 |
| Carlos Sanchez, hardflip |
“Carlos had the best inward-heelflips,” Tony remembered recently, over an afternoon game of SKATE.
ngc
Saturday, December 25, 2010
R.I.P. Carlos
“Carlos had the best inward-heelflips,” Tony remembered recently, over an afternoon game of SKATE.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
"The Nut Concept"
I fucked up the axle to my front truck and my nut popped off. I bashed it back on, but it was stripped bad. It popped off and I had to chase the wheel. I looked and looked, but couldn't find the nut.
I figured I'd take the metal tab from the beer can and jam it onto my axle. If it was tight enough and held the wheel on, I'd be able to get my skate on.
Now I was hype. Ready to go, I hopped on and popped a kickflip. My feet caught the deck in the air and we came down to the ground only to have the High Life bolt and the wheel both go flying away upon impact.
That's nature's way of making me rest for a day.
 |
| My fucking nut was nowhere. |
 |
| I had a can of High Life and an idea. |
 |
| I called it "The Bolt Concept." |
I figured I'd take the metal tab from the beer can and jam it onto my axle. If it was tight enough and held the wheel on, I'd be able to get my skate on.
 |
| Tried to cram it on snug and tight. |
 |
| Got that bitch on... |
 | ||
| and gave it a spin. |
 |
| This sucks. |
 |
| This setup is proper. I just need a bolt. |
Thursday, December 9, 2010
American Travels
 |
| nevergetcaught, Made in U.S.A. |
I've skated through a lot of cities. The best ones are the ones that got hills and marble.
Some of the lesser known places have proper ass spots. My favorites are Chicago, Seattle, Detroit, and Louisville. There's also some places in Miami.
It costs money to travel and it costs money to skate. Whatever you do out there to survive, be careful.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Tales of an Unsponsored Amateur, chapter two
The payphone receiver touched my lips. I wiped and spit, trying to get rid of the germs.
“Hello?” said Jeff.
His summers were spent on his father’s commercial fishing vessel, in Alaska. His winters were spent getting high. I had a good custee on the other end of the line.
“Jeff whuttup? It’s Billy,” I said.
Real name? You fucking serious? My favorite are Johnny, Billy, Chad, and Daryl.
I hung up the phone and walked from 7-Eleven to the IHOP by my apartment.
Jeff’s black Jetta pulled up to the curb and I hopped inside.
“Still smells new,” I said.
I busted out the sack I snatched from Tatiana. A half-ounce of crack, all bagged up.
“Half O, $300,” I said.
Jeff inspected the pieces of dope and I counted my money before he dropped me off in the rear alley.
There was only one thing on my mind. Pizza.
I ordered a large pepperoni and a bag of garlic rolls.
After filling my belly it was back to the mission. Put on the black hoodie and went outside. I scanned the alley then hopped on my board.
I snapped the tail and leapt. Concrete assaulted by wood, aluminum, and polyurethane.
 |
| Backside 5-0 |
The vibration of skateboard wheels resumed. I skated for a couple hours before I had no pop left.
The air hit my face as I flew back down the hill. Wind against my skin. I was almost to the bottom of the hill when my front wheel screeched like an eighteen-wheeler jackknifing on interstate concrete. The sidewalk blurred below me as I flew. It came to an end. I slammed onto concrete and skidded to a halt. Dues paid….
My 6 foot 140lb. frame was contorted at the bottom of the hill. I stared at the darkening sky through the canopy of trees overhanging the sidewalk. Inhaled deeply and got up. The sting of fresh wounds burnt my nerve endings.
The city was starting to dim. Dusk. Grabbed my board. A pebble lodged in the right front wheel. Pacific Northwest air filled my lungs.
My calf muscles tried to coil as I walked. Block after block of connected, glass storefronts made walls on either side of the Ave. Head shops, dollar stores, cheap furniture stores, Chinese restaurants, a gargoyle store, an arcade, McDonalds, University Bookstore, an art film theater, apartments, record stores, and the smoke shop I got my cigarettes from. Neon signs, streetlights, headlights and taillights shined against the sky.
The wind chime on the door jingled as I swung open the glass door and stepped inside the smoke shop. The man behind the counter was middle aged and middle-eastern. He grabbed a pack of Old Golds for me.
I packed the cigarettes while I waited for change. I pulled one out, placing it between my lips. The cigarette had the letters OG sitting atop a crown just below the filter.
“Do not light up until you are exit the store,” said the man.
I exited the smoke shop with its shadow lit displays and climate controlled air.
Back out on the sidewalk, pot and cigarette smoke wafted alongside the honks of car horns and the squeal of wet brakes. I hopped on my board and coasted down the street.
The clouds had bunched up thickly and the first drops of rain started to fall with early nighttime. A dark breeze blew through the city. I was glad I had a warm apartment. I returned with a fresh pack of smokes.
The kitchen was a cramped space, typical of the studio apartments in the U.D., with a built in wooden booth table. Raindrops beat against the small kitchen window that overlooked the University District below.
I had a vantage point. It had its moments.
A droning chatter came from the television. CNN.
The phone rang. I snatched up the receiver and was greeted by an automated female voice. A collect call from King County Jail. It was Kord, a raver fuck. Every time I chilled with him he wanted to dose me.
“Fuckin glad you’re there. I need to ask you a favor,” Kord said.
Bike patrol peddled up on him and he knew he had a bench warrant for a failure to appear. Illegal drugs in his pocket. He made a dash for it. The big guy was able to run, but oversized raver pants fell off his ass. Spandex biker short cops apprehended him in the alley behind 7-Eleven.
He ditched his stash and hoped it remained.
“You know the dumpsters?” Kord asked.
“Call back in a hour,” I told him.
Kord had a connect for clean acid. I put my boots back on.
A recon mission for me. I double checked the lock and walked down the narrow hallway. Heard sounds. Smelled scents. Cooking food, watching t.v., and talking. All the things people do.
I lurked down the rear staircase, looking out from the staircase, across the alley, and into the windows of the building across the alley. Heroin Hotel. I could look directly into the room on the second story. Red light bulbs. Chicks sat in chairs and couches. Syringes were scattered on a clutter of paraphanalia and trash. Used to be a coffee table. Girls make good junkies. They got an ATM between their legs and lips.
The iron door squeeled and crashed with a metallic clang. It was dark outside with a steady drizzle coming down. Uphill towards 45th St. in the alley. Drizzle held the city in a cloud like a concrete mist garden. I heard tires rolling over wet streets, water flowing out of drainage pipes, and the steps of my boots on wet concrete. The distant buzz of I-5 moaned. An industrial pulse.
Rummaging noises came from a dumpster. I figured it to be a raccoon or a rat. Not too far off.
A greasy mop of hair ascended from the rotten smelling rubble. Humanoid form. Our eyes met.
He was protected from the elements by the layers of grime that coated his epidermal. From where I stood, about 8 ft. away, the dude still smelled like a combination of wet dog and mini-bike smoke.
This is one of the few people that knew my real name. A testament to my shitty judge of character.
“Hey Franco,” he said.
“What the fuck you doin, Sean?” I asked.
“Lookin for a bulb,” Sean said.
He was a full time junkie. This shit was his job.
I remembered seeing Sean tagging the windows and walls on the Ave. at 4a.m. He was fried last summer. Everyone was fried last summer.
I gave him a few smokes. Snapped open the metal lid and sparked the metal wheel on my Zippo. Flickering flame cast our shadows on the alley wall. Drizzle tried to put it out.
“You want some acid?” I suggested.
Sean’s beady eyes darted as he calculated. His plaque covered canines were pointy.
“I got you,” I said.
I continued walking up the alley. Kord would give me fifty percent for a retrieval fee. When you got junkies digging through dumpsters looking for light bulbs, you can’t count on anything being where you left it.
Water poured down the backs of buildings and out from drainage gutters. They emptied into the alley making serpentine currents down the concrete alley.
Gotta get to the gas station, hop the chain link fence around the dumpsters, find the stash, and get back the crib. Felt like I was being watched. Raindrops fell like bombs carrying my reflection. I got to the top of the hill and waited in the shadow. Needed a break in traffic, before darting across 45th St. Saw the D.E.A. van. An old, blue, beat up work van with no windows. I froze in the shadows. The van passed.
I crossed 45th St. and was absorbed back into the alley, shadows and mist.
I paid attention to detail as I neared the gas station. Water dripped and poured, through cracks and crevices.
I grabbed the metal brace at the top of the six-foot tall fence and leapt atop it and hopped into the pitch black of the enclosure. My eyes adjusted to the darkness the second my boots made contact with the concrete. It was between the two dumpsters.
A white cloth pouch.
I snatched it up and stuck it in my jeans pocket. Up and out of the enclosure. Back down the hill and into the rear door. It slammed shut behind me as I ran up the stairs. T.V. still on, blue haze. A silent humming vibration emitted from the closet.
Into the kitchen and I made a glass of soda pop before sitting down at the wooden booth table. I dug out the pouch, tossed it on the table and guzzled from the cold glass.
I unzipped it and dumped the contents onto the table.
