Printer-friendly version

Send to a friend

This Issue 04/23/2009

• Mom Knows Best
• Ego of the Week: Kerry Golds
• Dirty Little Secrets
• Lords of Love Park

The city sees skateboarders as pests, but Rob sees them as a financial necessity, for tourism and for spending in general. The mayor recently decided to put an officer on duty at Love all hours of the day. “They’re paying some guy 60 G’s a year to bust a bunch of skaters when they probably shut down a firehouse and seven public pools,” he says. Philadelphia’s most profitable tourist spots are the Constitution Center and the Kimmel Center, “but once you’ve seen it, that’s it.” The park is sustainable. It would continue to bring in money if skating were legalized. “All this shit is retail, it hasn’t been this low in 30 years. Skating could save this,” Rob says. “Ask Starbucks, ask 7-11, Jesus, man, ask any of them. They probably make most of their money in the summer when skaters are out here the most.”
But money aside, skaters can cause problems in the area. “They come in big groups and steal stuff sometimes. They loiter,” the night manager at 7-Eleven says.
“Lord, I have to work and listen to them all day,” says the man at the front desk of City of Philadelphia Human Services at 1515 Arch St. “The way they skate, they can hurt somebody.”
The building manager at the Municipal Services Building has an expanse of smooth concrete and sculptures out front to worry about. “They just don’t care. They tear the place up,” she says. “I don’t know how the heck they take the concrete up. They jump and bounce and flip on the plaza, make nicks and holes.”
Rob thinks the city has bigger problems to worry about. “We police this place better than any cop,” he says. “I could probably tell you guys where all the drug deals go down on Temple’s campus.”
“We care about the park more than the architect who made it,” he says. A fellow skater “fixed all the cracks in here, cemented them up with the homemade stuff from the department store — city didn’t do a damn thing.”
He blames the condition of the tiles on day-to-day wear, the weather and bikes, which chunk the granite — aluminum from skateboard trucks does not. A cop once told Rob he ruined a park bench by grinding on it, so he sat down to prove its functional purpose was still intact.
Visitors see the skaters and often walk the long way around the park, but it’s more a courtesy than a fearful reaction. Some skaters take time to speak with Love’s cleaning facilities, and some take pictures for couples in front of the LOVE statue. The atmosphere has become part of Philly’s character. It’s an organic growth from the urban surroundings. When bystanders see 50 people running through the busy intersection, they know that cops have arrived.