City Delays Proposed Ban on Skateboards : Camarillo: Meetings between youths and merchants are urged. Creation of a park for the activity also gains support.

Skateboard riders who have angered Camarillo merchants by using the city’s shopping centers as outdoor skating parks have won a temporary victory, with the City Council voting to delay a possible ban on the activity.

Instead, the council on Wednesday called for meetings between the skaters and shop owners to address the merchants’ complaints that some skaters have harassed customers, vandalized property and disrupted businesses.

At the same time, the council expressed support for the creation of a park to provide skaters with an alternative place to pursue their sport.

While police have received complaints from other shopping centers, the friction between skaters and merchants has been greatest at Village Square Shopping Center, according to Larry Davis, an assistant city manager.

During the summer, as many as 20 skateboarders would gather at several locations in the sprawling center, attracted by its sloping geography and inviting sidewalks, said Steven Reizer, the center’s property manager.

Efforts to persuade the skaters to leave were unsuccessful, he said.

“We started with reasonable, face-to-face requests, but that escalated their lack of respect for us,” Reizer said. “The skaters were not responsive to reason, legal pressure or enforcement.”

Although previous management had posted signs banning skateboarding, no city ordinance existed to enforce the prohibition, he said. “What we’re looking for is a way to maintain control of our shopping center,” he said in urging the council to allow property owners to prohibit skating.

Reizer and several merchants who spoke Wednesday described an increase in harassment by some of the skateboarders that included verbal insults, rude gestures and physical intimidation.

“I made so many complaints to police that I was on a first-name basis with the police dispatcher,” said Refugio Flores, who runs a martial arts studio in an area frequented by skaters. “If the kids would show a little more respect, we wouldn’t be here today.”

About a dozen skateboarders and several of their parents attended the meeting, pleading with the council for understanding.

“We’re stereotyping skateboarders as rotten kids who harass and vandalize,” said Lisa Bork, who added that police have treated her son like a criminal because he likes to skateboard.

Lee Robinson, a 23-year-old Moorpark College student, asked the council to look at skateboarding as a sport on a level with baseball, basketball, golf or tennis. “The city has plenty of golf courses and tennis courts, but there’s no place for kids to skate,” Robinson said.

Jake Von Radesky said the lack of skating facilities would make the ban unenforceable. “If you outlaw skateboarding, you’ll have outlaws,” Radesky said.

And some of the skateboarders who attended said they were also subject to harassment.

Heather Crilly, a 16-year-old sophomore at Camarillo High, criticized some of the center’s customers who complained that skateboarders played “chicken” by skating directly at them.

“These old people who are complaining are . . . old,” Heather said. “Most are so old they shouldn’t be driving anyway.”

While the council tabled the proposed ordinance to authorize skating prohibitions, the members lectured the skaters on the need for respect.

“This is not a matter of skateboarding,” said Councilman Michael Morgan, who identified himself as a recently retired skateboarder. “It’s more a matter of respect and disobedience. If you’re going to use a person’s property, you’re going to have to show respect or they’ll want you out of there.”

In the end, Councilman David Smith proposed a series of meetings between skaters and shop owners before the council would consider a skating ban. “Let’s see if there is a way to resolve this problem other than having law enforcement run from one shopping center to the next,” Smith said.

After the meeting, Smith said he proposed the meetings so the young skaters would not leave their first City Hall experience with the feeling that their interests were ignored.

“It will take an educational process until there is mutual respect --and there is none now,” Smith said. “Whether there’s a law or not, any solution will require some understanding on the part of the young people.”