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# Leaders grind our children to a halt
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/leaders-grind-our-children-to-a-halt/
- Published: 2005-11-26T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T08:14:38.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless

This past week, Q-line asked: “How can City Hall increase access for residents to the new skatepark without putting a strain on its budget?”

Here are your responses: ✆ “In the first place, all these considerations should have been budgeted along with the building of the skatepark. How ridiculous can you get? Well, in Santa Monica, that has proven to be without limit. Anyway, please give these young people priority over the escalating bum population and put the money towards helping them, our young citizens rather than the greedy graspers and freeloaders that are overloading this city.” ✆ “This really nice skatepark intended for the use of our young people is yet another shrine to the incompetency and the inability of our city administration to look beyond their noses. Add this one to the monstrous-looking city library building, a building for the ages? Ugh. Anyway, take the money away from these useless homeless programs and give it to the citizenry by making the skatepark more usable and safe for the young people.” ✆ “The safest, most beautiful, and most healthful place to skate or ride a bicycle is on the Santa Monica bike path. The ocean salt air blowing onto the coastline from the west is clean and refreshing. In the years I have biked on the bike path I have never observed a crime being committed. I contribute the safeness of the path due to surveillance cameras being in place and nearly everyone who uses the path have cellular telephones and 911 emergency help is only three punches on a touch tone dial away. Still, I only recommend night skating and bike riding during the summer months. It becomes dark very early during the winter months and the path is less safe. In my opinion, the same caution applies to the skating park. During the summer months, skaters should be able to skate in sunlight until 8 p.m. without safety concerns. During the winter months, they should go home when the sun sets. We are living in a time when prudence dictates cautions. The life you save may be your own.” ✆ “Well, I think it’s terrible the city of Santa Monica has been so busy making a mess of things. Paying these lawyers millions of dollars instead of putting the money where we really need it, like the skatepark.

There’s no excuse for this terrible City Council that we have. They have really put things in a real bad situation for Santa Monica. So I say, let’s kick them out and get some new ones in with the exception, of course, of Robert Shriver.” ✆ “If all these skaters want to use the skatepark at night, why don’t they put the lights in themselves and let them pay for it? Why should everyone else have to pay for it?” ✆ “About the skatepark, it’s just another example of how things are not thought through by the city. They build a beautiful park and then no one can use it properly. They ought to put it in the budget whatever they need to begin with. Now they have to allocate money so it stays open. That’s ridiculous. Build something then lock people out? They ought to put the lights in and the staff on. They should have figured that to begin with.” ✆ “Are you telling me that hiring an eight-hour park ranger is going to be a strain on the city budget? That city yards’ electricians cannot wire the park for lighting? We can spend $1,000 for a dinner for outside City Hall lawyers to eat a meal, but can’t add six hours a day for a skatepark supervision? This is a no-brainer, but when dealing with City Hall no-brains it becomes brain dead. I think it’s a great idea to put all the skateboarders in one place rather than on the sidewalk outside your apartment. They can have a great time and stay out of trouble, but it should be only a nominal fee of $1\. Maybe the City Council brains are waiting for the pollution suit. A $100 million from the oil companies before they further fund the skate park. We contracted for outside lawyers to battle the big oil, maybe we could contract out for City Council members.” ✆ “Why do we have to pay to use the skateboard park when the skateboard park money is coming out of our city and out of our taxes? I just think it’s horrible that you have to have these young people pay for the skateboard park and for such a limited time.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 26, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/112605.pdf?ref=smdp.com)