“I love these careless fucks around here,” I said and took another sip from the glass.
Two palm sized baggies lay on the table. Three full sheets in the one bag, and another half sheet in the other. It was thick white paper, no graphics. And I was gonna trade it for the kind of paper with graphics.
 |
| nevergetcaught! |
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
Jimmy's Crib
I remember going to Jimmy's crib on the beach. I had fucked up my back and needed pain pills. I got there and Jimmy's roommate let me in. We walked past Jimmy playing video games at his computer and entered the bedroom. Two haggard bitches were snorting shit inside the room. Their titties were wrinkled and scarred.
"Don't tell Jimmy I got hookers in here," his roommate told me.
"How would he not notice two hookers?" I asked.
"You want the homie hook-up?" he asked.
"I'm cool man, I just need something to make my back stop hurting," I answered.
I got a couple pills and they held me over for a day, but I ended up going to the hospital for the straight shot of Dilaudid.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Typical City
On business days, colorful dresses, tight skirts, and pantsuits wrap around Latin curves as high-heels click on the sidewalk. Expensive suits drive exotic leases, honking as they cut each other off at each stoplight, crappy techno-pop blasting as they text and drive block by block.
The sun drops below canal-drained Miami-Dade County.
Deliverymen roll down the doors of their trucks and storeowners push shutters across their storefronts. Students walk from MDCC Wolfon Campus to the Metro-Rail and condo-dwellers pick up poop as their little dogs take them for their evening walks.
Men and women scavenge from City of Miami garbage cans, hunting for protein and carbohydrates.
Escorts exit buildings clad in hooker gear, stepping off curbs into shiny cars.
Crackheads walk around with crackhead wedgies, wiping their snotty noses with their tattered shirtsleeves.
A couple kids come flying down 2nd street on skateboards.
We’re all equal down here on the concrete.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Arrogant.
The two City of Miami cops looked exhausted. They reminded me of the day-care workers and babysitters I used to wear out as a kid.
“You’re messing up the marble,” the cop said.
“I’ve been messin up the marble for twenty years and it’s never been a problem,” I said.
“Things change in twenty years,” he said.
“Not for me they don’t,” I replied.
“You’re messing up the marble,” the cop said.
“I’ve been messin up the marble for twenty years and it’s never been a problem,” I said.
“Things change in twenty years,” he said.
“Not for me they don’t,” I replied.
Friday, October 29, 2010
I remember meeting Ol Dirty in 97. I was in line for a ride at Busch Gardens in Tampa. Just shuffling my feet forward with the rest of the herd, waiting to ride the roller coaster. Who do I come face to face with? Ol Dirty Bastard.
"Whut's up?" he said.
"Whuttup?" I greeted.
It was like we already knew each other from somewhere.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Macing
I met Ozzy at the Coral Gables curb cut, in 1993. He was filming us skate when a territorial yuppie started a fight with Jamie and one of us proceeded to mace him in his eyeballs. This sent the yuppie to his knees, clawing his eyes out, and our crew scrambling to get out of the Gables. Ozzy caught the whole thing on videotape with an old school VHS jumbo apparatus. To this day, nobody knows what happened to that tape, and the City of Coral Gables removed one of the greatest curb cuts of all time.
Miami @ 3a.m.
“What the fuck’s his deal?” I asked myself while catching my breath.
The breeze hit my face and arms and my feet vibrated as I rolled across the ground, eyes stinging from the sweat.
Mist clouds slithered around neon-lit buildings, up alleys, and out onto Biscayne Blvd., as fog filled the city. I know Downtown Miami at 3:00 a.m. isn’t the friendliest place. I grew up skating DTM.
My blurry, nearsighted, vision spotted a silhouette lurking. He was in the darkness, under the trees, and headed straight ahead of me, toward the marble planter I was skating.
As he came into the light by the planter, he made a ninety-degree turn straight at me, and I saw he had the hood to his windbreaker pulled tight around his face. He was tall, wearing aviator shades and boots, and I could see the white hair of his goatee. He looked like an artist’s rendition of the Unabomber, and he looked like he wanted to fight.
It was possible that I disturbed his nighttime serenade of exhaust fumes, horn honks, people-mover trams, and hard blowing wind. I was skating a marble planter, by the fountain. 100 yards from Biscayne Blvd. I wasn’t even swearing.And fuck it if I was, does he have more of a right to the park?
I wanted to skate, not watch my back.
As he approached, I picked up my board, ready to smash the tail into his face.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Tales of an Unsponsored Amateur, chapter one
I snatched the revolver from the holster and stared at it. The blue glow from the television reflected off the barrel. Six Hydra-Shoks sat patiently in the cylinder while the cherry wood grips sat comfortably in my hand. Slid the holster on my belt, grabbed my brown handkerchief, locked up the apartment and headed back out on the Ave.
No skateboard for this one…
The mission started a half-hour ago, my black Thrasher hoodie kept me warm as I rolled towards Red Square.
I pushed hard with my left foot and put it back on the tail. That’s when I spotted Tatiana out of the corner of my eye.
The petite teenage junkie with bleached hair and too much black mascara. She was sitting next to Lenny in a metal bus stop shelter. He was old, like upper forties.
“Fuckin weirdos,” I said to myself and smiled.
I turned back down the hill towards my apartment, skating through Seattle’s University District with my hood up and going unnoticed.
She bragged to me once about how hard she was, Lenny being too much of a pussy to sell his own dope.
“He just buys it and bags it up. I’m the one who bangs it out on the Ave,” Tatiana had said as she loaded a rig and injected the filthy looking substance into her young vein.
Lenny fronted her work; crystal meth. They packaged quarter grams of the orange colored powder in little envelopes made from pages of a porno magazine. She banged it out all night, he returned in the early morning to collect his money and break her off.
I skated through the Dollar Store parking lot and into the rear alley of my apartment on Brooklyn Ave. My feet vibrated on my board as I rolled over the pavement.
The iron mesh door at the rear entrance squeeled on its hinges and slammed shut behind me as I entered the moldy concrete staircase and ran up to the third floor. Brightness had blinded me as I entered the hallway and twisted the key in the doorknob to my studio apartment.
I laid my board against the wall and locked the door. A futon, a television, a boombox, and a bong sat on the hardwood floor. I looked at my bong, crafted in the shape of the grim reaper, and felt a craving for a hit. No time.
The pitchfork veins in my forehead bulged as I changed from my black hoodie into the grey one. Kicked off my Lakais and put on my boots, lacing them tight. I reached under my pillow and felt the grip.
I got the Ruger .357 with a ziplock bag full of Hydra-Shok hollowpoints for $150. Bought it off an Army brat who’d burglarized his parent’s house for a fix.
My leg brushed against my skateboard as I headed out the door. I heard wheels spinning on Swiss bearings. I left through the back and made my way up the hill through the labyrinth of buildings, alleys, and streets.
I came out the alley onto 45th St. and saw the bus stop bench where Tatiana had been earlier. Empty. I continued.
It was easy to blend in. There were lots of freaks walking around the U.D. that night.
Tatiana was in front of the arcade drinking a Colt 45 and talking with some Vietnamese gang bangers. I posted up at a game called Operation Wolf and inserted a couple quarters.
After a few games, Tatiana breezed past me on her way to the ladies room. The shadow of the arcades rear hallway hid me as I pulled the handkerchief out and tied it around the lower half of my face. I looked like a train robber.
My left hand pushed open the door to the ladies room as my right hand slid the Ruger out from behind my hip. I stepped in.
Her feet were visible in the stall. I let her finish. I heard the toilet flush and the plastic latch unlocked. I stepped towards her with the gun to her face. Her nostril flared as I stuffed the barrel into her septum. She didn’t even breathe. I reached down the front of her pants and snatched the pack.
I was caught by surprise. Instead of porno paper triangles it was cream-colored rocks.
I herded her with the gun to sit back down on the toilet.
Backed out, flicked the light switch off and left.
This was way better than being a busboy.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Interview with Convicted Robber of a Subway Sandwich Shop!
Cold Cut is serving a three year sentence for robbing Subway.
How old are you, dawg?
I’m twenty three.
Where are you from, originally?
San Diego area, Valley Center. A town north of San Diego.
What was it like there?
I grew up with really rich, preppy people. The whole town was Mormon, pretty much. The girls were slutty and the parties were wild.
Why’d you leave?
Everyone I knew left to go to college, so I was left there by myself. I had to start my new life. It was time to start a new adventure.
What was your plan?
My plan is to go to New York City. I plan to become rich and wealthy.
How will you acquire your fortune?
I want to become a world renown hit man- no- assassin.
What made you decide that you wanted to be an assassin?
Okay…I figured up all the thoughts in my head, and for me, that seems like the best thing to do.
Why would it be the best thing for you?
Because most people are scared to do the things that need to get done in the world. I’m not scared, because my mission on this planet is to create world peace. There’s so many things that need to be dealt with that can’t be overlooked anymore.
Why an assassin though?
Assassin not always meaning killing, but if necessary then yes.
What do you perceive about that type of lifestyle appeals to you?
Me eliminating problems that hold back the future. Also, having money to have nice things like clothes, cars, women, and friends.
