West County Issue / Skateboarding Ban

After merchant complaints, the Ventura City Council recently banned skateboarding at a shopping center on the corner of Thompson Boulevard and Borchard Drive.

Skateboarders are still riding there, however, as well as in other locations across the city. Do you think the ban went far enough?

Todd Collart

Ventura deputy mayor This was a first step. It will be difficult to enforce, given the ease with which skateboarders can maneuver. The City Council said that enforcement was not going to be the highest priority of the police force, and we will just have to do the best we can. The ordinance allows any property owner to apply to the city for an ordinance restraining or banning skateboarding at their center. If they can present sufficient information to document the need for an ordinance, I’m sure the city will take a similar action there. As for complaints from skateboarders that they aren’t guilty of causing damage, that may apply to many, but those who were skateboarding on the private property at that center were found to be a real nuisance. The majority of skateboarders are probably fine, decent people, and that’s why we decided not to have an outright ban on it, but rather to judge it location by location.

Jerrod Wilson

Ventura High School senior, skateboarder The ban hasn’t gone too far yet, but I hope it doesn’t get a lot worse. At least it’s not like in Santa Barbara, where you can’t even ride a skateboard down the sidewalk on State Street. To me, that’s taking it too far. A lot of the reasons that they say they banned it in Santa Barbara don’t seem to make much sense to me. One was that they say skateboarding disturbs customers, but I’ve never seen people disturbing customers. I try my hardest to stay out of their way. Then they say we’re damaging the curbs and stuff. But that doesn’t make sense. It’s not like people see the curbs and then decide not to shop someplace. I don’t think it will--or should I say I hope it doesn’t--ever get that bad here. There’s a lot of people skateboarding in this area, but it doesn’t seem to cause too much trouble. And I don’t think Ventura is that conservative yet.

Stan Alameida

Owner, Pickwick Fish & Chips The ordinance that they created at the City Council meeting sounds fine, and it looks good on paper. It goes far enough, but I think they need to enforce it. We haven’t called the police,so the kids are still here skateboarding. They come at night, when most of the shops are closed down, and there are a few who whiz by regularly even during the day and give me a “razzberry.” They know that I’m the one who is most against them. I think the patrolmen should have come on their own to check it out by now. I was told that there was supposed to be a sign put in stating that they can’t ride their skateboards here. Since they can’t start giving fines until that sign is up, they ought to get it here already. I’d prefer it if I could just tell them, you know, give a fair warning of the law, before taking drastic measures like calling the police. But I’m just afraid, if we let it slide, it will eventually get pushed under the carpet and nothing will stop them.

Dave Simmons

Owner, Dave’s Skateboards Skateboards are used for transportation, and in that respect, skateboarding shouldn’t be banned. If the City Council does decide to ban it in some areas, there should be an alternate place to skateboard provided. Powell-Peralta Skateboard Corp. has an indoor skateboard park in Goleta that is really pretty good. That sort of thing might be a good alternative. But kids still should be able to use them for transportation. I admit that some skateboarders could interfere with business, and there are probably a lot of little old ladies who may be frightened by some skateboarders, who as you know do not exactly look like Boy Scouts. I don’t want to say skateboarders are bad, though, because they’re not. I don’t know of any of them who destroy property elsewhere, and around here they certainly don’t. Part of their problem might be that most skateboarders don’t have a lot of economic clout in shopping centers, because they don’t buy much.

Joseph Guerra

Security officer, Marina Village No, I don’t think the ordinance went far enough. It’s just an ordinance in name only right now. It’s not really being taken very seriously by the kids. They still ride their skateboards, and lots of them don’t even know that we have signs posted here that say skateboarding is not allowed on our property. And the ones that do know don’t listen. Some of them do it just to give me a hard time. I’ve had kids make faces at me, give me the finger. I’ve been mooned a bunch of times. It’s terrible. You have to have a sense of humor to do this job, though. If I had my way, skateboarding would be illegal on all private property, but there should also be a place where the kids can get together to do it somewhere else. Their parents should use the power that their voices can carry to go out and get a place where it’s safe and legal for these kids to ride skateboards.