Skateboarding is Not a Crime… but Pacific Grove City Council seems to think it is.

The Pacific Grove City Council has taken a stance against fun.

Despite a lot of talk about “balance” – balancing the needs of residents and tourists, development and preservation, entertainment and quiet – the balance has fallen yet again in favor of the status quo.

Specifically, City Council voted 5-2 on Wednesday, April 5 to stop a skatepark concept from proceeding on any of the prospective parcels in consideration, as staff writer Pam Marino reported. (Council unanimously agreed to remove George Washington Park from the list of prospective sites, amid a chorus of opposition. Only councilmembers Joe Amelio and Chaps Poduri voted to support ongoing discussion about a skatepark concept at one of two sites in consideration, both owned by Pacific Grove Unified School District.)

The majority of council voted to take real potential sites out of the running – this stage would still have been just talks with PGUSD – and instead asked the city’s recreational staff to find a smaller site on an already paved location that will not impact nearby homes. As Councilmember Luke Coletti acknowledged, such a site is “mythical.”

This is exactly what makes leadership hard: Saying yes to one person’s dream might mean saying no to someone else’s. In this case, it’s saying no to a pretty simple dream shared by hundreds of P.G. residents – including many children – to have a skatepark in town, and saying yes to someone else’s peace and quiet.

The idea of a skatepark in P.G. originated with Alex White, a skateboarder and P.G. mom of two sons. In 2022, the City Council approved $158,000 in funds for planning and site selection, which began the process that culminated with the vote on April 5. That night, dozens of people spoke both in support and opposition, including White, who told council: “We must come together to honor this piece of the world so we can honor it for the next generation.”

In the year since White first pitched the idea, P.G. city staff looked at multiple potential sites and conducted extensive outreach. Per a report to City Council: “Throughout this process, several sites have been assessed for feasibility. Thousands of community members have voiced their opinion via public meetings, the community survey and emails to the Recreation Board and City Council. This process has revealed that there isn’t a ‘perfect site.’”

There isn’t a perfect site if you are unwilling to make somebody unhappy, and any project anywhere will make somebody unhappy. Councilmember Debby Beck acknowledged that while she was for a skatepark before she got elected, that was theoretical only – at that time, there was no specific proposal. It’s easy to say yes to an idea until somebody doesn’t like it.

As Marino reported, lots of people don’t like the idea of a skatepark. They don’t like the potential for noise, or putting pavement on grass, or kids gathering, or simply of changing a patch of space they have accepted as part of their environment.

That sends a clear signal. As one father said at the meeting: “My biggest concern with Pacific Grove right now is that the priorities seem to be more about the trees and the deer than the actual children of this community. The children are the future of this community and they have a voice and they should be heard.”

White’s kids, 8 and 11, are frustrated that they were not heard; she says they both cried themselves to sleep after the vote. White is taking the loss in stride and says what’s next is looking to smaller concepts – instead of a neighborhood park of up to 10,000 square feet, a “skate spot” up to 5,000 square feet.

She knows some of the same voices of opposition will emerge even then. “I expect some of the same rhetoric, but we’re not going anywhere,” she tells me. “I will see a skatepark in Pacific Grove one day. The fight’s not over.”

Even though I don’t skate, I hope she’s right. But I have my doubts that P.G. City Council will say yes even to a smaller concept, because in the question of “balance,” not everything is weighted equally.

Embracing change is hard; supporting the status quo is easy. Leadership is hard. In lots of decisions, there are winners and losers. In this case, where the status quo wins, kids are the losers.

SARA RUBIN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@mcweekly.com