Braman (skater, skate dad, and good friend of STS) recently wrote a letter to the Mayor of Gonzales concerning his city’s anti-skateboarding ordinace and anti-youth stance. THis si what the Mayor wrote back (after Braman questioned the city’s actions):

Mac,The City Council passed an ordinance about five years ago prohibiting skateboarding on all City Owned properties. The reason was at that time skateboarders were riding their boards on wooden handrails, stuccoed railings and on all of our park benches completely tearing up public property and scaring people who were in the parks walking with small children. As with anything the good suffer for the few bad eggs. Their was discussion a few years ago that the Parish Recreation was looking at constructing a skate Park. You might want to push that idea with them. As you probably are unaware the City Of Gonzales takes care of all the soccer on the east side of the river,recently constructed a new pool for residents of East Ascension and maintain 10 lighted tennis courts for area residents in addition of what we do for baseball, and basketball. We feel it is time the Parish participates in this very worthwhile recreation project. Good Luck and by the way your parish government gives the City Of Donaldsonville 90,000 a year towards their recreation. 90,000 would be a good start for a new skate park in East Ascension.Good to Hear from You,

God Bless,

Coach Johnny

Braman sent a letter back that summed up the situation perfectly:

Coach,
Thanks for responding to my e-mail.
I know that some public property may have been torn up by some skaters, but it is already against the law to damage public property anyway. Banning everyone from skating seems to be extreme to me. With all do respect, people damage property, speed, drive drunk,run red lights etc., and we don’ t ban driving in the city, we punish those breaking the law.
As far as some skaters scaring kids…….. if any one(skater,football player, biker or Joe blow) messes with my kids, I am calling the police or defending my family.
I think some parents did not like the way these kids dressed and talked or did not like them hanging out, and they called and complained. I know it was an easy decision to make (banning skating), I am sure I am the only one over the age of 18 to complain about it.
I know that the city does a lot for recreation. Which why reading that in the paper last week,both puzzled me and bothered me so much. What do we do for the kids that don’t like mainstream sports?
Banning skating is not gonna keep those skaters from damaging stuff, it is gonna keep people like me and my son from skating.
I am thankful for the recreational activities we do have. As you know I have benefited from them, my son is starting to benefit from them,and I am sure my daughter will too.
Working with skaters will only benefit the city, just ask the Mayor of Hammond.
Thanks for hearing me out coach and take care
Mac
PS There is a group (local skate shop owners, skaters) working with the parish to get a skate park

We’re going to go to war on anti-skate rules and regulations… if skaters don’t fight back, they’ll just get walked on.

I thought I’d made the forums completely public, but I was mistaken… sorry! Any and everyone can post in the forums without registering, although I really recommend setting up an account… if you register in the forums, you’ll automatically be able to add your own photos to the gallery… by doing so, you’ll be able to share your pics on MySpace or on your own website. So there you have it… if you want to talk, complain, give props, or just lurk… the choice is yours!

I got this from Tate over at Skate MS… these are the South Coast King of the Park contest results:

King of the Park 2006 CHAMPION - Tyler Hendley of California
Runner Up - Bobby Morgan of Louisiana
2nd Runner Up - Rivers Fayard of Mississippi
Best Trick - Nick Grasiano of Louisiana

Go to Skate MS right now… Tate’s got a big stash of photos from the event, not to mention that Skate MS is just a great website in general. If you live in Mississippi or the Gulf South, you really oughtta add it to your list of bookmarks.

Props to all of the winners and non winners of KotP… and a special shout to my homeboy Bobby! Much love, man!

Shawn (owner of Aminal Skateboards) sent me a couple of great emails today… one of them is this gnarly footage:

Wayne Patrick & The Houston Heads

The other email was a notification that Ripperz Skatepark out of Lake Charles is about to throw down with a brand new Skate Olympics… check out the flyer:

…I don’t know about you, but I might just try to make it up there and represent the Tangipahoa scene, ya herd mah? They have a killer mini ramp over there, by the way.

Last thing, DON’T FORGET TO WATCH TERRY ON THE BOOB TUBE!!! (details here)

Kerry, Weird Randy, Big Trey and me went to Baton Rouge yesterday… I only have a few really good photos, but Kerry got some insane video. We’ll be using the footage in our upcoming Small Time Skates DVD. In the meantime, here are some preview pics:

Randy with a buttery FS Smith through a kink

This is Trey… off of the steps and over the sidewalk at a million miles an hour. He’s a beast.

