Building Sustainable Communities
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Building Sustainable Communities
Streets versus Parks: This research focuses on the comparison of street skating
and park skating to understand the significance of the
Skateboarding as a Spatial locality in skateboarders’ social production of space.
Practice in New York City Michel de Certeau’s (1984) theories of the city provide
Chihsin Chiu, (City University of New York) a theoretical lens through which these differences are
critically examined. This paper argues that the provision of
By comparing street skating and park skating, this paper skateparks and skateboarding bans are strategies imposed by
examines why skateboarders persist in their use of public the authorities in an effort to control public space; the ways
space even in the face of extensive regulation and the in which skateboarders contest public space reflect their
Full Refereed
provision of skate parks. The researcher conducted participant tactics through which they claim their autonomy and right
Papers observation and interviews in four sites in New York City: to the city. Further, the behavior of street skateboarding can
Urban Brooklyn Bridge Plaza, Union Square Park, Riverside Skate be seen as an illustration of Henri Lefebvre’s (1974) notion
Environments Park and Hudson River Skate Park. A total of sixteen semi- of spatial practice, the physical activities that shape and
structured interviews were collected. The differences between reshape material space, because street skating combines
street skating and park skating are presented by utilizing three performance, competence and agency, and thus constructs
dimensions: the social production of public space, the social both a material space and a representational space in skaters’
control imposed on skaters, and the discursive construction minds. Specifically, this paper argues that the differences
of skateboarding. Michel de Certeau’s (1984) theories of the between street skating and park skating are apparent in
city provide a theoretical lens through which these differences the uses of physical environments, the social control that
are examined critically. Further, the paper argues that the skaters encounter, and the images constructed through the
behavior of street skateboarding can be seen as an illustration discursive practice of skateboarding. Nonetheless, these
of Henri Lefebvre’s (1974) notion of spatial practice, the three dimensions do not appear independently, but are
physical activities that shape and reshape material space, closely interrelated.
because street skating combines performance, competence
and agency, and thus constructs both a material space and History Of Skateboarding And The
a representational space in skaters’ minds. Findings suggest Provision Of Skate Parks
that the governance of public space needs to adapt to the Skateboarding emerged in the 1950’s in Southern
changing needs of multiple users, rather than excluding a few California beach towns as surfers tore the T- handles off
without any attempt at accommodating them. their scooters to practice alternative surfing when the
Introduction ocean was calm (Borden, 1998; Howell, 2001). Skaters then
Skateboarding has become a major issue for the governance started to look for places for this new form of skating. It
of urban public space. From the late 1980’s to the early soon became popular among surfers and attracted more
1990’s the increase in the popularity of skateboarding in followers. In the early 1970’s, skaters moved to the city and
the U.S. and Europe, led to the growing number of skaters appropriated deserted swimming pools, drainage channels,
appearing on streets and sidewalks in the cities. Gradually, and schoolyards for skateboarding. Around 1984, skaters
street skaters have been confronted with concerns from improved the front of the skateboard to make it pop up into
the citizens and authorities about the physical risk to the air. Thus skaters can not only skate on the sidewalks,
pedestrians by skaters, and damage of private or public but also ride up walls, banks, steps, benches, handrails, and
properties. Therefore, in 1996, New York City enacted a law street furniture. In this sense “street skateboarding” literally
restricting skateboarding on sidewalks and public plazas. means riding a skateboard and performing maneuvers on
As an alternative, the Department of Parks and Recreation obstacles that are commonly found in urban or suburban
provided sixteen skate parks citywide. Nonetheless, street environments (Dyrdek, 2005).
