Council OKs 6th Ordinance Limiting Skateboarders

Reclaiming more local walkways from the wheeled daredevils who skim the city’s sidewalks, the City Council adopted a resolution to prohibit skateboarders, roller-bladers and bicyclists from using pedestrian ways at the Albertson’s-Longs Center in east Ventura.

The vote came despite an eloquent plea from 11-year-old Brandon Crudo to give city skateboarders somewhere to go.

“I don’t mind if they prohibit it from the shopping center,” Brandon said, pulling the microphone down to his level to speak. “But the city needs to build a skateboard park. They tell us to leave, but there’s no place to go.”

Mayor Jack Tingstrom promised Brandon he would do his best to find a skateboarding solution for the city.

“Stay tuned, Brandon,” Tingstrom said, “because we are going to do something.”

The new skateboarding prohibition becomes the sixth no-skateboarding ordinance at a Ventura commercial center.

The Borchard Shopping Center, Victoria Plaza Center, Ashwood Shopping Center, the Central Shopping Center and the Ventura County Federal Credit Union have all already received the city’s approval to forbid skateboarding.

The ordinance does little more than give shopping center owners a little more clout when they say “no” to skateboarders.

“This gives them [shopping centers] the legal ability to say they can’t do it, instead of just saying, ‘Don’t do it,’ ” says Maura Matteucci, an associate planner.

Most store owners have already tacked up signs in their parking lots, but the signs do little to deter skateboarders.

“We try to use voluntary compliance,” said Ventura Police Lt. Brad Talbot. “We usually give a warning before a citation. But sometimes even though there are signs all over the place saying ‘no skateboarding’ it takes us to take them out.”

Skateboarders who disobey the ordinance could face a fine of up to $100, according to the city attorney.

Skateboarding is also forbidden downtown. From Ventura Avenue to the west, Ash Street to the east, Poli Street on the north, to Harbor Boulevard on the south--boarders, bikers and bladers must dismount and walk on the sidewalks.

Even as the city marks new tracts of cement off-limits to skateboarders, council members continue to deliberate over where to build a skateboard park. The city has set aside $350,000 to build an approximately 10,000-square-foot skateboard park--equipped with smooth surfaces, jumps and launching platforms. But the proposals so far have met with resistance.

Next Monday, the City Council is scheduled to consider whether to proceed with plans to build a public skateboard park in Cemetery Park, between Poli and Main streets.