YOUTH : LOS ALAMITOS : Youth Goes to Bat for Skating Park

Twelve-year-old Marcus Rosenthal takes his skateboarding seriously. So when the City Council recently passed an ordinance banning skateboarding and roller-skating in certain areas of the city, he did not take it lightly.

But he did not protest. Instead he offered a suggestion: Why not build a skate park for youngsters like himself?

Rosenthal, a seventh-grader at McAuliffe Middle School, says it’s unfair for the city to prohibit people from skateboarding on city streets and not provide a place where they can do it safely.

“I think a skateboard park is needed since the ordinance won’t allow us to skateboard and roller-skate in many parts of the city,” Rosenthal said.

He felt so strongly about the situation that he wrote a letter to Mayor Ronald Bates and spoke before the council in late April, when it considered the restrictions for adoption. He said he was so scared that he waited until there were fewer people in the council chambers before he spoke.

But it seemed that Rosenthal’s bold proposal would go for naught. While city officials were impressed with him and his suggestion, they said it would take about five to seven years before they could even consider the idea of a public skate park.

“We will take a look the next time we rehabilitate our parks and see if we can accommodate his request,” Bates said last week. “It may not be as elaborate as in other skate parks, but at least we can make our parks more friendly to skateboarders.”

Right now, the city does not have the money, Bates said, and there are concerns about safety and liability that the city has to consider. “But we are impressed that he came to us.”

The ordinance was passed on April 26 after business owners complained about damage to their properties caused by youths riding skateboards or roller-skating. Broken windows, weakened retaining walls and railings, and chips on curbs and sidewalks, were common, they said.

Under the ordinance, a business owner can ask the city to designate his property as a “no skateboarding or roller-skating zone.” After the proper signs are installed, violators may be fined $25 for the first offense and $50 for the second offense.

Police said most of the complaints came from business owners in commercial strips close to the Los Alamitos Race Course.

Last week, while practicing some jumps with a friend, Rosenthal said he was disappointed with the city’s response. He said he could not wait five to seven years before the city builds a skate park.

“By then, I’ll probably not be living here anymore or I’ll be in college,” he said. Rosenthal, who wants to be an architect, said he is willing to help design and raise money for the skate park. He said as many as 200 youngsters would use the facility.

He noted that several California cities, such as Palo Alto, Davis and Santa Cruz, have built public skate parks. Rosenthal suggested that the city could use part of Highlands Park for the facility.

But Bates said the park, which is undergoing renovation, would not be improved again for at least five years.