skating continues in many non-designated areas. This Transgression And Contestation Of
phenomenon poses a primary question for this research:
Skateboarding
why do skateboarders persist in their use of public space
even in the face of extensive regulation and the provision of Skateboarding is commonly characterized as an activity that
skate parks? In order to answer this question, it is necessary challenges the social norms and the consumerist logic of
to investigate the differences between street skating and urban space (Irvine and Taysom, 1998; Borden, 2003; Nolan,
skate park skating. 2003). Most people are used to accepting the city as it was
designed and adapt their everyday activities to designated
settings of distinct functions. Hence, skateboarders are
environmental design research association 38th annual conference
101 –Building Sustainable Communities
commonly considered trespassers by property owners Riverside Skate Park
and the general public in the sense that they violate these The first skate park in Manhattan opened in 1996 and is
rules and occupy space without engaging in consumption located inside Riverside Park on the Upper West Side. This
or production. Through their physical performances, park is open Wednesday through Sunday from eleven am to
skateboarders refuse to accept a city as it is produced. They seven pm. There are five ramps, including half pipes, quarter
challenge the established logic of architecture and redefine pipes, and rails. This park is also the site for Riverside Skate
the urban space. Thus, such physical elements as roads, School. The Department of Parks and Recreation provides
footpaths, railings, stairs, and handrails are stripped of their an attendant during official operating hours. Skaters are
symbolic values and given new values (Irvine and Taysom; required to wear helmets before entering the facility.
1998 Borden, 2003). Nonetheless, skateboarding activities Full Refereed
Hudson River Skate Park Papers
are more acceptable at some locations than others. The
ideology of transgression is not as absolute as the terms of Hudson River Skate Park is much smaller than Riverside Urban
Environments
“in place” and “out of place” characterize it, but it operates Skate Park. It is located at Chelsea Pier 62. There are two
at multiple levels (Nolan, 2003). attendants during its hours of operation. The transitions
include several ramps with different slopes, one rail, and
Research Sites some bench-like structures that seem to mimic a street
Union Square Park environment. There is a bowl on the highest level. The
The south side of Union Square Park is frequented by operating hours and regulations are the same as those of
skaters. The elevated plaza and wide stairs are appealing Riverside Skate Park. There are no entrance fees for either
to skateboarders, especially young novices. Beginners can park.
practice elementary tricks on these low steps and smooth
ground. This area usually gets crowded in late-afternoon Methodology
hours, when after-school teenagers come to meet friends Participant observation and semi-structured interviews
and skate. Though there has been a mixed use here as are the primary methods for data collection. Participant
bikers, hacky sackers, soccer players, and hockey players observation includes observing skateboarders’ behaviors
also use this place, skateboarders remain the most active and interacting with them while I was skateboarding
and regular users. in these places. A set of field notes and behavioral maps
were produced. As for semi-structured interviews, a total
The Brooklyn Banks of sixteen interview transcripts with fifteen skateboarders
The Brooklyn Bridge Park, known to skaters as “Brooklyn and one police officer were collected. These field notes
Banks,” is a downtown plaza on the Manhattan side under and interview transcripts were coded by the themes that
the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a gritty and poorly maintained emerged. Through another thematic content analysis
park rarely used by most people. However, this place is of the articles collected from skateboarding magazines,
well known to skateboarders around the world because its newspapers, and the internet, I developed additional
unique form is especially suitable for skateboarding. As understanding of the discourses and observations from my
noted in a New York Times article, “For decades, nobody own field work.
wanted the space except the skateboarders” (Porter, 2005). Findings And Discussion
The park is made of a small plaza (called small banks) and The differences between street skating and park skating
a large main plaza (called big banks) where most skaters can be summarized by three phenomena: the social
gather. production of public space, the social controls imposed
This plaza was closed between November 2004 and July on skateboarders, and the discursive construction of
2005 by the NYC Parks Department for a “landscape skateboarding. Although each has its unique focus and
renewal.” It was generally believed that the city did not want theoretical significance, these dimensions are interrelated
people to skate here anymore. After a negotiation between and closely linked to skaters’ choices of places.
local skaters and the Department of Parks and Recreation
of New York City, the plaza was reopened in July 2005,
and became a park of multiple uses that accommodate
skateboarding. Some benches and planters were removed
from the original design so that more of the bridge's brick
ramps are accessible to skaters.