Me doing a frontside…

Trey hovering over Kerry and Randy.

The rest of the pics are right here.

Yesterday, me and m’lady went to the mall so she could get a pair of sandals… our first stop was at Payless Shoes, where I spied something that weirded me out a bit:

These are lady’s “garden clogs”, which seem to be a pretty popular cheap shoe (I’ve been seeing a lot around town)… the thing that struck me is that they’re from Airwalk… for those of us that were skating back in the the 80’s and 90’s, Airwalk was one of the big names in skateboarding footwear… Tony Hawk, Jason Lee (yeah, the actor), and lots of other big name pros rode for Airwalk, now they’re selling rubber shoes at payless? Damn! It’s almost like seeing one and old friend getting strung out on crack or something. Anyway, my surpirise wasn’t over yet… we went next door to a store called “The Shoe Depot”, where they had a rack of clogs that looked exactly the same as the ones above… I walked up and read the label, only to find that they were made by Vision Street Wear… another huge name in skate shoes back in the day. At one point and time, I’m betting that nearly every skater over the age of 25 rocked at least one pair of Visions… now they’re forced to pay the bills by selling junk shoes at the mall. It’s kind of sad, but at the same time, it’s just as good… both Airwalk and Vision, who were rooted in skateboarding, chose to make money the number one priority in their businesses, forgetting that skateboarding was what made them the giant comanies that they became… now they’re just sellouts… nothing more than brands that are stamped onto junk products. I just figured I’d throw that out there.

On an unrelated note, the Hammond Daily Star’s Sunday edition (today’s paper) has a Reader’s Choice survey in the back of it… I’m a survey-filling nerd, so I’m putting Small Time’s name down in every category that it fits (I’d mark Small Time’s as my favorite place to buy produce, but I can’t honestly say I’ve ever picked up a head of lettuce from Kerry). The results will be published in a future version of the paper, so if you’re inclined to mark down the shop in the sections that fit, it’d be rad to see. If you don’t want to do that, then you can make a really big paper airplane out of it and see how far it floats.

Ok, sorry for the ramble, it’s Sunday and I need some more coffee. Peace!

I know I write this a lot, but I have to bring it up for our new readers… we’re not a bike-riding site, unless we’re talking about Terry Adams. Terry is basically the best flatland bike rider to ever live, he’s a local, and he also happens to be a better skateboarder than over 90% of the people you know. Terry’s a great friend to all of us at the shop, and he’s seriously one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet (he comes to the park pretty regularly so you’ve probably at least seen him). One of the things that makes Terry so awesoem is that he keeps it small… this cat travels the world (he’s practically in a different country every week), he has more sponsors than I have hairs on my head, yet he doesn’t let any of it go to his head… he’s one of the most chill, humble, and coolest people to ever walk the planet. He gets much respect from all of us here, and as it turns out, he’ll be getting some respect from national television in a few days. Check out this email he just sent me:

Just wanted to let you know that I will appear on a TV show called Master of Champions next Thursday (July 13th). The show airs on ABC at 8 PM Eastern / 7 PM Central. This is primetime. I was going to battle Rodney Mullen but he backed out.

I will be toward the beginning of the show and should be on for at least five minutes. ABC sent a camera crew to Louisiana to interview my Family, Friends, and see what I am all about. They even filmed me at the Voodoo Jam. So this should make Flatland look pretty Cool. Please check it out.

If you are curious:

http://abc.go.com/primetime/masterofchampions/index.html
http://www.tv.com/master-of-champions/episode-5*
http://online.tvguide.com/newsearch/detail.aspx?

As noted int he email that Terry sent me, Rodney backed out of the flatland challenge, but it’s still awesome that Terry is getting the full blown coverage that he deserves. Much respect Terry… much respect!

An extra special message for a poor excuse of a man. Read it here.

