Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Getting Some Air: Arturo Basurto, 7, shows off his skateboard moves in front of Willow Glen resident Debbie Palmer's house. He and his friends want a nearby skateboard park.




North Willow Glen youth trying to find a place for skateboarding

Adults encouraging children to work for park of their own

By Moryt Milo

It's tough to be a skateboard-loving youth and live in north Willow Glen, but neighbor Debbie Palmer and the staff at the Gardner Community Center are trying to help them advocate for themselves.

The only skateboarding options for the young boys living along Fuller Avenue, in the Gardner neighborhood, are driveways and sidewalks. But even these places are becoming limited, as neighbors and businesses shoo them away.

Reuben Rodriguez, 15, says sometimes they can find no place to skate but down the sidewalk along the south section of busy Bird Avenue, which goes under the railroad bridge between Fuller Avenue and W. Virginia Street.

The children say it's easy to hang out at the public places like the light-rail stations, but these places have attached little metal clips--skate stoppers--to ledges and corners, which prevent skateboarders from "grinding" down the ramps or curbs.

The boys say all the available public skateboard parks are too far away and too costly. The boys who live on Fuller Avenue are between the ages of 7 and 15, and say even if they could afford the skate parks, they have no transportation.

Rodriguez, the oldest of the neighborhood boys, says, "It would be great if we didn't have to go very far to skate. In downtown San Jose the police will ticket you $25 if you even stand on your skateboard or are anywhere near Cesar Chavez Park."

Frustrated with nowhere to skate, the youth found a solution by using a neighbor's driveway. Debbie Palmer and her husband, Ken Eklund, who live on Fuller Avenue, let the boys skate in their driveway and use their curb and walkway for tricks all summer. But Palmer's place began drawing youths from outside the neighborhood.

"All these kids I didn't know began showing up," she says. They took over her front steps, and her home became a hangout.

"The trash and garbage turned into a constant problem," Palmer says. "It wasn't just from the skateboarders but from other kids who came around."

Palmer felt torn between the youths not having a place to skate and wanting her privacy preserved. She put out a trashcan hoping the youths would use it as a sign of respect. Instead it became a welcoming mat.

The amount of skateboarders using Palmer's driveway escalated over the summer. Some days 10 to 13 boys spent the entire day skating and doing tricks in Palmer's driveway. The skateboarders would come over with big blocks of wax and cover Palmer's driveway curb. The build-up became so bad that Palmer and Eklund had to use a plumber's blowtorch to burn the wax off the curb.

One afternoon after telling the youths that they were no longer permitted to skateboard in the driveway, Palmer walked outside to find green marker graffiti scrawled on her porch, the sidewalk and on the posts near the gas meters.

"I was suspicious that it was done by a new kid, not one of the neighborhood kids I know. But I never found out who did it," Palmer says.

Palmer and Eklund felt violated after trying to accommodate the boys throughout the summer.

"The tagging [graffiti] tipped the scales," Palmer says.

It solidified Palmer's decision and she backed it up with a "No Skateboarding" sign on her driveway curb.

"The boys got their first taste of no skateboarding in our driveway, and they were pretty disappointed," Palmer says.

Yet even after the tagging, Palmer offered to help the boys in her neighborhood write a letter to San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales pleading their case and asking for a place to skate near their homes.

With the Gardner Community Center in the process of developing a master plan to remodel the entire center, center director Tony Torres sees the youth skateboarding needs as a great way for the young skateboarders to become involved in their neighborhood.

Although the center's new remodeled look is an estimated three years away, Torres says the center would like to work with the boys and hear what they have to say. He hopes the boys will become active and work as a team to promote their cause.

"The important thing is they have to buy in and can't just say, 'Hey, see you in three years after the center has been rebuilt,'" Torres says.

When Palmer heard that the Gardner Community Center was interested in working with the boys, she was excited, as she has been very involved in improving her neighborhood.

Rodriguez says he wants to find a solution and is interested in talking to the recreational leaders at the community center.

Center recreational leader Araceli Valle says she spoke with some of the neighborhood kids skateboarding behind the center and discussed having a skate night and going to a skate park.

"Everything is still in the planning stages," Valle says. "It would be great if more kids came over and talked to us."

Torres sees the skateboarding needs of the neighborhood youth as a natural fit. He says they have a small area behind the center where the youth can skateboard, but it is not really designated as a skateboard park. He encourages the boys to come over and meet with Valle and himself.

"Having their input is a real nice way of getting a pulse on the kids," Torres says. "The Gardner Community Center has a youth council program for ages 11 to 15. It would be great if the older boys got involved."

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