Mayor Pam Iorio: Everyone is Welcome Except Diarrhea and Skateboarders

Imagine breaking down a huge wall with a caveman tool. The first few times you hit, it's a small chip or maybe even just a scratch. Keep hitting and eventually the chips get bigger and chunks of the wall start to come down. At the Curtis Hixon Park Grand Opening yesterday, I'd like to think we put a few large chips in the wall. We showed up with skateboards, got the usual harassment from police, and made our little statement. During all this, Mayor Pam Iorio mentioned in her speech that the Park is for everyone except skateboarders. The news your dad reads also added one extra word to the title of the story about the grand opening, "Tampa's Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park opens to mostly rave reviews." The Mayor's words and that word "mostly" in the title of the news story is the dent we put in the wall. And, we had a damn good time doing it as you can see in a few minutes of footage. Warning: there are bad words in it. Sure, there are more mature ways of bringing to the City's attention the fact that places to skate are needed, but they're boring, time consuming, and likely won't result in anything worthwile. Oh well, Tampa is going to be the last city on earth to figure out their youth.