Trouble Erupts Again Between Skateboarders and the Public

As one commented, "this has been going on for years!"
Yea.
I've witnessed it continually, and from all angles.

Before I had my Wind-scooter, I watched nervously, maybe even with a certain amount of hostility myself, the skateboarders riding the Copley Sq. fountain area.

But, it took me by surprise that, when I'd gotten my own "wheels", I was experiencing what I came to understand as unfair hostile resentment from a wide variety of people.

So, as an older person, who had sung in the Trinity Church as a boy in the early 1960's (a soprano! LOL)  and who had later worked on Newbury St. for 30 years, I found my situation, perspective unique.

Also, over the ten years I've been riding myself in the Copley Sq. area, I've managed to discover a fine niche, a balance between avoiding interference with public business and activity with my own practice of a select activity. And this has evolved into a reasonably safe and accepted one with some entertainment value thrown in. There are some self-imposed rules I follow, careful consideration of where I'm practicing my craft, and an ever-evolving understanding of public space.

I believe that there needs  a better opportunity for an honest dialogue concerning this issue. Just as the biking community has been sorting some very serious issues regarding sharing the roads, the 'alternative' transportation-sport/skateboard community needs a better forum to voice concerns and to hear others' concerns.

My sense is that it probably won't happen.
Or if there's a meeting of concerned people it won't even approach the  questionable success of the bike-city of Boston forums lately occurring.