Blake Shay commutes to USF St. Petersburg, using his longboard as his primary source of transportation. He works at Starbucks on First Avenue North, which forces him to ride his longboard through downtown, where it is illegal to do so.
In St. Petersburg, riding a skateboard is prohibited between Fifth Avenue North and Fifth Avenue South, and between 16th Street and the Bay. But St. Petersburg City Councilman Karl Nurse wants this to change.
Nurse’s interest in amending the ordinance is personal. His son, now an adult, enjoys skateboarding. When Nurse received letters from college students in the community requesting the ordinance be changed, he decided to take action.
The ordinance was written because skateboarders downtown were damaging property, Nurse said. He finds flaws in this reasoning.
“It would be like outlawing walking because people are jaywalking,” Nurse said, in an interview with The Crow’s Nest. Jaywalking, he added, is a serious problem in St. Petersburg.
Shay, a member of USFSP’s Longboarding Club, has never been stopped by the police while on his longboard. But, the recent attention given to longboarders in the area makes him nervous he will be ticketed.
Tickets for riding skateboards in the prohibited zone cost $93. Franklin Alves, president of the USFSP Longboarding Club, said no USFSP students in the club have been ticketed.
However, some members not affiliated with the university have been ticketed.
The Longboarding Club often rides together down Beach Drive to Snell Isle. Until they pass Fifth Avenue North, the trip is illegal. During a normal club meeting, 20 to 30 students ride together.
“If we were to get stopped one day, the police would be bank rolling on a lot of money,” Alves said.
Both Alves and Shay agree with the initial implementation of the ordinance.
“The type of skaters that were around then [was] a lot more reckless and fit the vandal type,” Shay said.
Most of the skaters of today are college students who use longboards for transportation, they explained.
Nurse believes the current ordinance sends the wrong message to college students.
“We say we want to be a city that embraces young people,” he said. The ordinance communicates the opposite message.
At the St. Petersburg City Council meeting on Thursday, the council voted 8-0 to send the ordinance change to the public services committee, a group of four to five council members who will review the change.
Nurse anticipates opposition to come from those resistant to change. He realizes the ordinance change may result in St. Petersburg business owners’ property damaged.
“Inertia is always your enemy,” he said.
Take a stand: Nurse said the best way USFSP students can make a change in the ordinance is to contact the St. Petersburg City Council. To share your opinions, call the Council at 727-893-7171 or email council@stpete.org.
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