Elaborate on that, if you will?
Louis Vitton clothes, tailor made pinstripe suits, silk clothes, all types of silk stuff, silk underwear, silk sheets. I’m gonna get my dog a suit. Cars, nice cars, and motorcycles. Ducattis, Oprillas, houses, guns, and houseboats.
The finer things in life?
Yes, exactly.
So how are you gonna get started?
First, I’m gonna talk to some people. I’ll convince them of a plan.
What people?
People who are interested in creating world peace by eliminating hardship, violence, and hurtfulness.
But how are you going to achieve world peace when you yourself utilize violence?
First off, I’m gonna find all the people who don’t want to cooperate. Then I’m gonna negotiate with them. I’m gonna be a world renown peace maker.
I thought you were gonna be an assassin?
Assassin, in my view, doesn’t necessarily mean killing. It means taking them out of their lives, and trying to change them before it’s too late.
How are you gonna get rich doing that?
By people who are interested in funding me. Cause if I succeed, we won’t need money. I’m just this little guy on this big planet that’s gonna become the future.
Have you ever ate acid?
Never.
Mushrooms?
Twice…three times maybe.
How are you gonna get people to fund you? They’re supposed to just give you money?
Yeah, kinda just like that. Anyone who has money to blow.
I thought you were going to perform hits for the mafia?
Yes, that also. That’s how I will get my spending money. To start out.
How will that work?
When I do my hits, they will put half the money in a Subway bag with a sandwich, a drink, chips, and a cookie. Then when I have completed the job, they will put the other half in the same fashion.
How will you perform the hits?
Silenced PPK. I will shoot them one time directly in the forehead. After they fall on the ground, I will put silver dollars on their eyes.
What is the significance of that?
To pay the doorman to take their body and soul to wherever they go. Like in Boondock Saints.
How did you acquire the name “Cold Cut”?
My first felony offense was for robbin Subway.
Could you elaborate on that please?
I robbed Subway with my little dog, Scrappy.
What did you get?
Two trash bags full of food-meats, bread, cheese, chips, and a soda.
Is that why you’re gonna have the mob guys put the money in a Subway combo?
Yes, for shits and giggles.
What kind of a combo will it be?
Cold cut trio with everything on it.
Lets say one of the people you have to hit has a gun and starts shooting at you. Then what?
The bullets won’t harm me because I’ll be covered in armor. From head to toe.
What if they shot you in your face?
Then I’m hit, huh huh…I’d take one for my cause.
So why N.Y.? Why not L.A., Miami, or Chicago?
I’m gonna start in N.Y. Once I’m known, then I go worldwide. It’s what I think is best for the future. I’m not bringin God into the situation cause Gads fine with me. I know he wants to change up the planet, that’s why he sent Jesus.
Okay,dude……..Whats your next tattoo gonna be?
Some HR Giger shit. Like aliens, predators, and machines. He had this one that’s like badass. Supreme being that’s like hooked up to a machine.
What is your plan for when you get released from prison?
To get started. Get my capital to get what I need to start my…uh….I call it my business. For my plan. To get followers. So we can save the world. Save it from God. I’m not kidding. Talking is worthless, but I have to talk about it to get interest from people that see my point of view.
How do you feel about good luck charms?
I don’t really believe in luck. I’d wear a cross. I just know that I can do whatever I want to. The only thing holding me back is myself.
What kind of cigarettes are you going to smoke when you do a hit?
Oh, Lucky Strike no filters.(Cold Cut rolls a cigarette in bible paper as he answers)
Tell me about the fight you got into during the shakedown?
Okay, there was this smaller white gentleman and he got offended by me. Cause he wasn’t having a good day, so he started punching me. I put up my hands and laughed at him, and that’s when he got even more upset. And he strangled me. They took us to seg.
What about the chick you want to take back to Cali?
If I was to meet one, then I’d take her back to my house. To my home. And take care of her. Only if she liked me and was interested.
What kind of place do you have? And what is she going to do there?
I have a trailer house…a mobile home. She would grow my weed and have her own garden. She would do whatever she wanted to.
Would she have to clean?
Not really, only if she wanted to.
Would she know what you did for a living? How would you explain your lavish lifestyle of motorcycles, houseboats, silk underwear, and the mobile home?
I would own a couple of Subways. That, and I would also be a day trader.
What are the first steps for when you get released?
I’m gonna start working for people who need jobs handled. Dealt with. Like someone that owes somebody money and they’re not payin. All I have to do is, like, go to drug dealers houses. I’ll ask em if anyone needs to be taken out or anything.
Then what?
Then if they say yes, then I’ll do the job.
What if they want to pay you in dope?
That would be okay.
How much crack would you charge for a hit?
Quarter ounce..no…quarter pound.
Then what? Then you have to sell the crack?
Yeah. Then I’ll get professional weapons. Silencers, PPK’s, ninja stars, daggers, and blowguns.
You’re going to use blowguns for your jobs?
Yeah, deadly poisons. You can get tranquilizer darts and fill em with deadly shit, then, “pfft”, hit em in the neck or sumthin.
Have you thought about a cash only policy, maybe perhaps? That way you wouldn’t have to waste your time selling crack.
Cash only, yeah. But if I can’t get cash, then drugs.
What if you end up smoking all the drugs before you sell them?
I won’t.
How are you going to get your first gun, when you get out?
Rob a pawnshop. I’m gonna be like, “hey, can I see this gun?”, make sure everythings intact. Then I’m gonna run out the door with it.
What if he locks the door electronically?
Shit, then I’m loading and shooting.
You don’t think that the pawn shop owner has a gun?
Aw, fuck. He probably does. Then I guess I’m screwed. I forgot though, I already have a gun at my house. A Colt .45.
How are you going to prevent getting captured in such a dangerous business?
I’ll have disguises. Wigs and makeup and shit.
What kind of wigs?
Curly hair wigs, long hair wigs, dread wigs, and a bald cap.
What are you doing during your present incarceration, in preparation for your upcoming career?
Push ups, sit ups, bench press, run like two miles on the track. I don’t need any more head knowledge, I’m already smart enough.
How old are you, dawg?
I’m twenty three.
Where are you from, originally?
San Diego area, Valley Center. A town north of San Diego.
What was it like there?
I grew up with really rich, preppy people. The whole town was Mormon, pretty much. The girls were slutty and the parties were wild.
Why’d you leave?
Everyone I knew left to go to college, so I was left there by myself. I had to start my new life. It was time to start a new adventure.
What was your plan?
My plan is to go to New York City. I plan to become rich and wealthy.
How will you acquire your fortune?
I want to become a world renown hit man- no- assassin.
What made you decide that you wanted to be an assassin?
Okay…I figured up all the thoughts in my head, and for me, that seems like the best thing to do.
Why would it be the best thing for you?
Because most people are scared to do the things that need to get done in the world. I’m not scared, because my mission on this planet is to create world peace. There’s so many things that need to be dealt with that can’t be overlooked anymore.
Why an assassin though?
Assassin not always meaning killing, but if necessary then yes.
What do you perceive about that type of lifestyle appeals to you?
Me eliminating problems that hold back the future. Also, having money to have nice things like clothes, cars, women, and friends.
Elaborate on that, if you will?
Louis Vitton clothes, tailor made pinstripe suits, silk clothes, all types of silk stuff, silk underwear, silk sheets. I’m gonna get my dog a suit. Cars, nice cars, and motorcycles. Ducattis, Oprillas, houses, guns, and houseboats.
The finer things in life?
Yes, exactly.
So how are you gonna get started?
First, I’m gonna talk to some people. I’ll convince them of a plan.
What people?
People who are interested in creating world peace by eliminating hardship, violence, and hurtfulness.
But how are you going to achieve world peace when you yourself utilize violence?
First off, I’m gonna find all the people who don’t want to cooperate. Then I’m gonna negotiate with them. I’m gonna be a world renown peace maker.
I thought you were gonna be an assassin?
Assassin, in my view, doesn’t necessarily mean killing. It means taking them out of their lives, and trying to change them before it’s too late.
How are you gonna get rich doing that?
By people who are interested in funding me. Cause if I succeed, we won’t need money. I’m just this little guy on this big planet that’s gonna become the future.
Have you ever ate acid?
Never.
Mushrooms?
Twice…three times maybe.
How are you gonna get people to fund you? They’re supposed to just give you money?
Yeah, kinda just like that. Anyone who has money to blow.
I thought you were going to perform hits for the mafia?
Yes, that also. That’s how I will get my spending money. To start out.
How will that work?
When I do my hits, they will put half the money in a Subway bag with a sandwich, a drink, chips, and a cookie. Then when I have completed the job, they will put the other half in the same fashion.
How will you perform the hits?
Silenced PPK. I will shoot them one time directly in the forehead. After they fall on the ground, I will put silver dollars on their eyes.
What is the significance of that?
To pay the doorman to take their body and soul to wherever they go. Like in Boondock Saints.
How did you acquire the name “Cold Cut”?
My first felony offense was for robbin Subway.
Could you elaborate on that please?
I robbed Subway with my little dog, Scrappy.
