Amy,
Not all of us are being mean to the skateboarders, I seriously doubt that we despise these children and adults in some cases, instead of us getting seriously annoyed at some of our experiences. Your friend owns a shop for skateboarders and talks to young skateboarders everyday... I think that is a great way to find out how they are feeling about this matter, but I used to teach children, and I had numerous of chances of getting to know what is inside their heads and hearts, but I also had to enforce rules in the class and help them understand how one must handle themselves in this society. I understood that they needed to have the guidance to know how to handle their problems in a constructive way.
Now all of this is getting back to the huge problem that quite a few of the listserv members have experienced in relation to topic at hand. It is a fact that the museum employees, people who work there day after day, have dealt with high possibilities of property damages and liability if a skateboarder gets hurt, which can certainly happen while doing some of the types of skating routines, and straight out disregard for the request of the museum to not skate on the premises, which helps to preserve the grounds that they operate on, which is part of the museum's responsibility. Museums do have good reasons why they don't want skateboarders on the premises. Quite a few of these employees have experienced or have knowledge of damages done to the museum property, that doesn't mean that the skateboarders are doing this to be destructive, but these things happen because of them riding their boards up and down and doing routines that bear hard on the surface.
I think that skateboarding is really cool, I used to try out riding skateboards myself when I was younger (now 25), but I also had a mom who would yank a knot in my head if I were to go to a place, like a museum, and skateboard there, knowing that it isn't the right place to go and may cause serious inconveniences. Fortunately, I had the guidance to show me to respect the museum, as well as other public places and people. When I did that, I usually automatically received respect back and I would have the favor of the adults on my side too. I have experienced good children, who did not understand that, who had to be taught by other community leaders, if not their parents.
Lobbying for skateboarding parks should be taught to the skateboarding adults and teens who truly have the need for this, this would be a great opportunity to be a good role model for the younger ones. If they have a recreational place to skateboard, then they need to learn to use that place. As an adult, I know that there are a lot of things that I want to be able to do, but I also know that people in hell want ice water too, but that doesn't mean they are going to get it. Not all of these kids are spoiled, but there are good kids who are spoiled, and some who show one side to some adults and show another side of their personality to others (parents would be shocked if they knew what sweet little Johnny did in class) for various reasons.
Even though skateboarding and grafitti may not be exactly in the same boat, some artisitic graffiti can be looked at as a great artform, it can be quite beautiful, but it can also get you in trouble. There have been programs to offer a chance for kids to paint public outside murals; this is a great idea,but still, in many places you will get in hot water if you do this.
My answer is lobby for a park for these people to skateboard and have fun, but respect the needs of the museum and other buildings to handle their business the way they need to handle them.
Sincerely,
Merri