Look out for the June 2008 issue of Slap… the cover looks lke this:

…turn to page 22, and notice the “GrimCity” part:

…that’s me, your friendly neighborhood Small Time Skates webgeek. The photo was take by Small Times’ very own Gregory Tracy (you may know of him as Dead Gregory). Anyway, I’m not putting a readable version of the article up yet because the magazine is currently on sale and we want you to go out and support the mag. They should be sold at anywhere where there’s tons of magazines.

This is a student film, created by Brandi Matthews and Stacey Winokur. It almost looks like a news broadcast… anyway, we’re pretty stoked on the way it came out.

Remember that we owe skateboarding everything, skateboarding owes us nothing.

In case ya missed it… Todd Taylor sent us this:

…for a limited time only…

Get your popcorn ready to see Hammond on the boob tube… Drive will be on at 7pm (Central time) and will be back on at 10pm in case you missed it.

H-Town on the map!

I should have scanned this in a long time ago, but here it is:

(Click the pic for a larger version)

Drive… Sunday April 22

EPISODE FOUR “SOUTH PART II – SMALL TOWNS”
Mike continues his travels through the southern United States visiting a series of small towns along the way. In White Hall, Arkansas Mike meets up with 18-year-old Todd Givens who created his own skate scene by building ramps in his driveway, so local skaters would have a place to ride. In Hammond, Louisiana Mike meets up with skaters Kerry Simpson and Neal Boyd to discuss the impact Louisiana’s first public cement park has had on their skate scene. Finally, Mike stops in Oxford, Mississippi to skate the cities public park with a group of local kids.

If you have the new issue of Tangi Connection, then check out our new ad… or just look at it right here:

Click it for a larger version, boyeeeee.

A few months ago, I sat with 225 Baton Rouge Magazine and spent some time talking about the state of skateboarding in Baton Rouge versus the one in Hammond. BREC, the Recreation & Park Commission for the parish of East Baton Rouge, is the worst thing that could have possibly happened to the city (in my opinion), and I was able to tell the reporter just that.
See, a number of years ago, BREC spent somewhere in the area of $23,000 purchasing ARC ramps… some of the worst ramps ever made unless you’re a brand new skater… and you’re three years old. The problem isn’t so much that BREC wasted thousands of dollars on a shoddy product, the real problem is that more street skaters get prosecuted (persecuted, even) for skateboarding in a city when there’s a park in town… “now ya’ll don’t be skating here in downtown! We dun built ya’ll a park, now ‘yer gonna use it whether you like it or not!!!” The fact is, years after the park in BR was installed (versus being built), crackdowns on skaters in the city escalated (at least from the stories I heard while I lived in BR). On top of that, Baton Rouge, the capital city… home of a much larger skateboarding population than we have, needs a skatepark built for a capital city.

You get the idea. Anyway, I basically spoke my mind, and was stoked to see that in the article (link below), Mayor Mayson Foster, Tony Licciardi, Joey keener, and the City of Hammond got all the props they deserved. More props go to Gary Patureau (the head of the Skatepark Association of Baton Rouge, he’s pictured in the article wearing a sharp tie), and big Reno (owner of Urban Nine and a close, personal friend of many of us here). I think everyone did a great job at clarifying the problems with BREC, and if I come across as bitter in the article, it’s because I was. Lucky for me though… I live in the best skate city in Louisiana.

Click Here to Read the Article

Skateboarders aren’t a fringe group of people that you’ll never come across… at least here in Hammond, we’re a visible and vocal force. In some cases, skateboarders are taxpaying, property owning, business-running adults. In most cases, the parents/guardians of skateboarders serve those roles. It should be obvious to anyone that travels in Hammond that there are hundreds of people that are directly tied to skateboarding, right here in the city limits. If you’re a politician seeking some sort of elected office here in Hammond, ponder this…

Today, in the Wednesday, August 9th issue of the Daily Star, our official endorsement of Mayor Mason Foster, Tony Licciardi, and Joey Keener was published in the “Local News” section.

Click the image below for a larger version:

(…or click here for a PDF of the above article.)

As I’ve mentioned before, this website gets 2,000 hits a week (more than that during our busiest months). Granted, most of those hits are generated by skateboarders looking for skate-related content… but the newspaper is a different monster. At some point today, nearly every reader of the Daily Star opened up that paper and read our endorsement. All I’m saying is that you better keep us in mind if you want an elected job in this town. Hammond, besides being a college, historical, arts, and eating hub… is a skateboard city. Hammond is the only city of its kind in this entire state when it comes to skateboarding… it is in fact, the skateboarding capitol. We know who we have on our side… we suggest that anyone running for elected office (especially City Council) talk to us and find out what we’re all about. We’ll be getting to know you at every public forum we can attend.
Oh yeah: MAYSON FOSTER FOR MAYOR.