What did you get?
Two trash bags full of food-meats, bread, cheese, chips, and a soda.
Is that why you’re gonna have the mob guys put the money in a Subway combo?
Yes, for shits and giggles.
What kind of a combo will it be?
Cold cut trio with everything on it.
Lets say one of the people you have to hit has a gun and starts shooting at you. Then what?
The bullets won’t harm me because I’ll be covered in armor. From head to toe.
What if they shot you in your face?
Then I’m hit, huh huh…I’d take one for my cause.
So why N.Y.? Why not L.A., Miami, or Chicago?
I’m gonna start in N.Y. Once I’m known, then I go worldwide. It’s what I think is best for the future. I’m not bringin God into the situation cause Gads fine with me. I know he wants to change up the planet, that’s why he sent Jesus.
Okay,dude……..Whats your next tattoo gonna be?
Some HR Giger shit. Like aliens, predators, and machines. He had this one that’s like badass. Supreme being that’s like hooked up to a machine.
What is your plan for when you get released from prison?
To get started. Get my capital to get what I need to start my…uh….I call it my business. For my plan. To get followers. So we can save the world. Save it from God. I’m not kidding. Talking is worthless, but I have to talk about it to get interest from people that see my point of view.
How do you feel about good luck charms?
I don’t really believe in luck. I’d wear a cross. I just know that I can do whatever I want to. The only thing holding me back is myself.
What kind of cigarettes are you going to smoke when you do a hit?
Oh, Lucky Strike no filters.(Cold Cut rolls a cigarette in bible paper as he answers)
Tell me about the fight you got into during the shakedown?
Okay, there was this smaller white gentleman and he got offended by me. Cause he wasn’t having a good day, so he started punching me. I put up my hands and laughed at him, and that’s when he got even more upset. And he strangled me. They took us to seg.
What about the chick you want to take back to Cali?
If I was to meet one, then I’d take her back to my house. To my home. And take care of her. Only if she liked me and was interested.
What kind of place do you have? And what is she going to do there?
I have a trailer house…a mobile home. She would grow my weed and have her own garden. She would do whatever she wanted to.
Would she have to clean?
Not really, only if she wanted to.
Would she know what you did for a living? How would you explain your lavish lifestyle of motorcycles, houseboats, silk underwear, and the mobile home?
I would own a couple of Subways. That, and I would also be a day trader.
What are the first steps for when you get released?
I’m gonna start working for people who need jobs handled. Dealt with. Like someone that owes somebody money and they’re not payin. All I have to do is, like, go to drug dealers houses. I’ll ask em if anyone needs to be taken out or anything.
Then what?
Then if they say yes, then I’ll do the job.
What if they want to pay you in dope?
That would be okay.
How much crack would you charge for a hit?
Quarter ounce..no…quarter pound.
Then what? Then you have to sell the crack?
Yeah. Then I’ll get professional weapons. Silencers, PPK’s, ninja stars, daggers, and blowguns.
You’re going to use blowguns for your jobs?
Yeah, deadly poisons. You can get tranquilizer darts and fill em with deadly shit, then, “pfft”, hit em in the neck or sumthin.
Have you thought about a cash only policy, maybe perhaps? That way you wouldn’t have to waste your time selling crack.
Cash only, yeah. But if I can’t get cash, then drugs.
What if you end up smoking all the drugs before you sell them?
I won’t.
How are you going to get your first gun, when you get out?
Rob a pawnshop. I’m gonna be like, “hey, can I see this gun?”, make sure everythings intact. Then I’m gonna run out the door with it.
What if he locks the door electronically?
Shit, then I’m loading and shooting.
You don’t think that the pawn shop owner has a gun?
Aw, fuck. He probably does. Then I guess I’m screwed. I forgot though, I already have a gun at my house. A Colt .45.
How are you going to prevent getting captured in such a dangerous business?
I’ll have disguises. Wigs and makeup and shit.
What kind of wigs?
Curly hair wigs, long hair wigs, dread wigs, and a bald cap.
What are you doing during your present incarceration, in preparation for your upcoming career?
Push ups, sit ups, bench press, run like two miles on the track. I don’t need any more head knowledge, I’m already smart enough.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Educational Background
As my knee exploded, I thought life had flushed down the toilet.
I had paid blood dues before.
Broken wrist back in Rochester.
Fractured jaw in Brickell.
Snapped ankle in the Grove.
I guess the Grove hadn’t finished collecting its tab.
I saw my right leg and cringed.
My knee was bent ninety degrees sideways towards my other leg.
I tried to push it back where it was supposed to be.
It was stuck bent.
Beads of sweat oozed from my pores and dropped into a crack in the black asphalt.
Unable to straighten my leg, I crawled.
Haran picked up my board. I clawed to the truck.
I climbed into the passenger side. The freshly blown-out ACL and torn meniscus sent me someplace where all you feel is injury.
The image kept replaying.
Landing only to see my knee buckle
It played over and over.
Main Highway didn’t give a fuck.
Banyan roots made bumps in the road. I could smell Poinciana berries as we drove.
We rounded the corner onto Douglas Rd.
Haran helped me get inside and onto the couch.
What I’d done this time was damage,
It kept playing. On a loop.
I didn’t give a fuck.
I needed to worry about walking.
After a few days I could limp.
If I straightened my leg, it buckled.
If I bent my knee, it got stuck.
When I unbent my knee, it grinded then snapped.
I was lucky to still be covered under my mom’s health plan.
Replaced my ACL with an Achilles tendon from a cadaver.
Allograft. I puked Sour Patch Kids on my surgeon, but he was cool about it.
“If you do the rehab correctly, your knee’ll be stronger after the injury than before it,” Dr. Blythe said.
I had paid blood dues before.
Broken wrist back in Rochester.
Fractured jaw in Brickell.
Snapped ankle in the Grove.
I guess the Grove hadn’t finished collecting its tab.
I saw my right leg and cringed.
My knee was bent ninety degrees sideways towards my other leg.
I tried to push it back where it was supposed to be.
It was stuck bent.
Beads of sweat oozed from my pores and dropped into a crack in the black asphalt.
Unable to straighten my leg, I crawled.
Haran picked up my board. I clawed to the truck.
I climbed into the passenger side. The freshly blown-out ACL and torn meniscus sent me someplace where all you feel is injury.
The image kept replaying.
Landing only to see my knee buckle
It played over and over.
Main Highway didn’t give a fuck.
Banyan roots made bumps in the road. I could smell Poinciana berries as we drove.
We rounded the corner onto Douglas Rd.
Haran helped me get inside and onto the couch.
What I’d done this time was damage,
It kept playing. On a loop.
I didn’t give a fuck.
I needed to worry about walking.
After a few days I could limp.
If I straightened my leg, it buckled.
If I bent my knee, it got stuck.
When I unbent my knee, it grinded then snapped.
I was lucky to still be covered under my mom’s health plan.
Replaced my ACL with an Achilles tendon from a cadaver.
Allograft. I puked Sour Patch Kids on my surgeon, but he was cool about it.
“If you do the rehab correctly, your knee’ll be stronger after the injury than before it,” Dr. Blythe said.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
The Real Story
by: stevenipaul40
My only interest is skating. Not ice skating, and not rollerblading. You are lame for even thinking that inside your mind.
Skateboarding, that’s it. Maybe a little writing. And I needed a story. A conflict was brewing in the local media cauldron, and it was skateboard related.
The Miami Herald headline read, “Temple members hope to put bump in road to Miami skateboard park.”
According to the article, members of Temple Israel, the historic “spiritual home to many of South Florida’s leading Jewish families,” as described in their website, had beef with skateboarders, skateboard parks, Commissioner Sarnoff, boom boxes, and the City of Miami.
The city has been working towards the building of a public skateboard park for the past two years. Could conflict over the skate park’s proximity to Temple Israel, both on NE 19 St, cause building plans to be halted?
I didn’t even know there were plans underway to build a skate park in Miami. I had even less an idea there was an opposition.
Gonna get the real story for myself. First, to the big ledge. It was necessary I go skating immediately. Get the blood pumping. Need the lungs breathing this thick Miami air. This was going to require vast mental output; lists and figures, voices, and hard facts.
Got my morning line in. Noseslide on the ledge, roll away fakie (backwards), fakie kickflip. Coast over to the picnic table, sip my coffee, smoke my cigarette.
I’m a thirty-two year old skater. Since age ten, I give two fucks about “no skateboarding” signs or security guards. We skated after curfew, post Hurricane Andrew, getting chased by National Guard troops in the Grove. We never get caught.
And we never had public skate parks. The Dade County skate parks in the nineties were Nosebones and Fatbacks. Dusty warehouses, far from where anyone lived, that smelled like sweaty pads. We had Downtown Mafia (DTM), and this whole urine soaked city was our skate park.
I guess skateboarding is like anything else. It grows. It gets big. Nowadays skateboarding is “positive.” Commissioner Sarnoff has been working alongside the skateboard community to build a quality concrete skateboard park in Downtown Miami for two years now. So where is it?
I’d soon find out, public opinion about the City of Miami’s effort to build a skate park had been skewed just in time for the upcoming budget vote in November.