environmental design research association 38th annual conference
– 102Building Sustainable Communities
Dimension 1: The Social Production of Public a new cognitive map, a mental schema of spatial orientation
Space (Tolman, 1948). As one skater puts it,
“You see everything different with different eyes. Someone
sees something and says oh, yes, it is just up there, you don’t
even notice that, but as a skater, you say yeah, I can skate
that, if I hit it like this, I can get all the buzz out.” (Kim, 28)
Therefore, skateboarders create a material space that fits
in their unique uses and memories. This material space
Full Refereed
Papers
becomes a “representational space” (Lefebvre, 1974), a lived
space inscribed by skaters’ aspirations and demands. In a
Urban
Environments
skater’s cognitive map, the geography of Manhattan is made
Representational Space for Skateboarders. Street skaters up of a series of anonymous plazas and small spaces instead
search for skating affordances from the existing of signature buildings widely known to everyone.
environment, whereas park skaters utilize purposely built
environments that match their requirements. In Gibson’s Creating a New Social Space. Skaters’ representational space
(1979) theories of ecological psychology, affordances in turn becomes a social space as the plazas or parks that
are what the environment offers, provides, and furnishes skaters frequent become their social milieus in which their
(Gibson, 1979). A street skater first identifies his needs, self representation, social actions and social relations take
then selects from available spaces, and discovers the niches place. In the Brooklyn Banks, I found that the easiest way to
for skateboarding. These distinctive ways of using space observe and interact with skaters effectively is by bringing a
not only shape different perceptions of space and sensuous skateboard and stepping on it. I had to play the game. So I
experiences, but also contribute to varied social relations held my board in one hand and lined up with other skaters
among skateboarders. in front of the arches facing the banks. When my turn came,
I hit the banks like everybody else did. When I finished, I
The places that street skaters utilize range from linear rolled back to the arches and skaters would give me a high-
space, such as sidewalks or roadsides, to specific sites, five as a welcome. When I sat down on my skateboard, I
such as plazas or parks. For non-skaters, the form of the felt entitled to talk to skaters around me because I played
city is usually defined by architects and urban planners the role and followed the social rules. This is a plaza shaped
who transform natural landscape and shape what we exclusively by the social orders and solidarity among the
know about a city. As Lefebvre puts it, “Traversed now performers, audience, and several different cliques; it is a
by pathways and patterned by networks, natural space skaters’ social space. A skater sitting next to me put it this
changes: one might say that practical activity writes upon way:
nature, albeit in a scrawling hand and that this writing
implies a particular representation of space. Places are “It’s a known place. People can probably come here any day of
marked, noted, named. Between them, within the ‘holes in the week. [There are] a lot of skaters and bikers here. All the
the net’ are blank or marginal spaces” (Lefebvre, 1974). Yet publicity you hear about, your friends talk about it, you see
street skaters appreciate many minor architectural details, it in video games, movies, [they say], ‘oh, yeah, let’s go hit the
such as handrails, planters, ledges, benches, which usually Brooklyn Banks.’ Everybody knows about it.” (Josh, 17)
escape the notice of or seem trivial to non-skaters. In other Creating a Body Space. At the level of the individual, the
words, the marginal spaces are usually more important skater’s space is also a body space, defined as a space that the
than the selected representations as skaters do not rely on body occupies and is consciously aware of. The perceptions
zoning codes, architectural blueprints or street maps to and experiences of that space penetrate a person’s emotions
learn the city; they know the city by traveling through it. and state of mind, sense of self, social relations, and cultural
In fact, their use of the city often contradicts the projected predispositions (Low and Lawrence-Zunigna, 2003). Rather
representations. They loosen up the fixed character of the than a flat image produced from a bird’s eye view, this is a
physical environment by traversing the boundaries of space mediated by bodily experience that enables people
pathways and districts, adding new values to places, and to unify various objects around them to make sense of the
privileging mundane objects. Thus the city is broken up into environment (Merleau-Ponty, 1962). Compared to other
a series of independent elements, and then reassembled into spatial practices, skateboarders value bodily practices.
