City Vows Crackdown if Users of Skate Park Don’t Wear Safety Gear

The city is ready to crack down on people not wearing safety gear at Los Angeles’ only skate park.

For more than two months, the city Department of Recreation and Parks has tried to coax skateboarders at the Encino park to wear helmets, kneepads and elbow pads as required by a city ordinance.

Signs, threats, gentle pleading--nothing has worked to get the skateboarders to conform.

“What we have seen from the participants has been a total disregard [of] the rules for the skateboard park,” said Kevin Regan, superintendent of operations for the San Fernando Valley region.

Construction of a 10-foot fence around the skating bowl with a single entrance and exit is expected to be completed this week. No one will be allowed in without the protective gear, Regan said. Violators will receive misdemeanor citations that carry a $100 fine.

“The kids have been told since the skateboard park opened they need to wear the equipment but have refused,” Regan said. “We believe once the people who use the skateboard park understand the rules and that we are enforcing them, it won’t be a problem.”

On Monday some skaters complained about the enforcement plans.

Anthony Melendez, 39, of Reseda, who works in the emergency room at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, said, “They wanted to make this a fun family place, and they made it like a jail. It’s a policy that came from a bureaucrat that didn’t think it through.”

Kevin Drobinski, a 15-year-old from Northridge, said: “You can’t skate well when you have pads on. Injuries are part of the sport.”

And some said it will cost them about $100 to buy the safety gear.

“There’s a lot of people who don’t want skateboarders around because they say we tear up their property,” said Chris Alletto, an 18-year-old from Chatsworth. “But now they’re making it so we have to spend all this money and go to skate parks that are way out of our reach.”

Since its opening in February, the 8,500-square-foot concrete park at 17334 Victory Blvd. has been used by hundreds of skateboarders each week. In his latest budget, Mayor Richard Riordan has proposed spending $1 million to build three skateboard parks.

Safety enforcement hasn’t been the park’s only problem. It has been hit by graffiti and vandalism, Regan said. Twenty-five sprinkler heads were damaged recently and will cost more than $1,000 to repair.

Skaters have disregarded the park’s operating hours, from noon to sundown weekdays and 9 a.m. to sundown weekends. Regan said the new fence should help solve that.

* Times staff writer Andrew Blankstein contributed to this story.