Breakin' the law

"At age 15, Jack, not his real name, is a good kid," Tom Laskin reports on the plight of local skateboarders, "and he loves to skate at the phone company, a favorite skaters' hangout on Mifflin and Henry. Like all of his friends who skate, Jack knows that using his board downtown is illegal. The son of a minister, Jack makes it clear he's not in the habit of disobeying his folks, let alone the law. He doesn't smoke or drink, and he doesn't have much respect for the hardcore punks at his high school.... But three or four times a week he's downtown skating walls, rolling down West Mifflin, cutting in front of buses on upper State Street. And he's dodging cops and security guards, trying to avoid a verbal warning and the $38 ticket that comes after it." Public skateboard parks have since been established in McFarland, Middleton, Oregon, Stoughton, Sun Prairie and Verona, with two more in the works for Monona and Waunakee. Madison continues to lag behind, though there are two private skate parks here and a public skate park has been proposed for Central Park on the city's near east side.