environmental design research association 38th annual conference
103 –Building Sustainable Communities
Veteran skaters often use their skateboards so comfortably skating by associating it with the keeping-on-the-path
that they almost become a part of their bodies. Because of experience:
this bodily awareness, street skating is a sensual exploration
of unknown lands and deserted places. The body space “Skateboarding in the park is like walking through the
created through this tour is a “mobile spatial field” (Munn, Central Park on the paths. One [ (street skating)] is [that] you
2003). Like a bubble, this is an invisible and moving-with- are making your own path, the other way is [that] you are
the-body field circumscribing and extending out of an making the path that urban planners say, “This is the path
individual. It is a “culturally defined corporeal-sensual field that you should walk on.” (Frank, 24)
of significant distances stretching out from the body in a Compared to skate parks, streets afford more diverse
particular stance or action at a given locale or as it moves environments because there are infinite physical elements
Full Refereed
Papers
through locales” (Munn, 2003, p. 94). For example, a skater and streetscapes are ever-changing. In any setting, people
describes his bodily experiences of skating in the streets: prefer the environment where they can maximize their
Urban
Environments
“It’s kind of like getting lost in your own song. To me, riding ways of using space (Proshansky et al., 1976). That is why
around with my skateboard, I don’t even need any music; I most skaters prefer streets rather than skate parks. In this
can stroll down the street having a cheeseburger smile on my respect, street skating is closer to the notion of spatial
face. You just keep cruising; I don’t need to do any tricks. I practice characterized by Lefebvre, as it “ensures continuity
was roaming back and forth on the street, and it is a great and some degree of cohesion, and this cohesion implies
time. It is not just about doing tricks, it is also about who’s a guaranteed level of competence and a specific level of
around, kind of relaxing.” (Kim, 28) performance” (Lefebvre, 1974). In this way, skateboarding
is a significant example of how mundane people produce a
For street skaters, the journey itself is always more lived space.
important than the destination. They roll down the street,
stop to hit an object, and keep moving to look for the next Dimension 2: The Social Control Imposed on
adventure. Through physical performances, they create Skateboarders
their own space.
Experiences Inside the Skate Parks. Compared to street
skating, skating in skate parks is a conformist way of using
space within a designated field. Skaters go to skate parks
and skate those transitions that the landscape architects
made exclusively for them. A typical skate park consists of
an enclosed court surrounded by fences, so it looks like a
playground. With wooden cases, rails, and ramps inside,
skaters can play the same tricks they play on the streets
without worrying about getting kicked out. In addition, Policing and Surveillance in Public Space. Besides the
most skate parks are incorporated into the recreational distinctive uses of physical environments, the levels of social
facilities of the waterfront parks. All three skate parks in control that skaters encounter in the streets and in the skate
Manhattan are located on the West Side along the Hudson parks are also different. The legal control of street skating in
River. Skateboarders, who once took over a variety of New York City originated from the prohibition of reckless
outdoor space in the city in the early 90’s, are more operations of skates and skateboards on sidewalks enacted
segregated and marginalized today. by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in 1996. The Department of
Transportation, the New York City Police Department, and
Most skaters arrive at and leave skate parks individually, the Department of Parks and Recreation are authorized
and there is limited social interaction among them. to issue tickets or summons to violating skaters and even
Besides, all skate parks are similar in that the equipment is confiscate skateboards if they believe that skaters will
produced by the same companies that have their equipment continue to skate recklessly despite tickets or summonses.
approved by the National Recreation and Park Association,
the organization responsible for the safety of the skate park In privately owned but publicly accessible plazas, the control
design. In a city official’s mind, a skate park is just like a primarily comes from private security agencies. This private
basketball court. No one expects any variation in design monitoring is often accompanied by a defensive system
across different basketball courts. A skater describes park that combines the installation of surveillance cameras and
environmental design research association 38th annual conference
– 104Building Sustainable Communities
skate-proof designs. Skating in privately owned plazas, practices. As teenagers are neither children nor adults,
such as those in front of shopping malls or office towers, playgrounds for children do not suit them, and most
is subject to the highest control because the private guards of the public space is constructed as adults’ civic space
watch these places intensively. Post-911 fear of terrorism is (Valentine, 1996). The presence of a large group of youths
also used to justify prevailing policing in public space. is considered out of place and may lead to illegal behavior
(Nolan, 2003). This fear leads to the creation of skate parks
Skateboarders as a Risk Profile. Wakefield (2003) identifies that set up an environment of discipline and order, as well
three categories of facility visitors who are subject to private as a capitalist form of cultural consumption; thus changing
monitoring and surveillance. They are those behaving in an the nature of free public space. Society does not support
Full Refereed
“anti-social” manner, as well as those who fit “risk profiles” groups of teenagers gathering around public space unless
Papers and “known offenders.” The security personnel hold broad they are engaged in sports, such as basketball or soccer.
