Council Holds Off Skyline Skate Ban, But Kids Already Have Other Places

The Laguna Beach City Council Tuesday night could have easily added Skyline Drive to their list of no-skateboard zones, which they implemented nearly a year ago.

Instead, however, the council voted to hold off any further street-bannings for 60 days, in order to "continue the dialogue" about the issue. So the Skyline Drive debate will be back at the end of April.

And as debates go, Tuesday's hour-long public comments period was essentially a rehash of last year's, with one side claiming that a handful of fun-hating adults were trying to squash individual freedom, while the other claimed to be terrified of squashing a small skaterdude every time they pulled their car out of their driveway.

Both had perfectly reasonable arguments. The mostly teenage and pre-teen skaters argued, quite logically, that if Skyline gets added to the 'boarding blacklist, then the skaters will just move on to Park Avenue, then Nyes Place, then some other paved roadway with a sloping downgrade. (Click here if you want to watch the debate, then fast-forward to the 2:46 mark.)

But it seems the skaters already have found their Plan B—the asphalt and concrete paradise of , which, as the above video shows, is crazy popular with the kids. Too bad it's also crazy illegal to skate there (tip to "markgolter," the video maker: not a bright idea to film the no-skating-allowed signs, it kind of ruins the skaters-aren't-doing-anything-wrong theme).