“needles all over the place.”
“A city or a town that has a skate park shows that they value their local skateboard community, and that they respect them,” said Seth Levy.
Seth, a University of Miami graduate, heads the Save the Biscayne Skate Park website, at Miamiskaters.com. He has been working with the City of Miami, and the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency, on the Biscayne Skate Park project for two years.
“Seth has done an outstanding job organizing the skateboard community, and raising awareness to gain support from the community. What we’ve heard from Seth is that there is in fact a majority of people who belong to the temple who are supportive of the project,” said David Karsh, who is Director of Communications for Miami Commission Chairman, Marc Sarnoff.
Growing up in Washington D.C., Seth came up through the D.I.Y. (do it yourself) school of East Coast skateboarding.
“We had the same struggle Miami has now. We had no skateboard parks,” Seth said, ““The first park we built, in D.C., we built it in a really crappy part of town. I can understand that there’s a lot of stereotypes about skateboarders, and I kinda want to show them that they’re wrong. I sincerely believe that once this park is built, they’re gonna realize that it’s a positive thing for their community.”
On the Facebook page for the group Save the Miami Skate Park, Seth added, “'boom boxes' haven't been used in well over a decade.”
The location for the new Biscayne Skate Park, on N.E. 19 St., is located across the street from Temple Israel, and adjacent to Miami City Cemetery. It’s a historic section of the city, long known to be saturated with drugs and prostitution.
“There were literally needles all over the place, drug dealers, not a good situation,” Seth pointed out, “Commissioner Sarnoff is the one who really got this project started. He did. Not me. I wasn’t there when it started,” Seth said.
Ms. Eisenberg’s concerns.
Two members of the Miami community have been most vocal, media-wise, in their opposition to the Biscayne Skate Park. Civic leader, Annette Eisenberg (founder of the Downtown Bay Forum) is one of those figures.
I had to reach out to the opposition, get all perspectives, and it was necessary that I not reveal any allegiance to the pro skateboard park agenda.
After a brief phone call, Ms. Eisenberg invited me to her NE Miami home to discuss the proposed skateboard park, and the Miami skateboard scene overall.
It was raining when I got dropped off there. I was dressed like a dork and holding an umbrella.
The power had gone out, and it made the day darker. We sat in her living room, discussing the politics behind Miami’s proposed skateboard park, as the rain poured down outside.
“How did you become involved in this issue?” I asked her.
“Through an association I had with a member of the temple. Their concern was different than my concern. Their concern was the location. My concern was the cost, as a citizen of Miami,” said Ms. Eisenberg.
“Do you remember the name of your associate, at the Temple?” I asked.
“I don’t want to say any names,” she answered.
According to Ms. Eisenberg, the real reason behind Commissioner Sarnoff, and the City of Miami, pushing towards a public skateboard park was to relocate one specific group of skateboarders.
“They wanted to move them from Brickell. However, I found out the population that was actually involved were from Broward and Palm Beach. Their parents drop them off in the morning, and pick them up at night. It’s really a wonderful location, it’s classy,” Ms. Eisenberg said.
There’s nothing classy about cosmetic injectable junkies with bad manners. I remembered breaking my jaw, skating in Brickell, back in 1991. Blood dues paid on concrete. DTM skaters mobbed deep on the weekends, and were from every part of Dade County: North, South, East and West.
It’s no different now. Only thing is that I’m an adult (thick facial hair), the adults from back then are now elderly, and the kids who weren’t even born yet are now young rippers.
“This piece of property happens to be in that C.R.A. (Community Redevelopment Agency) area, but it’s not going to enhance the area that’s there,” according to Ms. Eisenberg, “So it’s primarily intended to take that population out of Brickell and put it elsewhere. And I am not objecting to that because I think it’s horrible that these kids are allowed to desecrate private property.”
This was a shock to my system. I always figured that architecture existed to skate on. I never thought of a buttery ass marble ledge as somebody’s personal property, especially in a city built on cocaine and real-estate schemes. But it always comes back to the boom box dilemma.
“Are these skateboard parks that don’t have the boom boxes? Yes they do, I think they have them outside in their current location. Go down there Saturday or Sunday morning, see what they do. Did you see the pictures that Chuck (Charles Rabin) got downtown there? He called me and said, ‘If I send a photographer down there on Saturday, will I see it?’ I said, ‘You probably will, I can’t guarantee it,’ but apparently he saw it. In Brickell he saw it, he had the photograph in the paper. See, Chuck had asked me, and that photo was taken the Saturday before the C.R.A. meeting, where all the hullaboo took place,” said Ms. Eisenberg.
That C.R.A. meeting “where all the hullaboo took place” had been the first televised media coverage of the “skateboard park controversy.”
“Channel 10 News caught them on camera saying some very terrible things about the skateboard community, and kinda just put a lot of pressure on the city officials. They basically said ‘skateboarders are a nuisance that we don’t need in Miami, at all. They bring boom boxes and drugs to your neighborhoods.’ Things like that, things that obviously aren’t true about a skateboard park. So that’s all they heard. For instance, Channel 10 News, I knew they were doing this story. They had my number. They never called me. They were looking to start something,” said Seth.
Ms. Eisenberg’s concerns related to Biscayne Skate Park were;
1. The cost, $2.2 million dollars, and was the skateboard park really being built for Miami skaters?
2. Where was the money coming from?
3. Boom boxes?
“I respect them for what they’re trying to do,” said Ms. Eisenberg, about Seth and Commissioner Sarnoff.
Confused as I headed out the door, the rain let up and steam rose from the street.
“How’d you get here?” she asked.
“I got dropped off,” I said.
Ms. Eisenberg had a friend of hers give me a ride to Biscayne Blvd. It started raining again.
I had a feeling this “skateboard park boom box hullaboo controversy” resulted from something Seth had told me about.
“A man named Stanley Tate, who’s kind of leading this opposition, wrote an article that was published in the Biscayne Times. It was very, it was against the skateboard park, but it was also just against skateboarders in general,” Seth said, “He was speaking as if he was coming from this synagogue here (Temple Israel). But I know for a fact that he does not speak for them because half the board is in favor of the park. It’s these few vocal members of the temple.”
Tricknology, as defined by the Urban Dictionary, is “A conspiracy to commit fraud on the masses by introducing ideas not based on scientific fact or substance.”
Biscayne Times, Miami Herald, and Channel 10 News? Maybe this was getting interesting. Or maybe it was more bullshit; a select group of citizens micro-managing an issue’s portrayal in the media. Miami’s a fractionalized city.
“skaters care about their community.”
City of Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff is the skateboard community’s strongest political ally.
Sarnoff recently held a movie event at Miami City Hall, in conjunction with the Save the Miami Skate Park event on July 19, 2010. Dozens of Miami skateboarders swarmed the Coconut Grove Skate Park before marching to Miami City Hall. They chanted ‘skate park, skate park, skate park,’ as they walked, skateboards in the air.
Young and old, arrived on the steps to City Hall, they were told that no skateboards were allowed inside. Dozens of skateboards were piled inside skate instructor James Heredia’s brown Jeep Cherokee and they were invited inside for the Earth movie event.
“You all sent a very positive message that skaters care about their community and truly want to make a difference,” Sarnoff said, about the skaters attending the environmentally focused movie.
“The commissioner saw there was no viable place for skateboarders to take part in their sport. So he thought this would be a great location for a state-of-the-art skate park,” Karsh said recently, pointing inside a grassy Biscayne Park.
Sarnoff doesn’t want political attention for getting the skate park built. He just wants the concrete poured. Seth Levy shares the sentiment.
“It’s about the skate park. I have a unique perspective cause I’ve been working with the city for a while, and because I’m a member of the synagogue there,” Seth said.
“fight blight.”
The whole thing smelled a little shitty. The Biscayne Times, Channel 10 News, and the Miami Herald had painted a conflict between Temple Israel and the skateboard community. But Ms. Eisenberg had spoken with me as a private citizen, not as a representative of Temple Israel.
Seth Levy is a Temple Israel member himself, but was not even contacted by Channel 10 News, and said the Miami Herald reporter completely changed his words.
The Miami skateboard community was getting punked out. It was amateur juxtaposition of disinformation, SOT’s (sound bites), elite connections, and crappy writing.
“The process for building the skateboard park, which had been going for a year and a half, kinda just hit a wall. And it was an invisible wall that should not have happened. We are on schedule, to get things done. But then it kinda just stopped. People were making excuses, but no one could really tell us why. Then two weeks ago, on Monday, there was a meeting, just going over the budget, and the skateboard park obviously is included in the budget, and all these members from the temple, that were against the skateboard park, were there and started protesting,” Seth told me.
I knew I had to give Seth and Commissioner Sarnoff a chance to address Ms. Eisenberg’s concerns. Explanations.
But why was the skateboard community, and its supporters, on the defensive? The proposal to build a public skateboard park in Miami has been done through the proper channels.
