Fifth-grader Eli Seymore had the thought that it wasn’t fair that Coronado kids didn’t have a place to ride their scooters like the skateboarders did, and he shared this with his friend, a third grader at Village Elementary, Russell Benoit. Russell went to his mom who told him he should talk to Mayor Richard Bailey. The following day, in March, Russell went to Mayor Bailey’s office to plead their case. The Mayor told him there was a city council meeting that day and if they were serious they could speak to the council members. Russell and his friend were serious, so Russell wrote a speech, got on his scooter and collected a group of his friends and went to the speak to the City Council.
Upon hearing Russell’s speech, the Council told the group that the Tidelands Skatepark was part of the Port of San Diego and also that the current municipal code did not allow scooters at the skatepark; but they advised that they would look into it. Russell and his Mom followed up with the Mayor and the City Council and the issue was added to the April 4, 2018 meeting agenda.
Leading up to the April meeting, other elementary and middle school boys got involved, collecting over 100 local kid signatures on a petition asking for permission for scooters at the skatepark. The boys sent a letter to the Coronado Recreation Department including in their persuasive request: “…it will give you more money so you can help the town of Coronado more,” and, “all of the people that scooter in Coronado would have a local skatepark, instead of having to go over the bridge every time they wanted to scooter at a skatepark.” Having to go over the bridge as far away as Clairemont to use a skatepark which allowed scooters was mentioned by the students several times. The difficulty with transportation sometimes made it impossible to go. Having the facility on the island would allow them to scooter to the park instead of having to rely on transportation by a parent.
At the meeting in early April, Jacob Heyne, Koehn Kavanewsky, Jack Kennard, John Fragale, and Russell Benoit were some of the boys who bravely spoke at the podium. One comment, by Koehn, was, “we are confident scooters and skaters can coexist with one another and have fun.”
After hearing the boys speak, the City Council board voted unanimously in favor of allowing scooters to use the skatepark and all the boys erupted in cheers and applause. Council member Carrie Downey spoke to everyone there, specifically the students, saying “you are going to show us that you can coexist peacefully because we don’t do so well disagreeing with our neighbors sometimes here, so I would love to see how you all share that facility so more people can use it.” The Mayor responded that he thought they would show the community how it’s done.
Next on the timeline is amending the municipal code to allow scooters, and adding the anticipated $30,000 to the fiscal year 2018/2019 budget for the retrofitting of the skatepark with scooter safety modifications. Both items are expected to be approved. The retrofitting work should take one to two weeks and scooter riders should be able to take to the park in July. This is the timeline explained by Roger Miller, Director of Recreation and Golf Services.
Mayor Bailey is very proud of the boys and stated, “I am proud of Russell and his friends for showing us that you’re never too young to make a difference.” This is just another example of our youth using their voices and learning that if you want to make a change you have to take a chance and find ways to get things done.