Urban criteria in defining the so-called anti-social behavior and The provision of skate parks follows this logic to identify
Environments risk profiles. People who fit these criteria are mostly young, skateboarding as a sport.
black, and homeless (Wakefield, 2003).
When skateboarding was a widespread activity in the city, it
By being seen as disorderly, skateboarding falls roughly was considered transgressive and a nuisance. But when the
into the category of anti-social behavior, as it is not a authorities picture it as a sport, it has a legitimate reason
conventional use of space. At the same time skaters fit the to exist. This can be explained by de Certeau’s concept of
risk profile as they are often labeled as noisemakers, graffiti “a property city” (de Certeau, 1984), in which every use is
writers, juvenile delinquents, or simply “hoodlums.” These planned in advance by professionals and designated into
stigmas create a phobia of skateboarding that encourages its proper place. Strategies, defined by de Certeau, are the
dual control from both citizens and the authorities, and techniques that seek to create places in conformity with
often justifies property owners’ privatization of public space. abstract models. Strategies are able to produce and impose
Interviews suggest that the great fear of property owners these spaces with proper operations. Opposed to strategies,
is actually the potential lawsuits from skateboarders who tactics are developed by those under control to traverse the
hurt themselves in front of these facilities. Hence, the fear uses, manipulate these spaces without losing sight of the
actually comes less from the activity of skateboarding itself strategies or abandoning the system (de Certeau, 1984).
and the risk to pedestrians than the outcome following a Hence, the provision of skate parks, skate camps, and skate
skateboarder’s self-injury. bans are strategies through which the authorities seek to
The enforcement of the skateboarding ban in New York City control the functions of the city and the distribution of
across different public spaces is not consistent. One way in space. Nonetheless, skaters will seek out streets where there
which we can explain this phenomenon is that the ideology are no police, or skate in corporate plazas when security
of transgression or reckless behavior is actually a fairly guards look away. One informant told me that some skaters
ambiguous concept (Nolan, 2003). Take Union Square Park even bribe the security guards in order to skate certain
for example. Even though there is a “No Skateboarding” good spots for a longer period of time. Skaters acquire these
sign posted there, the long existence of skateboarding, tactics to get access to the city.
especially during after-school hours, suggests that there is Discipline Inside the Skate Parks. In skate parks, another level
actually tolerance of skateboarding. For decades, college of social control exists in that every skater is required to
students from NYU and The New School University, as well wear a helmet. Kneepads are required in some skate parks.
as many high school students have frequented this urban Helmets are hot during summer and feel constraining.
plaza. The social norm cultivated by this young community No food or drinks are allowed inside the parks. A couple
makes skateboarding more acceptable compared to other of attendants will keep their eyes on the activities inside
parks and public plazas in the city. In Brooklyn Banks, the parks. The monitoring remains as noted in a skater’s
skateboarding has been almost the only lively activity for description of Hudson River Skate Park:
years. So this place has finally been turned into a multi-use
park that legitimately accommodates skateboarding. “It is like a cage. Every skate park is like a cage, you have to
wear helmet. It is kind of like a ‘forced environment’” (Danny,
Exclusion of Urban Youth. The social control of 19)
skateboarding also informs us that contemporary public
space is rarely designed for teenagers. Teenagers in the Time is also controlled in the uses of skate parks in the
city lack public spaces that suit their needs and cultural sense that a typical skate park runs from noon to seven
environmental design research association 38th annual conference
105 –Building Sustainable Communities
p.m., and is open only from May to October. This time advertisement campaigns, to photographic exhibitions, the
frame conflicts with a regular office schedule, so it excludes imagery of skateboarding tends to present skaters’ flying-
older skateboarders who have to work during these hours in-the-air movements with such representative backdrops
and do not have a summer break. Street skaters can enjoy as a wide staircase, an abandoned drain, or a swimming
their activities day or night as they eschew the capitalist pool. This is the key marketable image that appeals to teens
division of time that defines time by work and leisure. Park and young adults who worship an edgy and rebellious style
skaters, on the other hand, concede the choice of time to the for their self-representation. It is very rare that images
authorities. But then park skaters usually pay more attention of skateboarding in skate parks are used for marketing
to their own movements than to the surroundings. A park purposes.
