On Monday Sept. 23rd I went in to Ridin' High at the corner of Pearl Street and Battery Street and asked them (John and Anna) a few questions about the skateboard scene in the city of Burlington.

This is roughly the conversation that transpired.     

Q. Is there a problem with skateboarders being where the police/city does not want them? 

           

           A.  Not for the city.  We would like more bike/skate lanes around.  It is safer for the pedestrians, the drivers, and the skaters.  There’s not biking or skateboarding allowed on the sidewalks downtown so you gotta ride in the road.  There are some lanes, but what about pearl street?

Q. Since the development of the of the skatepark being postponed have you noticed any resentment from the skate community to the city? 

           

            A. That park was built as a temporary park for three years thirteen years ago.  I mean If I wanna skate, and what they have isn’t good enough for me, I’m gonna build something.  Look behind my shop I have a cement mixer and some concrete.  If you don’t got it, build it. 

Q. Do you know of any problems on Depot street involving pedestrians or the police? 

           

            A. Depot street is dangerous just because of the pavement.  The top half is good, the bottom ten yards if good, but there’s that middle section that is just deadly.  I saw they put some patches in but they should really just repave the whole thing.  It would give boarders a place to ride off of the main roads and away from traffic. 

Q. Have you known anyone to get arrested for skateboarding in the city?

           

            A. In Winooski for riding on the sidewalk.  Skateboarding is illegal in Winooski but he argued that his skateboard was transportation-which it is.  He showed up to court with his skateboard and was like look are we really gonna waste everybodys time over this?  My skateboard is my transportation.  In Burlington the city is very understanding of the skate community since it’s college town and so many kids ride skateboards.  

Q. How much impact do you think a brand new skatepark would have on the community as a whole?

           

            A. A lot, not everyone can ride street and is intimidated, like for me (Anna) I can’t really do street stuff and that park down there at the waterfront is tough because there’s not really a variety of stuff there. It would also give a place for kids to go to keep them off the streets and in shape.  There should be a skatepark with no fence around it and lights.  If kids had a place to go like a skatepark where they could meet up and hang out and skate whenever they wanted, they wouldn’t have to meet in some alley, or hang out in bad places.   It would get more kids outside and not playing video games.  It doesn’t make sense that Burlington with all its skaters, and being the home of Burton snowboards doesn’t have a quality skatepark within the city. 

Q. Does your shop receive negative attention from the community?

           

            A. OH YEAH.  We were on seeclickfix.com and people would complain about the shop being messy, stuff hanging from the ceiling, the “graffiti” on the outside. First of all it’s a mural okay.  People would just complain and nitpick about the stupidest stuff until eventually we complained and had them removed from the site.  We get no complaints from good people.  A little while ago we had a party here and everyone got together and painted the building.  And we’ll do it again when we want something fresh.  Whats awesome about this shop is it’s always evolving

Q. Where is your favorite place to skate?

 A. John- the Johnson skatepark in Johnson VT.

             

    Anna – the Essex skatepark in Essex VT or the Burton factory in Burlington VT.