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]

It’s April and one of our readers who wishes to remain anonymous just broke ground on a backyard bowl. Congratulations! Oh man, you’re going to be blown away. Ask MC about his post pour stoke level. Check out this week’s Shot of the Week, and try to guess where it is.

Ha ha! No excuses this month because this one should be right on time! Midway through the following month is right when you should start looking for Baywatch, and I pretty much made it! Some months are a chore to write, and it feels like pulling teeth, but some months just flow easily, and that was true of March. I think there’s a really good selection of stuff this month, with some high priced items but balanced out by some interesting but cheaper decks too. But enjoy this one because April is looking absolutely terrible so far. I can’t remember a month with so few high priced decks and so many uninteresting mid priced decks! Really, it’s a barren wasteland out there so far this month! And it’s funny because I just had an argument with a guy on skullandbones who asked why there are so few good NOS decks on eBay these days. I argued that he just wasn’t looking hard enough, which was probably true in March, but judging by April he is right. I hope that this worrying trend ends quickly, because this is going to be a damned dull column going forward if things continue at this rate!

And it stands for “Who Would Jesus Scam?” I was trying to track down rumor that American Ramp Company (AKA ARC) registered the names of famous skatepark building companies with alternate domains and had them forwarded to americanrampcompany.com. Think grindline.net, dreamlandskateparks.net, newlineskateparks.net, spohnranch.net, californiaskateparks.net and sitedesigngroup.info. I tried these myself and they ended up parked at Goddady.com and their anonymous registration service, save for Californiaskateparks.net that forwards to something called Hardcore Skateparks, which turns out to be wholly owned by… ARC. I had a post planned on ARC a while back. The used to have an unintentionally funny video introducing their staff and making them look like… a playground equipment company. Why did I bring up Jesus? Well because ARC did. They gave him his own area on the ARC site. I’ve heard rumors that ARC has taken to lawsuits and litigious threats of over lost bids. Maybe it should be Who Would Jesus Sue? Hey, has anyone tried skating in the rain on one of their metal ramps? ARC says it’s a go.

If they’re going to make all our skateboards, they might as well learn how to ride them. There’s a new Camp Woodward opening up in Beijing China. Woodward Beijing celebrates a grand opening on May 15th. Among other facilities, they’ve got a street plaza built by California Skateparks.

50-50.com has a Dan Bourqui gallery of sequential photos from the recent Clash At Clairemont. Clash At Clairemont is a Grind for Life event. The pictures might look a like an odd choice at first, but it’s because they are animated gifs and they take a while to load. That’s a cropped still of Lincoln Ueda up top. check it out.

Doling them out to you a little bit at a time. Thanks again to Danimal for the pics.

Toxic Skate in Vancouver, Wa is showing a Low Card video this Saturday the 17th at 8 pm.

Just don’t have time to get to it right this minute. Thanks to Danimal.

I was at a children’s birthday party (you know, looking for dates) that was outside. I noticed one of the skate stoppers was a little loose, so as I sat there and made polite small talk I just kept wiggling. After I got it home I rummaged through a pile of allen wrenches I had left over from assorted trips to Ikea. It turns out I had a handful of them that were the right size. I tried to rig up a drill to make a small hole in the tip to accommodate the nipple (Hee hee!) but I couldn’t get it to work. All my bits were already chewed up and I couldn’t make a purchase in the small end. Somewhere, someone i China is manufacturing theses modified allen wrenches. Finding them on the internet is like looking for a needle in a haystack . I may give it another go with a new drill bit. Until then, Enlarge-o-rama.