A sensible reply to an irrational argument.

Parks & Recreation, the official magazine of the National Recreation and Park Association, an organization whose goal is to advance parks, recreation and environmental conservation efforts that enhance the quality of life for all people. The target audience is park professionals, urban planners, and concerned citizens. Kent Dahlgren, Executive Director of Skaters for Public Skateparks and long time Portland OR scenester wrote an article for the magazine titled “Taking It To the Street.” The article is not available on the NRP web site, but we have some highlights, complete with the requisite grunge typeface. How extreme.

According to (the complaining resident), the out-of-towners look “rough-and-ready.” They’re not wearing khakis and polos… Oh god. Here we go again. This joker is pissed cause he bought an overpriced house that sits on top of his neighbors and overlooks the West Linn skate park. His neighborhood association says they don’t like it. Well that means it’s time to move. The park sits in the midst of a pretty uptight neighborhood, that’s for sure. It’s time to get the folks over at Skaters For Public Skateparks to trot out the noise level studies again. Will they try to get it torn down? Seems implausible, but there’s a lot of collective wealth in those subdivisions. This guy has a lot of nerve posing for a picture in the skate park and giving his name, which is William Relyea. What a tool. Check out the story in the Aug 23, 2006 issue of the West Linn Tidings or read more commentary here.

Although I have many job titles — CEO, Executive Producer, Senior Consultant, Foundation Chairman, Bad Actor — the one I am most proud of is ‘Professional Skateboarder.’ NPR has a series called This I Believe which is basically a soap box for people to get on the air and foam at the mouth. Soetimes they have regular joes, but sometimes like on July 24th 2006, they have famous people like Tony Hawk.

Firefighters suspect arson in the August 16th fire that destroyed the vert ramp at Mount Trashmore – Virginia Beach. Looks like the Street Vs. Tranny battle has gotten out of hand. This long time landmark in skating has been rebuilt before. Hopefully it will rise from the ashes and the guilty party will hang from the deck. These things are usually the result of disgruntled park users who get kicked out, be they BMX riders who aren’t allowed or just troublemakers. Cold War bigwig Steve Grover is just weeks away from a vacation in Virginia Beach. Could this be his wife’s way of making sure he spends time with the family? Did someone forget to keep the damn racoons out my truck? Good news is that at least the big vert ramp came away unscathed and the park will remain open, forcing kids to learn how to drop in. Get the scoop from News Channel 3. More links and pictures after the jump.

In today’s Oregonian there is an article on yesterday’s casting call for the new Gus Van Sant film Paranoid Park. Has anyone seen Wassup Rockers? Kids left a bad taste in my mouth so I avoided Whassup Rockers like the plague. Even though the Wassup PR people kept sending us crap and Chad Muska and Roger Ebert both gave it a thumbs up, it seemed like it had the potential to be another creepy exploitive movie. Paranoid Park involves some young skaters and an incident at a local skatepark where some rough kids hang out. Guess which park they are filming at?

If there’s anything that says teenager, it’s a skateboard right? As part of the settlements levied against the tobacco industry they have been forced to spend money to prevent teens from using tabacco. They are all prettty half-hearted efforts like this advert. They act like it’s something that just isn’t good for you only if you are a teenager, as if everything is Ok once you turn 18. It’s actually a pretty cool illustration. Keep reading to see this ad from 2003 in a larger size.

A couple of years back Honda had an ad compaign for their low emissions and fuel efficient cars. I think it predates the Hybrid Civics actually. Somewhere I have the pages which might have a date. Right now all I can find is the scans which have a creation date of 4-28-00.