Weeding Out the Wheels : Newport Likely to Ban Boardwalk Skateboarding

As the sun set over crashing waves, 39-year-old Bob Lindsey watched his three children scooting up and down the oceanfront sidewalk, their tan legs placed firmly on skateboards darting left and right, flipping 180 degrees, and hopping over obstacles.

Lindsey, whose grandfather immigrated to Newport Beach from Italy in 1889, began skateboarding 30 years ago, when a wooden slab atop steel wheels made for a rickety ride. A lifelong resident of the affluent coastal community, Lindsey spends most afternoons on the boardwalk with his children, using the common denominator of the skateboard to make sure his family stays close.

“It’s fun to go down the boardwalk,” explained Maikai, 13, the middle child who excels in acrobatic competitions atop the board.

“It’s a good way to get around,” Sara, the oldest of the trio at 14, added enthusiastically.

“It’s not a crime,” piped in 12-year-old Shannon.

But if the Newport Beach City Council votes as planned tonight, skateboarding will be a crime--at least on the Ocean Front sidewalk, a 12-foot-wide concrete strip that separates the homes and the sand on the Balboa Peninsula between 33rd and E streets.

“If they stop it, it’ll be a real drag,” Bob Lindsey said when he heard of the proposed resolution to ban skateboards on the boardwalk. “Everybody’s always skated down this road. It’s just a sin that the kids are going to have to sneak around and skateboard like it’s a bad thing.

“Skateboarding lets stress out. The kids grab their skateboards, and they’re happy when they come back.”

For Lindsey, who describes his family as “real Newport people,” the boardwalk is “home.” But for city officials, the congested concrete strip is a hazard they cannot afford.

Most council members said they support the skateboard ban because they fear future lawsuits against the self-insured and budget-strapped city. They admit that most accidents do not involve skateboards--a 1991 jury ordered the city to pay $277,000 in damages to a pedestrian struck by a bicyclist, and a multimillion-dollar lawsuit involving an incident in which a dog jumped on an in-line skater is currently pending in Orange County Superior Court--but they say the boards are risky because they fly out from under feet when skateboarders fall.

“It’s just too dangerous,” said Mayor Phil Sansone of the busy boardwalk where pedestrians compete with wheeled vehicles of all shapes and sizes. “Trying to mix bicyclists, Rollerbladers and skateboarders--the system was just not built for that kind of use.”

If Sansone had his way, the skateboard ban would be just the beginning.

“As far as I’m concerned, we should ban everything on wheels,” he said at a recent City Council meeting. “If we get one more large lawsuit attributed to bicycle accidents, I suspect that we’re going to ban them off everything except public streets.”

Newport Beach already prohibits skateboarding in crowded commercial districts: the Balboa Island Fun Zone, on and around the city’s two piers and in McFadden Square. And in the wake of last year’s lawsuit, the council imposed an 8-m.p.h. speed limit on the boardwalk, opting against a proposed ban of bikes, skates and skateboards.

But as economics have made times tougher, council members are no longer willing to risk accidents on the beachfront strand.

“We just have to accept the fact that the city’s being sued every time we turn around. We need to protect our treasury,” Councilman Clarence J. Turner said. “Skateboards are the things which are not under control. If you’re on a bike, at least you have brakes. If you’re on Rollerblades, theoretically you can stop them. If you’re on a skateboard, it flies out from under you.”

Of all the wheeled recreational vehicles that dot the Southland’s streets and sidewalks, skateboards are perhaps the least tolerated. In Laguna Beach, it is unlawful to skateboard on any sidewalk; in Laguna Niguel skateboarders are prohibited from all streets except short cul-de-sacs; and in Huntington Beach, skateboarders found in business districts or creating a nuisance anywhere in the city are subject to arrest.

Enthusiasts complain that these restrictions stem from a misunderstanding of skateboarding. While most people perceive skateboarding as a hobby of rebellious punks, it is actually a competitive sport and a simple mode of outdoor transportation, supporters say.

“Skateboarding has much to offer the individual, the community and the nation,” Tom Cozens, president of the National Skateboard Assn., wrote in a letter of protest to municipalities considering skateboard bans.

“Skating provides . . . a feeling of individual accomplishment, an opportunity for creative self-expression, a forum for the positive release of youthful aggression and an escape from the pressures of family life, school and the world,” Cozens wrote. “The main cultural benefits are the fostering of a spirit of friendly competition coupled with mutual respect and providing a positive alternative to drugs and gangs.”

Bicyclists and in-line skaters who use the oceanfront sidewalk disputed the council’s notion that skateboarders are the source of the boardwalk’s problems and expressed concern that Sansone’s all-wheels ban might come to pass.

“It’s the pedestrians who are most hazardous because they’re oblivious,” explained David Underwood, 34, a Newport Beach resident and leader of the Orange County Bicycle Coalition. “The Rollerbladers, the skateboarders, they’re aware because they have to be. The people who walk aren’t looking around.”

Dan Ehmann, 33, who lives next to the boardwalk and in-line skates there nearly every day, opposes the ban on principle.

“Everybody should pretty much have the same right,” he said. “It’s almost unjust in a way that they don’t let people wheel the way they want. What are they going to ban next?”