Last night (Monday the 23rd of April) at 5 o’clock at the St Kilda Town Hall, the final public council meeting was held for the St Kilda skate park. I personally have never been to a council meeting before and was not too sure what to expect. As I entered the room, it was very formal with the mayor and a bunch of other councillors sitting in what looked like seats of power at the front… Click below to read more.
The gallery (which is what you call the public) was split in two; with skaters and people for the park on one side and on the other… haters. The haters included people from the bowling club, people from the nearby school (everyone knows teachers aren’t capable of liking fun), people who wanted to keep this tree that I had never heard of, people who think skate parks tower over 3 meters above the ground and block out views, residents of the area that think skateboarding is the devil and older people in general that would rather the dirt which is there now.
Anyway, as the night went on the discussion got fairly heated. It was going blow for blow with a member of the gallery speaking for the skate park, for which we would add a “here here” or something to that effect. Then that would be followed by some old lady winging about something…. Speakers from the gallery ranged from guys in suits talking about skateboarding with their kids, a crazy roller blader guy, young kids, more guys in suits talking about the council actually doing something, a bunch of skateboarders and of course Renton Miller; who has been one of the hardest working supporters of the skate park.
Those against the park were, as you can imagine, bitter people trying to stop anything good happening to that bit of dirt in St Kilda, and as the night went on they started to become upset and perhaps a little angry. There were quite a few interruptions to those speaking for the park and such. Towards the end of the night as the councillors were shaping their final decisions and asking the project designers question, it all became a bit much for one individual, for now lets just call him “Wayne”.
Wayne was constantly interrupting speakers all night and was once asked to stop swearing (I must say he was quite amusing and I will be attending the next council meeting, regardless of what it’s about). He took note of this warning but then proceeded to heckle a particular councilwoman for the rest of the night. I was watching him and it was getting real funny as it appeared his head might actually explode! It took one final comment from Wayne as the particular councilwoman delivered her decision to get the Major to stop the meeting and eject Wayne for bad behaviour; it was hilarious to see a grown man loose his shit over skateboarding, priceless!!
It was getting close to 9 o’clock and the Major was keen to go home so she started to ‘wrap it up’. As each councillor delivered their decision more and more of the ‘haters’ started to leave as they knew what was about to happen. It was kind of like when footy fans leave before the siren so they don’t see there team getting flogged, because that is what was happening. After each councillor delivered their decision the count was 6 to 0 in favour of the skate park. WE WON!!!!!
I was stoked, my friends were stoked, Renton was stoked and everyone that was there for the park had a smile on their face. What this means now is that the decision now goes to “VCAT” (the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal) which has only ever not passed one project, so you would think it should be smooth sailing for the St Kilda skate park.
Thanks to all who were there and spoke and gave support, looks like it paid off!
Report by Jan Snarski.