Annie Palmer

The following is essentially a spiel which has been evoked from a notion I was apart of today during one of my Urban Design lectures. We are currently studying place-making and the various aspects within the process. Amidst today's session the topic of street furniture came about, with the guest speaker highlighting the fact that today's town planners and architects are highly sensitive to the fact that skating and BMX are a force to take into consideration when designing the places of today, sometimes focusing the whole design concept in the prohibition of skating/riding.

Arrrrr;



Furthermore, when I spend my weekends driving around in search of new spots to ride, generally finding minimal, I begin to worry about the day when the majority of the area I live around becomes exhausted.

A number of factors have aided my concerns;

- The current state of BMX is booming, which is a good thing, yet this also means there are more and more dudes in more and more areas. Coupled with the popularity of street (to most people), resurrecting new areas becomes less and less achievable.

- Contemporary design (as noted above) is undertaken with the ideal of prohibiting skating and BMX. This may include those gatdamnn aluminium rails, irritating as hell patterns of dots at the top of stairs, ledge and rail caps as well as a number of other design specifications stopping the unintended use of these places.

Filthy aluminium;



- Increased awareness on behalf of the others (security guards, police, officials etc) in regards to the thought process skating and BMX undertake when scouring regions for spots. Countless times have I been kicked out of spots ( yes even on sunday's) within 10 minutes of arrival. Secondly, most people these days have a certain bearing of BMX, generally people who ask me about riding my bike will attach Dave Mirra, or to a lesser extend Tony Hawk to my answer. This begs me to believe the possibility that the others are conscious to our doing's.



I can feel people's response's being similar to 'you live in south east Queensland, Australia's fastest growing region, how can you be whinging about running out of spots?' or 'Shred the foam instead...' or 'quit being a baby'. I'm not trying to be negative about the situation, its just something that always crosses my mind when I'm out searching for fresh locations to film and ride at.

However! There are also a number of aspects which prevail as positively impacting the dilemma;

- As stated on the department of education, employment and workplace relations, 'The Australian Government has committed $1.7 billion for capital works in schools across Australia for the 2005-2008 quadrennium'. Yes I know we are past that, but we all know red tape and bureaucracies get in the way of strategic targets. Plus there is additional funding in place. This means that a shitload of schools are getting upgrades, which even with crappy aluminium rails is a good thing for us!

- Carmona et al in his book 'Public places, urban spaces' writes about the importance of freedom and choice in the regulation of public spaces, basically noting that people must be allowed to carry out the activities that one desires, with the recognition and tolerance of others. Whilst scratching up a rail is understandably annoying to the person who takes care of the location, jumping off stairs and other obstacles requires no maintenance.

Mmmmm European streets; Prague



- Lastly, also emerging as a branch of my urban design course is the ideal of creating interesting, intricate and memorable places. This includes coming up with inventive and original creations, which permits the possibility of riding an awesome spot. I must say, judging from videos and photos from Europe (Spain for the best example) has amazing architecture, hence kickass spots to ride. One day Australia will catch on!

More tasty sights; Istanbul



If I were you I wouldn't even bother reading this, I'm a friggin' sissy and need to man up.