Continuing with the entries received after our invitation last week for writer’s to share their work with VB, John Aridi was the next to write. His subject was Ryde Skate Park and facilities for young people on the Island. Ed
When I last passed the skate park on Ryde sea front, it was still incomplete.
I don’t claim to know the ins and outs of the situation; all I can be is an outside observer. But this outside observer is wondering where all the support went?
So much of the park is complete, and yet, the last few touches to make it legal to use are simply not there.
Why do the young suffer first?
It leads to a much deeper query. A much more far-reaching comment on the mindset that seems prevalent on this Isle.
Why is it that facilities and services for the young seem to suffer first, every time?
I’m sure there are plenty of complaints about groups of young people on the streets in the afternoons and at night, loitering, being young in a town not built for them. But precious few of the people making the complaints would support any kind of effort to give them somewhere to go.
Am I wrong?
Perhaps I’m wrong. Perhaps there is a good reason why the skate park is unfinished, and why I fear it will remain unfinished – until in ten years time it is demolished to make more room for tourist parking, and the teenagers that would have been using it in all that time have found other ways to entertain themselves.
I just can’t help but wonder if I should really be on this Island.
I’m below the age of forty, and at times, I’m made to feel distinctly unwelcome.
If only I had somewhere to skate.
John Aridi also writes on Where I Lay My Hat
