Our View

The Township Council’s plan to build a skateboard park alleviates contentions that have become a classic example of different generations failing to see eye-to-eye.

To Brick’s merchants, the sight of a skater doing ollies in their parking lot conjures up visions of stray boards injuring customers and imminent liability lawsuits.

The Brick police have received complaints for years about these situations, and have had no choice but to ask the skaters to take their boards elsewhere. In the case of the Brick Shopping Plaza, reports of reckless skaters were one of the many reasons the council chose to adopt an anti-panhandling/loitering ordinance to help clear the area.

To young skaters, it feels like the world is out to get them. They are told to pack it up and move, but there’s simply nowhere to go.

These situations also feel like a personal insult to skaters. They consider themselves true sportsmen, but feel they aren’t being treated in that vein when they see facilities for mainstream sports being upgraded every year.

Most teens don’t understand liability laws any more than their elders understand why a fresh coat of yellow paint on a curb makes for a better rail slide. The creation of this park is an investment that will rid the community of those disputes for years to come.