skater routinely heads for the object, rides on it, jumps off Full Refereed
it and returns to the starting point. His sense of time is Architectural Form as Symbolic Capital. Thus the street Papers
determined by the repeat of the same movements. becomes a significant symbol. Street skating is considered Urban
by skaters more appropriating, liberal, real, and it requires Environments
In general, the social control of skateboarders in streets additional courage and creativity, so it is often held in a
and skate parks reflects multiple fears: fear of crime, fear much higher regard among the skateboarding community.
of danger, fear of disorder, and fear of an unknown culture. Skating in the skate parks is considered less real and cool
When skateboarders are excluded from public space and than skating in the streets. As a skater puts it,
directed to a skate park, they do not worry about getting
tickets, being kicked out, or treated badly. At the same time, “For real skaters, they want to skate on real things. Because
it is a place that disciplines their bodies, reshapes their in their minds, there is no validity in skateboarding on
culture, and changes their perception of space and time. something that’s made for skateboarding, but if it’s something
that is natural in the environment then that’s considered in
Dimension 3: Discursive Construction of their mind something more real (Roy, 22).
Skateboarding
By skating streets, skaters project an accurate image of
their subculture. The significance of locality for skaters
can be explained by Bourdieu’s theory that addresses the
distinctions among different social groups, and how these
distinctions contribute to people’s sense of self and lifestyle
(Bourdieu, 1984). Dyrel, for example, is a college sophomore
who started skating at ten. Why is skateboarding so
important to him? The reason that he gave is less a rational
explanation than an emotional account that attributes
skateboarding to his lifestyle:
Symbolic Representations of Skateboarding. The previous “When I think about it sometimes, when I made videos, and
two dimensions - social production of public space and the I got really injured sometimes, I asked why am I doing this…
social control embedded in the culture of skateboarding I’ve broken my arms… but I do it because it’s my lifestyle. I
- shape the public image of skateboarding. Skateboarding became a skateboarder, and that’s all I have known for half
is also considered an activity through which young males of my life, the skateboarding lifestyle. I couldn’t imagine my
construct masculinity, as skateboarders are predominantly life without being a skateboarder. It’s not something that I can
male. just… like [that] I quit skateboarding, and walk away from
it.” (Deryl, 20)
Specifically, skaters make videos and take photographs
to share techniques, celebrate remarkable performances In this sense, skateboarding is considered the origin and
and individuals, and disclose great locations. Visual oasis of a lifestyle. A person needs symbolic, cultural, social,
representation thus becomes a mirror of skaters’ collective and economic capital to maintain his lifestyle (Bourdieu,
production of space and construction of masculinity. By 1984). The symbolic capital is essential to the discursive
performing skateboarding tricks in public space, skaters construction of skateboarding and it takes form in music,
display male bodies and a specific fashion style. They wear clothes, fine art, verbal and non-verbal languages, as well
loose shirts, baggy pants and show the heads of their boxer as in physical space. The locality and the architectural form
shorts. From skateboard magazines, music videos, and
environmental design research association 38th annual conference
– 106Building Sustainable Communities
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their phenomenological and socio-cultural significance. Geography, 17 (3): 205-220.
Wakefield, A. (2003). Selling Security: The Private Policing of Public Space.
The interrelationships between human consciousness, Devon, UK and Portland, Oregon: Willan Publishing.
body experiences, and the material world should be a focus Wooley and Johns. (2001). Skateboarding: The City as Playground.
in more theoretical and empirical studies in the future. Journal of Urban Design, 6 (2): 211-230.
environmental design research association 38th annual conference
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