City Council President Pro Tempore Correia’s
Skateboarding Ordinance Has First Passage
PROVIDENCE, RI (June 4, 2020)…
Tonight the City Council voted to pass a change to the City’s Code of Ordinances to make skateboarding legal throughout the City. The Ordinance was introduced by Council President Pro Tempore Michael Correia (Ward 6) and co-sponsored by Council President Sabina Matos (Ward 15) and Deputy Majority Leader Mary Kay Harris (Ward 11) will need a second passage by the Council before it can be signed into law.
The change to the Code of Ordinance was born out of a conversation that Pro Tempore Correia had with local skateboarders and neighborhood kids during the planning phase for the skate park off of the Woonasquatucket Bike Path in the Manton neighborhood of Providence. It was there that Correia met local skateboarder and founder of the non-profit, Friends of Adrian Hall, William Cornwall, who shared that the skateboarding laws were antiquated in the City of Providence.
“Throughout my tenure as a City Councilman my focus has been on quality of life issues – not just for adults but for the youth in our City,” stated City Council President Pro Tempore Michael Correia. “I knew that we had some of the most restrictive skateboarding regulations on the books, and after meeting Will and talking with the kids from the neighborhood, I decided we need to change that. I think a lot of people used to have the impression that skateboarders were dangerous and were causing harm to property, and perhaps they were – but that is because the City didn’t start to address their needs to have a safe place where they could hone their skills. Additionally, our laws were way too restrictive. As we’ve installed skate parks and other installations around the City that notion has evolved.”
The change to the Code of Ordinances would make it legal to skateboard along any street in the city of Providence that has a bike lane or wherever bicycles are allowed to travel. Skateboarding will be prohibited at the Providence Pedestrian Bridge, Memorial Park, and Waterplace Park. Additionally, with this amendment, the City retains the right to ban skating in other parks with appropriate signage. Skateboarders are encouraged to check the parks to make sure that skating there is legal.
“Amending Providence’s ban on skateboarding has been built on the trust between the representatives of the skateboarding community, elected officials, policy staff, and the police department that we all came to the table sharing the same intentions of goodwill for our city. As a group we recognized that in 2020 skateboarding for recreation or travel should not be a criminalized activity, nor is it an appropriate activity in all of our public spaces.
With this amendment, skateboarders have an equitable piece of the public commons of our city streets. In extending bicycle traffic code to include skateboarding, our piece of the streets comes with a set of responsibilities and protections just at it does for people driving a car, riding on a bus, or walking down the street. We skateboarders have long been seen on the streets of Providence and now the laws of our city finally see us too.
As a community that is largely younger and people of color, the gravity of our current moment is not lost on us. Many skateboarders’ lives in Providence have been defined by systematic failures in education, criminal justice, healthcare, housing, and employment that have brought our society to this moment of anger, grief, and despair. In the trust we have been extended by City Hall during this amendment process we hope there is a continued willingness to hear voices like ours in making the hard decisions that lay ahead for our city. We, skateboarders, hope for progress in repairing structural failures made by older generations. In the coming weeks, we hope to see the beginnings of a better world within Providence’s 2021 budget,” stated collectively by Ken Borge, Will Cornwall, David Leforte, and Nicholas Rix of the Providence Skateboarding Community.
Pro Tempore Correia continued, “We all need an outlet to escape the world, and when you look at the skate parks it is not just young kids, but it’s kids of all ages. I am proud that our Parks Department and my colleagues on the Council have invested in building skate parks in our neighborhoods. It’s amazing to see what these folks can do on that board. Commuters use skateboards to get back and forth to work or school. The skate park, at least in my neighborhood, is a real community. The older kids spend time teaching the younger kid’s tricks, how to ride safely, and helping each other grow as athletes. Make no mistake, skateboarding is a sport. It’s been great working with Will and our kids to develop this legislation and to continue to improve the Manton Skate Park. I want to thank them for being engaged and really wanting to make a difference in our community.”
As the skateboarding community continues to grow in Providence, there are several different skate shops and designated skate parks across the City. This change to the Code of Ordinances makes it legal and easier for this community to ride and be safe. After tonight’s vote, it will need to go before the Council for a second and final passage before it is sent to Mayor Elorza for his signature.
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