Wednesday May 12, 2010-----Brattleboro Reformer

Photos of skateboarders were appalling, wrong

Editor of the Reformer:

I was appalled when I saw the Photo Journal in the May 8-9 Weekend Reformer. The full page of free advertising for the Keepers of the Shred Skateboards co-founders were pictures of skateboarding at the Brattleboro Shine Club. One of the pictures shows a skateboarder skating off the front porch, with a visible sign on the building saying "Private Property, No Skateboards or Bicycles." Also visible is a device to keep skateboards off the railings, which didn’t stop them.

I have nothing against people skateboarding, but they need their own place, not on private property. Our benches on the porch have pieces of wood gouged out of them, cement floor is in need of refurbishing, the rails have been painted countless times, pavement dug up and not to mention the litter left behind.

The video on Reformer.com shows damaged pavement and someone skating off the porch. We have asked skateboarders to leave and have called the police many times but nothing seems to work. We have people that pay rent to park their car in our lot and they, too, have asked that skateboarders not be allowed to skate there. One car was badly scratched.

It really irritates me to think that the Reformer condones things like this. Didn’t the photographer, Zachary P. Stephens, think that it was wrong to skateboard on private property? Pictures were taken not long ago of a local attorney skateboarding at the Shrine, but I felt it was useless to say anything. This time, it is a little too much. I would wish in the future that the Reformer wouldn’t use the Brattleboro Shrine Club for promoting skateboarding on private property.

E. Wayne Blake,

Brattleboro, May 10