“CRA funds can just be used to fight blight, and to reinvigorate a neighborhood. Commissioner Sarnoff believes that a quality skate park will indeed reinvigorate a neighborhood. At night, this place is practically deserted. People were concerned about crime in the area. The Commissioner felt that if you have a quality skate park, it’s gonna bring people here, people who are doing productive things, taking part in a great sport,” said Karsh.
Hearing Ms. Eisenberg tell me the skate park was being built for Broward and Palm Beach kids was funny.
“I’m not sure if anyone has checked the drivers license of every skateboarder in the City of Miami. I give them credit if that’s what they’ve done. The fact of the matter is, skateboarding is going on in other parts of the city (besides Brickell). This is designed for the residents of Miami, but if people from other communities want to come here, that’s great. Because they come to Miami, they’ll skateboard, they’ll go to one of our local restaurants, they’ll go to one of our local shops, and it’s gonna bring business to our local community, which is exactly what we need,” Karsh said.
One out of four kids in Miami-Dade County skate, according to a Federal Study on physical fitness. To find out why Miami needs a public skateboard park, I had to ask the ones that roll on the concrete every day.
Needed to talk to the skaters. And I needed to track down the Miami skateboard community’s most vehement critic.
“we’re gonna fight it.”
Stanley Tate (founder of the Florida Pre-Paid College Program) agreed to meet with me on a Saturday at Tate Enterprises, on Opa-Locka Blvd.
“You’re early,” Mr. Tate said, looking at his watch, “I was expecting you at 12:30.”
Stanley Tate has been a member of Temple Israel for sixty-two years. He married his wife there, sixty-one years ago. Mr. Tate was president of the temple for five years, and is a primary financial supporter.
“The pre-school, of Temple Israel, is named after me. The name’s on the front of the building. It’s the John and Stanley Tate School,” Tate said.
Mr. Tate first became aware of the proposed skateboard park through an association at the temple. He called the existing president of Temple Israel and asked if he’d heard about it. He hadn’t.
“’Ya better look into it’,” Tate remembered saying to him and added, “Ya know, on certain services, that are done at the temple, we get as many as four or five hundred people. And they park in the lots, and on the vacant land. A skateboard park, unless it’s very heavily controlled with restrictions on utilization of boom-boxes and music things, it could be a big problem.”
Temple Israel then called a special board meeting. Members of the board of trustees, of the temple, met with a representative of the parks department. Lots of questions were asked.
“After a pretty, uh, educational meeting where people asked a lot of questions, all of them answered, a representative from the parks department came, after they left a vote was taken and it was unanimous. That the Temple Israel should go on record as the trustees being opposed to the skateboard park being there,” Tate said.
That’s when the Temple Israel board of trustees called for a meeting with Commissioner Sarnoff.
“We had a meeting with the commissioner, and the head of the parks department. It was not what I would call the most pleasant meeting, because the commissioner took the position that the city had a right to use it, and we had no right to deny that right. And I said ‘it’s not a question of rights, it’s a question of the proper use of the area’,” Tate said.
The whole controversy, between the proposed Biscayne Skate Park and Temple Israel, seemed more like a misunderstanding.
“We’re gonna fight it and hopefully we prevail,” Tate said, “and we’re not against skateboard parks. I want you to understand that.”
“kids would have a place to skate.”
“Miami needs a public skate park because they’re always complaining about the kids at the triangle and downtown. All over, the Grove, every ledge is capped. We need a free skatepark. All the ones that are free become owned,” said eighteen year old skater, Demmier Vargas.
The Miami skateboard community is made up of a cross section of the city. All ages, gender, and cultures seem to come together through skateboarding. Critics say boom boxes, marijuana smoking, and unruly behavior typify the skateboard community, and the behavior associated with skateboard parks.
“They need to go out and do some research, look at the other parks that are available within the state, and then come back and continue saying what they’re saying,” said Bobby Stack.
Stack is in his forties, and has been skateboarding since 1973. His wife and two daughters also enjoy skateboarding.
“My whole family skates. Because the parks are so small, I cannot skate with them. To get em up to a park, I gotta go outta my own county,” Stack added.
The problems with the Coconut Grove Skate Park are widely agreed upon in the skateboard community. The ground is too rough, the wooden ramps are old, and the space is too small. Bottom line, it’s slow and sucky.
“You can never have a wood park that lasts more than ten years, it just doesn’t work,” Seth Levy said.
In the soaring heat, humidity, and moisture of Miami-Dade County, it is common knowledge that wood structures are meant to be temporary. The Biscayne Skate Park on NE 19 St., if built, will be concrete.
“We used to have to skate Downtown Miami,” said Miami skateboard legend Felix Ruiz, “because of that a lot of times we ended up getting into trouble with cops and security guards.”
Miami City Police Sergeant Angel Calzadilla feels bad for having to kick skateboarders out of downtown spots. He says the conflict arises out of private property owners beautifying their building fronts, and creating the perfect terrain for skateboarding.
“People have this mistaken perception that skateboarders are thugs. They’re not. They’re just young kids who enjoy the sport of skateboarding. The fact that they need a venue is quite clear,” said Sergeant Calzadilla.
The main difference for the skaters of Miami, if a public skate park is built, is an economic one.
“Kids would have a place to skate, that they don’t have to pay,” said MIA Skateshop rider, Rene Perez.
This common sense approach to looking at the pros and cons of a public skate park is refreshing. One of the great things about skating is you can just step out your front door and go. Lines and fees and rules just slow everything down, and along with the slow usually comes the suck. The Biscayne Skate Park would make it to where a kid with a Metro-Pass could get to the park and skate. The only money they’d need would be for hydration.
Who knows? Maybe they could even put in a good, cold, municipal water fountain. If the city does build the skate park, I just hope it has lights for night skating.
“It’s not gonna be 24 hours. It’s not. It’s not feasible, because it costs a lot of money to do lights,” said Seth Levy.
Miami skaters are calling bullshit on that.
“Baseball fields have lights, basketball courts have lights, why can’t a skate park?” asked Rene Perez.
Felix Ruiz makes the drive, from Miami, to skate MIA Skate Park in Doral several times a week. He started DTM, and saw plenty of skaters fall by the wayside, in the nineties.
“By bringing a public skateboard park to Miami, it would definitely keep kids outta trouble, keep them from going the wrong way. A lot of my friends I can tell you did, just because of the fact that they didn’t have something like this available back then,” Felix Ruiz said, his shirt and hat soaked in sweat.
Biscayne Skate Park, if built, would be 600ft. distance from Temple Israel.
“The city of Portland, Oregon, did a sound study about skateboard parks. They actually built 19 parks, the city. They commissioned a sound survey of ‘how far away from a skateboard park is it audible?’ And they found that at 200ft., it is completely inaudible. 200ft. and greater, it is completely inaudible. So at 600 ft., there’s no way they’re gonna hear it. Especially with a buffer built in-between,” said Seth.
• New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and a host of lesser cities all have quality concrete, public skateboard parks. Miami is the fourth largest metropolis in the U.S. and has no concrete skateboard park.
• According to a federal study on physical fitness, skateboarding is the fourth most popular sport in the country.
• According to the same study, one out of five kids in Miami-Dade County ride a skateboard.
“My research study was on the disparity between skateboard parks and the number of skateboarders. There’s a lot more skateboarders then the number of skateboard parks can handle. Why does that still exist, when skateboarding’s so much in the mainstream?” asked Seth.
According to Ms. Eisenberg, Temple Israel issued a gag order officially concerning the matter. According to off the record sources, the PR firm GBD has been hired to keep anti-skatepark sentiment in the media. CBS4 jumped in the “hullaboo” with a quick “Skatepark Showdown” piece featuring City Cemetery enthusiasts who claimed it was “disrespectful to even consider” building a skateboard park in Biscayne Park. The Miami Herald followed CBS4’s new angle with another anti-skatepark article. Miami City Cemetery enthusiasts who are “concerned” about Biscayne Skate Park being built on prestigious NE 19 St. They used “there’s always one bad apple” logic to rationalize their prejudice against the skateboarding community.
I don’t even fucking care anymore, I’m going skating. Not ice skating, and not rollerblading. You are lame for even thinking that inside your mind.
Skateboarding, that’s it. Maybe a little writing.
intellectual property of nevergetcaught multimedia.
My only interest is skating. Not ice skating, and not rollerblading. You are lame for even thinking that inside your mind.
Skateboarding, that’s it. Maybe a little writing. And I needed a story. A conflict was brewing in the local media cauldron, and it was skateboard related.
The Miami Herald headline read, “Temple members hope to put bump in road to Miami skateboard park.”
According to the article, members of Temple Israel, the historic “spiritual home to many of South Florida’s leading Jewish families,” as described in their website, had beef with skateboarders, skateboard parks, Commissioner Sarnoff, boom boxes, and the City of Miami.
The city has been working towards the building of a public skateboard park for the past two years. Could conflict over the skate park’s proximity to Temple Israel, both on NE 19 St, cause building plans to be halted?
I didn’t even know there were plans underway to build a skate park in Miami. I had even less an idea there was an opposition.
Gonna get the real story for myself. First, to the big ledge. It was necessary I go skating immediately. Get the blood pumping. Need the lungs breathing this thick Miami air. This was going to require vast mental output; lists and figures, voices, and hard facts.