We’ve gotten an insane amount of feedback, not only from local skaters, but from Skater’s Alliance and Skaters for Public Skateparks. A lot of you have been asking for the city’s contact information, so here it is (as presented on the city’s website):

Tammy Williams is listed as the contact through the website (Tammy@GonzalesLa.com)

You can snail mail here:
120 South Irma Boulevard
Gonzales, Louisiana 70737-3698

Or call here:
(225)647-2841

Just remember… to get your point across clearly, be polite and choose your words carefully. Don’t give these people any reason to think that skateboarders are second-class citizens (like they do now). These people are taking away the rights of skaters to freely assemble on public property and skate on land that they and their parents paid for. Let’s not make it worse for the skaters of Gonzales, they already have it bad enough. Let’s make it loud and clear that making skateboarding illegal will only create criminals, it won’t address the problem.
If the mayor of Gonzales or any of his backwards-thinking councilmen are reading this, please watch this movie:

(Props to Mule for mentioning it in the comments section)

If you read through our forums or the Morning Advocate, some of this may not be news to you. One of our site members (Braman) notified us that the Mayor of Gonzales (as well as the city council) recently pushed to make skateboarding illegal… Braman posted a news article detailing the archaic thought processes that the Gonzales government evidently wallows in. Just to be sure and recieve confimation, I sent an email to the contact person on Gonzales’ official website… here’s the letter:

Hi, my name is Neal Boyd, and I’m writing to you in regards to some news that I just found out about… I simply wanted to confirm what I read.

In the Friday printing of The Advocate (from June 30th), the following was published:

“During Monday night’s Gonzales City Council meeting, Mayor Johnny Berthelot made an announcement reminding residents that skateboards and people skateboarding on any city property-including city parks-is against the law.
Berthelot said the Gonzales Police Department will be out enforcing city ordinances that outlaw the street surfing pastime.”

I just wanted a confirmation that your city officially deems skateboarding as an illegal activity (notably on public property), and that your mayor is planning on prosecuting children and adults for taking part in that particular activity.

Also, if you don’t mind, do you happen to have the ordinance online or available in a digital format? I’d like to publish the information on our website so we can make sure that unsuspecting kids from our area don’t make the mistake of going to Gonzales and creating a distraction for your police officers.

Thanks,
Neal

This morning I received two emails back from the contact person for Gonzales’ city government (these are unedited… they’re copied and pasted as I received them):

Email One:
tammy@gonzalesla.com
Sec. 8-96. Skateboarding; in-line skating prohibited.

It shall be unlawful for any person to skateboard or in-line skate on any city-owned property, including but not limited to, sidewalks, jogging trails, rights-of-way, swimming pools, recreational areas, ball parks, tennis courts, amphitheater, civic center, or any embankments, retaining walls, and hand rails.

(Ord. No. 2711, 12-10-01)

Email Two:
tammy@gonzalesla.com

MR. BOYD ALSO THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL MADE THAT ORDIANCE BECAUSE THE KIDS WERE TEARIING UP THE PARKS, THE RAILINGS ANS THE STUCCO.

THANKS!

You have to love the mentality over there… skaters were “tearing up” rails, so let’s make it illegal for them to ride down a sidewalk!

Everyone, let’s join together and do Gonzales a favor… don’t go there, ever. Don’t spend a dime in the city, and don’t stop in it for any reason whatsoever. This goes out not only to the skaters reading this, but the parents and friends of skaters as well… don’t spend a dime in a city that would go out of its way to ensure that its youth are considered criminals.

To Mayor Berthelot and the city council of Gonzalez, I say this on behalf of the skateboard community:
I sincerely hope you’re democratically replaced with people that have a clue as to what your kids so obviously need. I understand that you see skateboarding as a problem, but by turning your kids into criminals, you’re making the problem worse. I’d recommend that you take a lesson from Mayor Foster and the Hammond City Council on the right way to respond to the needs of skaters.

Until better people take over your current elected offices, we here in Hammond will be more than happy to accept the kids you choose to demonize. Unlike the city of Gonzales, we actually know that skateboarding is a positive activity for local youth to take part in… so by all means, send them to us. Not only will our skateboard community accept them with open arms, the city of Hammond will also appreciate their contribution to our local economy (skaters have to eat and drink, y’know).

If you’re a parent or a skater old enough to vote… remember this day, and remember the city of Gonzales. Do your part to vote out the archaic cavemen they have in office and replace them with people that give a damn about the kids in their city.

Pass this article around and let everyone know… avoid Gonzales at all costs and spend your money and time in a city that actually appreciates you.

P.S.

Skateboarding is not a crime.