Skateboard Park

Last autumn, after a contentious 15 plus years of discussion and money raising attempts, construction was finally begun on a local skateboard park. The woman who had been the heart and soul of it's support, and who had accumulated nearly $200,000 in private contributions for it's construction, resigned from the commission because of disagreements with the city officers over what type and quality of materials should be used. The city-according to her- did not really want the park because of their general apathy and fears that it would attract unsavory types and associated behavior ...which of course do not exist in the rest of the city, particularly in the mayor's office...So she took her money and reported the city to the state, which had given the city a $24,000 grant to be used toward the park but which the city officers had hoped to use for something else. With their cards exposed the city was forced into choosing between a poured concrete park and a cheaper one built using prefabricated pieces. They chose the latter and had the opening ceremony a month ago but because of the recent heat and substandard construction the concrete is beginning to crumble and the grout fall out of the cracks and the steel plates connecting the pieces to the platform loosen. The company responsible is so far backing their products, but the disgruntled woman believes that ultimately the city wants the park to fail so that another tennis court may be added to the rarely used three that are already there. We'll see. She still has over two hundred thousand which she will return to the donors if that happens.
I took the action photos on the 10th, and had a firsthand glimpse of the unsavory characters, who were not the young skaters, rather the rotund woman on the bleachers and her equally challenged sister? cousin? who were permitting a 5 year old barefoot, shirtless and helmet-less son to ride his bicycle while a dozen guys rode back and forth doing tricks and almost colliding with him several times. Her reasoning was that it was a public park and that the rules allowed children so long as they were "supervised". When another mother and myself politely suggested that perhaps it was not in the child's best interests to ride there at that time, the woman let loose with a profanity laced tirade that we should "mind our own f-ing business" and other such niceties. After several more close calls and two more tirades we called the police, which prompted her and her children to leave. Although the officers eventually talked with her, ultimately they were powerless to force her to be a more responsible mother. Similar people have generally been called white trash, although around here I call them-both men and women- troglodytes, and have observed that the gene pool truly is not as diverse as in more populated areas.