Got my morning line in. Noseslide on the ledge, roll away fakie (backwards), fakie kickflip. Coast over to the picnic table, sip my coffee, smoke my cigarette.
I’m a thirty-two year old skater. Since age ten, I give two fucks about “no skateboarding” signs or security guards. We skated after curfew, post Hurricane Andrew, getting chased by National Guard troops in the Grove. We never get caught.
And we never had public skate parks. The Dade County skate parks in the nineties were Nosebones and Fatbacks. Dusty warehouses, far from where anyone lived, that smelled like sweaty pads. We had Downtown Mafia (DTM), and this whole urine soaked city was our skate park.
I guess skateboarding is like anything else. It grows. It gets big. Nowadays skateboarding is “positive.” Commissioner Sarnoff has been working alongside the skateboard community to build a quality concrete skateboard park in Downtown Miami for two years now. So where is it?
I’d soon find out, public opinion about the City of Miami’s effort to build a skate park had been skewed just in time for the upcoming budget vote in November.
“needles all over the place.”
“A city or a town that has a skate park shows that they value their local skateboard community, and that they respect them,” said Seth Levy.
Seth, a University of Miami graduate, heads the Save the Biscayne Skate Park website, at Miamiskaters.com. He has been working with the City of Miami, and the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency, on the Biscayne Skate Park project for two years.
“Seth has done an outstanding job organizing the skateboard community, and raising awareness to gain support from the community. What we’ve heard from Seth is that there is in fact a majority of people who belong to the temple who are supportive of the project,” said David Karsh, who is Director of Communications for Miami Commission Chairman, Marc Sarnoff.
Growing up in Washington D.C., Seth came up through the D.I.Y. (do it yourself) school of East Coast skateboarding.
“We had the same struggle Miami has now. We had no skateboard parks,” Seth said, ““The first park we built, in D.C., we built it in a really crappy part of town. I can understand that there’s a lot of stereotypes about skateboarders, and I kinda want to show them that they’re wrong. I sincerely believe that once this park is built, they’re gonna realize that it’s a positive thing for their community.”
On the Facebook page for the group Save the Miami Skate Park, Seth added, “'boom boxes' haven't been used in well over a decade.”
The location for the new Biscayne Skate Park, on N.E. 19 St., is located across the street from Temple Israel, and adjacent to Miami City Cemetery. It’s a historic section of the city, long known to be saturated with drugs and prostitution.
“There were literally needles all over the place, drug dealers, not a good situation,” Seth pointed out, “Commissioner Sarnoff is the one who really got this project started. He did. Not me. I wasn’t there when it started,” Seth said.
Ms. Eisenberg’s concerns.
Two members of the Miami community have been most vocal, media-wise, in their opposition to the Biscayne Skate Park. Civic leader, Annette Eisenberg (founder of the Downtown Bay Forum) is one of those figures.
I had to reach out to the opposition, get all perspectives, and it was necessary that I not reveal any allegiance to the pro skateboard park agenda.
After a brief phone call, Ms. Eisenberg invited me to her NE Miami home to discuss the proposed skateboard park, and the Miami skateboard scene overall.
It was raining when I got dropped off there. I was dressed like a dork and holding an umbrella.
The power had gone out, and it made the day darker. We sat in her living room, discussing the politics behind Miami’s proposed skateboard park, as the rain poured down outside.
“How did you become involved in this issue?” I asked her.
“Through an association I had with a member of the temple. Their concern was different than my concern. Their concern was the location. My concern was the cost, as a citizen of Miami,” said Ms. Eisenberg.
“Do you remember the name of your associate, at the Temple?” I asked.
“I don’t want to say any names,” she answered.
According to Ms. Eisenberg, the real reason behind Commissioner Sarnoff, and the City of Miami, pushing towards a public skateboard park was to relocate one specific group of skateboarders.
“They wanted to move them from Brickell. However, I found out the population that was actually involved were from Broward and Palm Beach. Their parents drop them off in the morning, and pick them up at night. It’s really a wonderful location, it’s classy,” Ms. Eisenberg said.
There’s nothing classy about cosmetic injectable junkies with bad manners. I remembered breaking my jaw, skating in Brickell, back in 1991. Blood dues paid on concrete. DTM skaters mobbed deep on the weekends, and were from every part of Dade County: North, South, East and West.
It’s no different now. Only thing is that I’m an adult (thick facial hair), the adults from back then are now elderly, and the kids who weren’t even born yet are now young rippers.
“This piece of property happens to be in that C.R.A. (Community Redevelopment Agency) area, but it’s not going to enhance the area that’s there,” according to Ms. Eisenberg, “So it’s primarily intended to take that population out of Brickell and put it elsewhere. And I am not objecting to that because I think it’s horrible that these kids are allowed to desecrate private property.”
This was a shock to my system. I always figured that architecture existed to skate on. I never thought of a buttery ass marble ledge as somebody’s personal property, especially in a city built on cocaine and real-estate schemes. But it always comes back to the boom box dilemma.
“Are these skateboard parks that don’t have the boom boxes? Yes they do, I think they have them outside in their current location. Go down there Saturday or Sunday morning, see what they do. Did you see the pictures that Chuck (Charles Rabin) got downtown there? He called me and said, ‘If I send a photographer down there on Saturday, will I see it?’ I said, ‘You probably will, I can’t guarantee it,’ but apparently he saw it. In Brickell he saw it, he had the photograph in the paper. See, Chuck had asked me, and that photo was taken the Saturday before the C.R.A. meeting, where all the hullaboo took place,” said Ms. Eisenberg.
That C.R.A. meeting “where all the hullaboo took place” had been the first televised media coverage of the “skateboard park controversy.”
“Channel 10 News caught them on camera saying some very terrible things about the skateboard community, and kinda just put a lot of pressure on the city officials. They basically said ‘skateboarders are a nuisance that we don’t need in Miami, at all. They bring boom boxes and drugs to your neighborhoods.’ Things like that, things that obviously aren’t true about a skateboard park. So that’s all they heard. For instance, Channel 10 News, I knew they were doing this story. They had my number. They never called me. They were looking to start something,” said Seth.
Ms. Eisenberg’s concerns related to Biscayne Skate Park were;
1. The cost, $2.2 million dollars, and was the skateboard park really being built for Miami skaters?
2. Where was the money coming from?
3. Boom boxes?
“I respect them for what they’re trying to do,” said Ms. Eisenberg, about Seth and Commissioner Sarnoff.
Confused as I headed out the door, the rain let up and steam rose from the street.
“How’d you get here?” she asked.
“I got dropped off,” I said.
Ms. Eisenberg had a friend of hers give me a ride to Biscayne Blvd. It started raining again.
I had a feeling this “skateboard park boom box hullaboo controversy” resulted from something Seth had told me about.
“A man named Stanley Tate, who’s kind of leading this opposition, wrote an article that was published in the Biscayne Times. It was very, it was against the skateboard park, but it was also just against skateboarders in general,” Seth said, “He was speaking as if he was coming from this synagogue here (Temple Israel). But I know for a fact that he does not speak for them because half the board is in favor of the park. It’s these few vocal members of the temple.”
Tricknology, as defined by the Urban Dictionary, is “A conspiracy to commit fraud on the masses by introducing ideas not based on scientific fact or substance.”
Biscayne Times, Miami Herald, and Channel 10 News? Maybe this was getting interesting. Or maybe it was more bullshit; a select group of citizens micro-managing an issue’s portrayal in the media. Miami’s a fractionalized city.
“skaters care about their community.”
City of Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff is the skateboard community’s strongest political ally.
Sarnoff recently held a movie event at Miami City Hall, in conjunction with the Save the Miami Skate Park event on July 19, 2010. Dozens of Miami skateboarders swarmed the Coconut Grove Skate Park before marching to Miami City Hall. They chanted ‘skate park, skate park, skate park,’ as they walked, skateboards in the air.
Young and old, arrived on the steps to City Hall, they were told that no skateboards were allowed inside. Dozens of skateboards were piled inside skate instructor James Heredia’s brown Jeep Cherokee and they were invited inside for the Earth movie event.“You all sent a very positive message that skaters care about their community and truly want to make a difference,” Sarnoff said, about the skaters attending the environmentally focused movie.
“The commissioner saw there was no viable place for skateboarders to take part in their sport. So he thought this would be a great location for a state-of-the-art skate park,” Karsh said recently, pointing inside a grassy Biscayne Park.
Sarnoff doesn’t want political attention for getting the skate park built. He just wants the concrete poured. Seth Levy shares the sentiment.
“It’s about the skate park. I have a unique perspective cause I’ve been working with the city for a while, and because I’m a member of the synagogue there,” Seth said.
“fight blight.”
The whole thing smelled a little shitty. The Biscayne Times, Channel 10 News, and the Miami Herald had painted a conflict between Temple Israel and the skateboard community. But Ms. Eisenberg had spoken with me as a private citizen, not as a representative of Temple Israel.
Seth Levy is a Temple Israel member himself, but was not even contacted by Channel 10 News, and said the Miami Herald reporter completely changed his words.
