? No thanks.
Oh, and I’m so gonna buy a pair of Nikes. Can’t get ’em at the employee store, but my Sis-In-Law has a hook up… Man, they look just like Vans, which look like Vox, which look like EVERYTHING ELSE. Opps, sorry, caps button got away from me. As I was saying, it’s a sad little state of affairs that we have the luxury to argue over these trivial little things. Remember, if skating ceased to exist tomorrow, the world wouldn’t even hiccup, much less notice.
Fuck you in advance.
kilwag
Hippie!
conahan
Still waiting for that recommendation of a local skate cobbler using sustainable methods and materials and producing an affordable product.
kilwag
OK. So there you have it. I thought those guys in the videos looked well kept, not like the typical homeless people you see here in Portland.
conahan
Unless Jeff is really a corporate shill! Did you check his credentials?
Jeff
Nah.. Not a corporate shill.. Actually I despise Nike for their sweatshop labor, but it appears that in this case they “done good”. I am a HS teacher, and run a small website selling skategoods here in Tokyo (www.sk8tokyo.com). If anyone heads out this way, I’d be more than happy to hang out and meet some new folks. I usually hang out a Kawaguchi skatepark on Weekends, but occasionally make the trek out to Mitaka. Skatescene here in Japan is EXPLODING! seriously.. so many kids and adults skate now. I think Tokyo is perhaps the best place to be for a skater now.
kilwag
Yeah, he said he was “jeff” and everything seems legit.
conahan
For that matter, scum is likely working for a Nike competitor, who else would care what shoes other people wear?
Jeff
Tokyo resident here – I dont think the majority of you understand the homeless in Japan. Hence the reason that I see Americans/Canadians/westerners giving food to the puzzled homeless in Ueno park. They are not poor. They are not destitute. They get a very generous compensation from the Japanese government every month.
These people are homeless because they WANT to be. They have chosen to drop out of Japanese society and live on their own. Homeless in Japan usually have money. Sometimes more than I myself have with a job, family, apartment, etc. Yes, I know that this is very different from what happens in western countries, and understant that many are homeless not by their own choice. The majority of Japanese homeless are that way because they dont want to pay taxes, dont want the pressure of japanese society, and perhaps enjoy the community of their own kind.
I skate, and live in Tokyo, and myself as well as my friends have no pity for these people. Go setup your blue tarp along the arakawa/Edo river where the thousands of other homeless that dont live in central Tokyo go. There is a small percentage of these people that are mentally ill, and for those I feel pity, but I would like to say thank you to Nike, as well as the Tokyo government for a new (legal) place to skate. Tamachi park is terrible, the pay-to-skate parks are tiny and crowded, and most anyplace else in Saitama requires a car to get to.
ilir
Thanks 4 this info concerning the artists/bums of tokyo. I’m a skater and artist from Belgium and I feel as if both are important and should have a platform for expression.
Treacherous L. Sweetness
I know I am late on this one but I am glad someone wrote this. The vast majority of homeless in Japan are homeless by choice. Let them bugger off to some other public space. I don’t know about Tokyo but here in the Osaka area spots are slowly getting skate-proofed so I welcome any creation of new turf and a nice public park is just what could use out here. I look forward to checking it out the next time I am in Tokyo.
Kuri
Agree with Jeff.
15+ years in Japan and am pretty aware of the situation – including Miyashita Park… Many of these people have a home – and a wife and children in many cases, they just don’t want the responsibility. While I absolutely feel for those that fall between the cracks in a system that doesn’t treat its needy that well, these guys generally only live in Miyashita because they choose to.
As to the Wall-of-Silence that surrounds this whole thing, that’s so Japan… Really, what can Nike and the local Shibuya Council say to mitigate this? “Fuck off” doesn’t really send the right message, does it? So they stand in imperious silence and think it instead.
kilwag
If those guys are basically just hippies then fuck em!
Carl is a dick
BADUMP-BUMP!
cold ones
Still not as bad as Flojo Sandals role in the Rwandan genocide
Sk8 D
build shelters in the ramps like jerb says, let the homeless inhabit the park at night when nobodies using it…..they can stay for free as long as they keep their space and the park clean…similar to the arrangement we have with the guy that sleeps on our stoop. no poop then you can keep the stoop.
kc
Nike should build a homeless plaza/shelter close by. Give them jobs, health care, etc.
colinwalshrules
piss in my mouth
nweyesk8
I am well aware that burnside was built by skaters, but how many of those skaters said.” fuck the homeless, we would rather have a place to skate.”
Welsh Pete
that’s an excellent point. just because its skateboarding, doesn’t make it right.
colinm
i am confused as to why the homeless people were alowed to live there in the first place.
Welsh Pete
because its not like Portland, where they force the homeless out onto the fringes of society? because its a public park?
Talentlessquitter
Well,their shoes have a sole…….OK,that worked better on the Beatles album.
scum
do you history homework. burnside was build by skaters, alot that were homeless and lived in the spot. Nike has billions. They can point to any spot and build it. No heart and no soul, just like their shoes..
Welsh Pete
Burnside is also on private land, correct? It was not public space.
Fitz
It’s easy to take shots at Nike because they don’t fit the proper skateboard-company mold. However, a whole lot of my family work for Nike, and I occasionally work for a company who they hire. By and large, the designers I’ve met are decent people. And like everyone else I’ve met who works with or for Nike, they take excellent care of their employees and have little but praise for the business they work for. Quite a bit of heart and a surprisingly large amount of soul, it would seem.
nweyesk8
Is Vans really any different? Isn’t Nike re-investing something into skateboarding by building a public skate plaza? Didn’t the area that is now world famously known as Burnside Skatepark, once have a non-skatboarding indigenous population? I’m just asking questions 😉
kickflip
First, if it was a public park and sold, it was the local government who should be held responsible for the sale, not Nike. They make it sound like Nike forced the Japanese government on this – that’s not what’s happening here. Second, what about the 100k people that Nike employs to actually work? These people might be able to get a job with Nike (at the new skatepark), but I don’t think they want to work – they’re “artists”. Third, these people want to keep living for free – presumably, they don’t pay taxes – on land that isn’t theirs. Fourth, if this was a Japanese corporation that bought the land, we wouldn’t be hearing about it.
As much as I don’t like Nike as a brand, this whole thing isn’t their issue. If you want to be upset, be upset at the Japanese government.
Welsh Pete
Nike have to take some responsibility here. They know the circumstance they are ‘buying’ into.
As far as ‘these people want to live for free.’ You obviously have very little understanding of why people end up on the streets.
It sounds as if, if the Nike development is successful, public land will essentially become commercial space, ‘pay to play’. That’s perhaps the biggest tragedy here.
scum
see what you kooks are supporting..keep wearing the swoostika.
Julian
Nice, front page of NYtimes, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/world/asia/22poverty.html?hp
corncobcock
too obvious and easy…
Welsh Pete
I know Nike have splashed their logos over many basketball courts and skateparks in this country but how the hell can a American Corp buy ‘public space’ like that in Japan?
Free shoes for the displaced locs, at least?
jerb
only nike can make something like skateboarding oppressive. how far we have come.
jerb
cant they just sleep under the mini?
conahan
Homelessness sucks.
tobin
all I want to know is : where does Chet stand?