By Nate Dolha
Published: May 17, 2014
Everyone loves a good underdog story. Popular culture is full of them: For kids of the Me! generation, there’s The Breakfast Club, or perhaps Pump up the Volume was your Pièce de Résistance.
The consumers in us are part of this story as well, with once disruptive technology changing how we inform our decisions and interact with our world. Take the handheld device that many of you are reading this column on – it’s technology fuelled by an attitude that has collided with the real world, pushing boundaries and rewriting some rules along the way.
Sometimes this new attitude can collide with our institutions, and if we look at our latest community example, we can see it in action. Yes, our newest piece in the adventure spread, the new skate bowl.
We’ve heard a lot from folks who are not pleased with how the rules were challenged. Fair enough, but now that a decision has been made, perhaps its time to gaze towards the opportunity provided by this turn of events?
Take the council proceedings: The Council Chamber filled up with youth from our community. The group assembled was treated to some real life democracy, and was actually part of a meaningful decision. You see, a blank cheque wasn’t written. No, in fact, something much more difficult was handed out. Accountability. With one year to prove the concept, it seems like a pretty good compromise.
What may turn out to be the real win for our community is the recognition that it’s ok to reshape how groups with ideas can actually engage with the municipality. In our story, the underdog met the challenge, with their voice carrying the day.
When you look at the choice from a whole community perspective instead of just a neighborhood issue, it looks like an easy, inexpensive way to add another amenity to our impressive list.
Squamish is starting to see fruit from our world class mountain bike terrain, and has certainly learned some valuable lessons on how volunteer driven infrastructure can work for the benefit of our the whole community.
If we can apply those lessons to the new skate bowl, perhaps we can also show those young folks assembled for the decision how this should play out in the real world.
The lead up to this vote garnered attention from the skateboard community down the pacific coast, from Vancouver to San Diego. Skateboard cultural heavyweight, The Tony Hawk Foundation, provided a letter of support in an effort to push aside the bias that surrounds the sport. We now get to reply with the story of a community who is building some great infrastructure, who engaged the youth in real terms, and one that sees why this may be a good thing.