The Miami skateboard community was getting punked out. It was amateur juxtaposition of disinformation, SOT’s (sound bites), elite connections, and crappy writing.
“The process for building the skateboard park, which had been going for a year and a half, kinda just hit a wall. And it was an invisible wall that should not have happened. We are on schedule, to get things done. But then it kinda just stopped. People were making excuses, but no one could really tell us why. Then two weeks ago, on Monday, there was a meeting, just going over the budget, and the skateboard park obviously is included in the budget, and all these members from the temple, that were against the skateboard park, were there and started protesting,” Seth told me.
I knew I had to give Seth and Commissioner Sarnoff a chance to address Ms. Eisenberg’s concerns. Explanations.
But why was the skateboard community, and its supporters, on the defensive? The proposal to build a public skateboard park in Miami has been done through the proper channels.
“CRA funds can just be used to fight blight, and to reinvigorate a neighborhood. Commissioner Sarnoff believes that a quality skate park will indeed reinvigorate a neighborhood. At night, this place is practically deserted. People were concerned about crime in the area. The Commissioner felt that if you have a quality skate park, it’s gonna bring people here, people who are doing productive things, taking part in a great sport,” said Karsh.
Hearing Ms. Eisenberg tell me the skate park was being built for Broward and Palm Beach kids was funny.
“I’m not sure if anyone has checked the drivers license of every skateboarder in the City of Miami. I give them credit if that’s what they’ve done. The fact of the matter is, skateboarding is going on in other parts of the city (besides Brickell). This is designed for the residents of Miami, but if people from other communities want to come here, that’s great. Because they come to Miami, they’ll skateboard, they’ll go to one of our local restaurants, they’ll go to one of our local shops, and it’s gonna bring business to our local community, which is exactly what we need,” Karsh said.
One out of four kids in Miami-Dade County skate, according to a Federal Study on physical fitness. To find out why Miami needs a public skateboard park, I had to ask the ones that roll on the concrete every day.
Needed to talk to the skaters. And I needed to track down the Miami skateboard community’s most vehement critic.
“we’re gonna fight it.”
Stanley Tate (founder of the Florida Pre-Paid College Program) agreed to meet with me on a Saturday at Tate Enterprises, on Opa-Locka Blvd.
“You’re early,” Mr. Tate said, looking at his watch, “I was expecting you at 12:30.”
Stanley Tate has been a member of Temple Israel for sixty-two years. He married his wife there, sixty-one years ago. Mr. Tate was president of the temple for five years, and is a primary financial supporter.
“The pre-school, of Temple Israel, is named after me. The name’s on the front of the building. It’s the John and Stanley Tate School,” Tate said.
Mr. Tate first became aware of the proposed skateboard park through an association at the temple. He called the existing president of Temple Israel and asked if he’d heard about it. He hadn’t.
“’Ya better look into it’,” Tate remembered saying to him and added, “Ya know, on certain services, that are done at the temple, we get as many as four or five hundred people. And they park in the lots, and on the vacant land. A skateboard park, unless it’s very heavily controlled with restrictions on utilization of boom-boxes and music things, it could be a big problem.”
Temple Israel then called a special board meeting. Members of the board of trustees, of the temple, met with a representative of the parks department. Lots of questions were asked.
“After a pretty, uh, educational meeting where people asked a lot of questions, all of them answered, a representative from the parks department came, after they left a vote was taken and it was unanimous. That the Temple Israel should go on record as the trustees being opposed to the skateboard park being there,” Tate said.
That’s when the Temple Israel board of trustees called for a meeting with Commissioner Sarnoff.
“We had a meeting with the commissioner, and the head of the parks department. It was not what I would call the most pleasant meeting, because the commissioner took the position that the city had a right to use it, and we had no right to deny that right. And I said ‘it’s not a question of rights, it’s a question of the proper use of the area’,” Tate said.
The whole controversy, between the proposed Biscayne Skate Park and Temple Israel, seemed more like a misunderstanding.
“We’re gonna fight it and hopefully we prevail,” Tate said, “and we’re not against skateboard parks. I want you to understand that.”
“kids would have a place to skate.”
“Miami needs a public skate park because they’re always complaining about the kids at the triangle and downtown. All over, the Grove, every ledge is capped. We need a free skatepark. All the ones that are free become owned,” said eighteen year old skater, Demmier Vargas.
The Miami skateboard community is made up of a cross section of the city. All ages, gender, and cultures seem to come together through skateboarding. Critics say boom boxes, marijuana smoking, and unruly behavior typify the skateboard community, and the behavior associated with skateboard parks.
“They need to go out and do some research, look at the other parks that are available within the state, and then come back and continue saying what they’re saying,” said Bobby Stack.
Stack is in his forties, and has been skateboarding since 1973. His wife and two daughters also enjoy skateboarding.“My whole family skates. Because the parks are so small, I cannot skate with them. To get em up to a park, I gotta go outta my own county,” Stack added.
The problems with the Coconut Grove Skate Park are widely agreed upon in the skateboard community. The ground is too rough, the wooden ramps are old, and the space is too small. Bottom line, it’s slow and sucky.
“You can never have a wood park that lasts more than ten years, it just doesn’t work,” Seth Levy said.
In the soaring heat, humidity, and moisture of Miami-Dade County, it is common knowledge that wood structures are meant to be temporary. The Biscayne Skate Park on NE 19 St., if built, will be concrete.
“We used to have to skate Downtown Miami,” said Miami skateboard legend Felix Ruiz, “because of that a lot of times we ended up getting into trouble with cops and security guards.”
Miami City Police Sergeant Angel Calzadilla feels bad for having to kick skateboarders out of downtown spots. He says the conflict arises out of private property owners beautifying their building fronts, and creating the perfect terrain for skateboarding.
“People have this mistaken perception that skateboarders are thugs. They’re not. They’re just young kids who enjoy the sport of skateboarding. The fact that they need a venue is quite clear,” said Sergeant Calzadilla.The main difference for the skaters of Miami, if a public skate park is built, is an economic one.
“Kids would have a place to skate, that they don’t have to pay,” said MIA Skateshop rider, Rene Perez.
This common sense approach to looking at the pros and cons of a public skate park is refreshing. One of the great things about skating is you can just step out your front door and go. Lines and fees and rules just slow everything down, and along with the slow usually comes the suck. The Biscayne Skate Park would make it to where a kid with a Metro-Pass could get to the park and skate. The only money they’d need would be for hydration.
Who knows? Maybe they could even put in a good, cold, municipal water fountain. If the city does build the skate park, I just hope it has lights for night skating.
“It’s not gonna be 24 hours. It’s not. It’s not feasible, because it costs a lot of money to do lights,” said Seth Levy.
Miami skaters are calling bullshit on that.
“Baseball fields have lights, basketball courts have lights, why can’t a skate park?” asked Rene Perez.
Felix Ruiz makes the drive, from Miami, to skate MIA Skate Park in Doral several times a week. He started DTM, and saw plenty of skaters fall by the wayside, in the nineties.
“By bringing a public skateboard park to Miami, it would definitely keep kids outta trouble, keep them from going the wrong way. A lot of my friends I can tell you did, just because of the fact that they didn’t have something like this available back then,” Felix Ruiz said, his shirt and hat soaked in sweat.Biscayne Skate Park, if built, would be 600ft. distance from Temple Israel.
“The city of Portland, Oregon, did a sound study about skateboard parks. They actually built 19 parks, the city. They commissioned a sound survey of ‘how far away from a skateboard park is it audible?’ And they found that at 200ft., it is completely inaudible. 200ft. and greater, it is completely inaudible. So at 600 ft., there’s no way they’re gonna hear it. Especially with a buffer built in-between,” said Seth.
• New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and a host of lesser cities all have quality concrete, public skateboard parks. Miami is the fourth largest metropolis in the U.S. and has no concrete skateboard park.
• According to a federal study on physical fitness, skateboarding is the fourth most popular sport in the country.
• According to the same study, one out of five kids in Miami-Dade County ride a skateboard.
“My research study was on the disparity between skateboard parks and the number of skateboarders. There’s a lot more skateboarders then the number of skateboard parks can handle. Why does that still exist, when skateboarding’s so much in the mainstream?” asked Seth.
According to Ms. Eisenberg, Temple Israel issued a gag order officially concerning the matter. According to off the record sources, the PR firm GBD has been hired to keep anti-skatepark sentiment in the media. CBS4 jumped in the “hullaboo” with a quick “Skatepark Showdown” piece featuring City Cemetery enthusiasts who claimed it was “disrespectful to even consider” building a skateboard park in Biscayne Park. The Miami Herald followed CBS4’s new angle with another anti-skatepark article. Miami City Cemetery enthusiasts who are “concerned” about Biscayne Skate Park being built on prestigious NE 19 St. They used “there’s always one bad apple” logic to rationalize their prejudice against the skateboarding community.
I don’t even fucking care anymore, I’m going skating. Not ice skating, and not rollerblading. You are lame for even thinking that inside your mind.
Skateboarding, that’s it. Maybe a little writing.
intellectual property of nevergetcaught multimedia.
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