EDITORIAL

We often join the chorus when city government is criticized for

inefficiency, so it is only fair to make sure to acknowledge those same

officials when they make life here a little better.

First case in point is skateboarding.

Surf City again is living up to its beach lifestyle reputation, this

time by adding a third skate park to town.

Following council approval at the beginning of the month, construction

of the park at the Oak View Community Center should begin in October,

once a few more hurdles are crossed.

But luckily for skateboarders in Huntington Beach, the biggest hurdle

they typically face has been ground down to no more than a tiny bump:

lack of support from residents or city leaders -- those, one can imagine,

who think skateboarding is a crime.

In neighboring Costa Mesa, for instance, skaters have been trying for

years to get a park built, to no avail. There, no impetus exists for city

leaders to spend the time and money to make certain a park is built.

In Huntington Beach, it does. In fact, there is plenty: The city

already has two skate parks -- one at Huntington Beach High School and

the other at Murdy Park. But city leaders recognized that they are too

far away from the Oak View neighborhood to do skaters there much good.

And so they made the right decision to spend a part of the city’s park

improvement funds on a new skate spot.

Surfing and skateboarding are major parts of the history of Huntington

Beach. We commend the council and city leaders for recognizing this and

paying it due.

The second item we’d like to applaud has to do with city streets.

We suspect anyone who uses Yorktown Avenue will join us in breathing a

long sigh of relief that the months-long construction between Beach

Boulevard and England streets is over.

The improvements, at a cost of $580,000, included widening and

repaving Yorktown, which should help ease at least a bit of Huntington’s

summertime traffic.

All of this just helps to make Surf City a great place to live and

work and play.