Create your own site

Headlines

Subscribe to our Newsletter




Emerica Wild in the Streets Los Angeles 2011. Roadblocked!




Photobucket


Skateboarders Roll Into Downtown

Hundreds Ride on City Streets and Through Pershing Square

by Jacqueline Vergara Amézquita

Published: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 5:13 PM PDT

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – Downtown’s commuter population got an unexpected boost today: In the early afternoon, hundreds of teens and young adults skateboarded across the Sixth Street Bridge and into the Central City.

Organized by Emerica, an athletic shoe and gear company that also sponsors a skateboarding team, the event titled Wild in the Streets started at Hollenbeck Park in Boyle Heights at 1 p.m. The group then made its way over the bridge and into Downtown.

Escorted by police officers in cars and on motorcycles and bicycles, the skateboarders traveled west down Fifth Street, south on Hill Street and Grand Avenue, and then west on both Seventh Street and Wilshire Boulevard, according to police. While rolling down Hill and Grand, some sprinkled off and rode through Pershing Square, doing jumps off the steps and using the park infrastructure for tricks.

Mark Waters, a spokesman for Wild in the Streets, said organizers brought the event to Los Angeles because the skateboarding world is centered in the city. A Wild in the Streets event in New York City in 2008 drew approximately 8,000 people, said Waters. A Vancouver event in 2009 drew 4,100.

Although organizers estimate 1,000 middle and high school-aged youth attended today’s event, Capt. Todd Chamberlain of Central Division placed the number closer to 400.

“Our main goal was to ensure the safety of the participants and of the community,” said Chamberlain. “There were a lot of unsafe actions and a lot of foolishness, and we wanted to curtail that.”

Though no injuries or arrests were reported, some tickets were handed out for violations including skating against traffic or traveling on the sidewalk, said Chamberlain. The number of citations was not disclosed.

Waters said the event wasn’t just for fun, but also had a higher cause. He said Emerica teamed up with the group Boards for Bros yesterday to donate 127 skateboards to kids from the Salesian Boys and Girls Club, a youth center in Boyle Heights.

“Our mission is to empower kids and let them know they have a voice,” said Waters, “to let them know there’s power in numbers.”

Meanwhile, today’s predominantly male crowd, the vast majority of whom were dressed in jeans and T-shirts, described Wild in the Streets as a success. Participants said they trekked from cities including Glendale, Norwalk, Huntington Park and Cypress. Much of the advance word was spread by the Internet and Twitter.

“Skateboarding is a way of life,” said 18-year-old Robert Faulkner of Cypress. “It’s prevention for youth because it helps you keep off drugs.”

Jesse Santamaria, 21, of Maywood, took a related positive tack, avoiding the stereotype of rowdy riders and instead promoting the exercise aspects of the sport.

“It keeps you healthy and fit,” he said.

The event culminated at Lafayette Park in Westlake, where skateboarders showed off kick turns and spins under the hot sun.

©Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.


click here for link...