Council in Thousand Oaks Gets Tough on Sidewalk Skateboarders

It’s been there for years, but the No Skateboarding sign posted at the Newbury Park Plaza shopping center hasn’t deterred groups of kids from rolling down the sidewalks in front of Albertson’s, flipping over the curbs in front of Thrifty and irritating hundreds of shoppers along the way.

Fed up, merchants at the shopping center banded together to find a more effective solution than the useless sign: police protection.

Tuesday night, the Thousand Oaks City Council unanimously approved an ordinance making it possible for sheriff’s deputies to enforce the rules at Newbury Park Plaza on Reino Road and Best Buy Plaza on Moorpark Road.

City officials have already passed ordinances banning skateboarding in many other shopping centers in Thousand Oaks, including the Westlake Plaza Center, Mrs. Gooch’s Shopping Center, Times Square Shopping Center, Oakbrook Shopping Center and the North Ranch Mall. Deputies can issue warnings, tell the kids to leave the premises and even issue tickets.

The cities of Ojai, Simi Valley and Ventura have already exiled skateboarders from busy shopping areas in their communities, and supporters of the mostly teen riders have urged government officials throughout the county to construct skateboard parks to keep them off the streets and away from retail establishments.

The Thousand Oaks council’s action comes not a minute too soon for Tony Dolim, property manager at Newbury Park Plaza. Dolim said the problem with skateboarders has plagued the center for years, causing complaints from customers. Merchants have tried asking the youngsters to leave, he said, but are hesitant to push the issue.

“They fear that their windows will get broken,” Dolim said.

Some merchants fear not only for their customers, but for the kids themselves.

“The skateboarders are just doing their tricks and not really paying attention to traffic,” said Christine Sehi, a floor coordinator at Ross Dress for Less in the Best Buy center. “It’s just really dangerous.”

But the skateboarders would rather have an alternative place to go than kindly concern about their well-being.

“Three years ago, we could skate anywhere. But now there are [No Skateboarding] signs everywhere,” said 14-year-old Chris Meyer of Newbury Park, who was testing his board at Newbury Park Plaza on Tuesday afternoon. He said he has been kicked out of parks, schools, shopping centers and tennis courts.

“The only place we’re allowed to skate is a skate park and they haven’t built one,” he added. “Everywhere we go, whatever we say, they always say to get lost.”

Jeremy Heath, Chris’ classmate at Newbury Park High School just across the street from the shopping center, said the problem is how skaters are perceived.

“They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but they judge us by the clothes we wear or the fact that we have a skateboard,” the 14-year-old said. “We’re just out to have fun. We’re not trying to cause any problems.”

Lance Winslow agrees with the skateboarders. During both of his unsuccessful campaigns for the City Council, Winslow, 31, pledged to build a skateboard park in Thousand Oaks. If the city is going to continue eliminating the places the youngsters can skate, officials have to come up with alternatives, Winslow said.

“They are making criminals out of ordinary kids,” he said. “Where are the kids going to go?”

Despite what adults might think, skateboard riders aren’t hoodlums, he said.

“There is nothing wrong with a person riding a skateboard,” Winslow said. “They are trying to excel at something; they practice all the time so they can get better. It’s almost like surfing.”

But he concedes that the sport can be hard on those who get in the way of the speeding wheels.

“It affects business,” Winslow said. “People are going to the door of a store and they are thinking, ‘I’m an old lady, I don’t want to get run over.’ ”

Winslow’s suggestion is to build three parks for skaters, one behind Thousand Oaks High School, one at Borchard Park in Newbury Park and one in the Westlake area. If residents rallied around and the park district donated land, he thinks that each park could be built for $20,000, or the cost of the concrete.

Although she voted for the ordinance, Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski said she does worry about both the skateboarders and the already overburdened deputies.

“I’m wondering, when we are hearing from our police department that their resources are strapped, whether this will overtax them,” Zukowski said. “And this does point to the fact that there isn’t anywhere for the kids to go.”

At Zukowski’s urging, the council also asked city staff to prepare a cost analysis of having deputies enforce the skateboarding ordinance and parking regulations throughout the city.