VENTURA : Skateboarders Seek Park of Their Own

Complaining that police routinely run them off from a downtown plaza, dozens of skateboarders are asking the Ventura City Council’s help in building a park where they can skate without bothering others.

The group of young people, some sporting ragged clothes and multicolored hair, told the City Council late Monday that they are being forced out of the plaza at California and Santa Clara streets in downtown Ventura.

“I’ve been kicked out of just about everywhere I’ve skated--except at a skate park,” said Blane Brummer, an 18-year-old Ventura resident. “Basically what we need is a place of our own.”

The city ordinance regulating skateboarding, bicycling and roller-skating in public places does not ban those activities except in shopping centers where owners have requested the prohibition.

But Police Sgt. Carl Handy said he receives complaints every week from merchants.

“They’re down here terrorizing people,” Handy said of the skateboarders. “They completely ignore pedestrians and traffic signals. They’re totally reckless.”

Handy said city park officials plan to ban skateboarding in the California Street area within a few months--a decision he said would not need to be made by the City Council.

Council members agreed to form a committee to investigate building a skateboard park. But Councilman Gregory L. Carson said that until then, the skateboarders had better behave.

“We’re going to be keeping on eye on them,” Carson said. “We’ve got the new California Street plaza opening up down there and we didn’t spend the money to have it be a skateboard park.

“We’re looking for that to be a commerce area,” he said.