The drums of Ellsworth

A protest becomes a party

When I got there on Monday morning a black band had cordoned off the waterless fountain.   Searching the swirling blues and yellows I found the first gash in a purplish patch. It was about four tiles wide: very distinct as if it had been made by a brick chisel. A few feet away there was another gash, and a few feet from that, yet another.

According to the e-rumors, the damage to Silver Sprung's very popular interactive fountain had been caused by skateboarders. I had scarcely begun to survey the damage when I was joined by a security guard who politely but firmly asked me what I was doing. Before I could finish explaining a voice on her walkie-talkie squawked, "What's he doing there? I'll be right over."

I remembered only yesterday noticing for the first time the battery of security monitors that filled an entire wall of the security office towards the Wayne Avenue Garage. Why did it surprise me to realize I was under surveillance from the moment I entered Silver Sprung? Smile, you're in the 21 st Century.

Within minutes Officer Hawkins, chief of security, was on the scene. A little gruff at first, he soon warmed up as I explained my interest about the cause of the damage to the fountain basin.

"No way this was caused by skateboards," he said. "Look over here where the tiles have separated from the base. Over there you can see where the seams have begun to spread."

I thanked him for his time and continued on my way to the Metro, relieved that the skateboard crowd was off the hook-- for this offence, anyway. I was feeling a little vulnerable about the incident because on the previous Saturday my three children had organized a skateboard protest on Ellsworth Drive.

If you are not the parent of skateboarding children it's difficult to understand the dilemma. Technically, skateboarding is not a crime, however, there is no place in Silver Spring where skateboarding is really allowed either. To be a skateboarder in Silver Spring is to be a scofflaw and to be a skateboard parent is to be a scofflaw parent.

Nowhere in Silver Spring is the prohibition of skateboards more rigorously enforced than in the heart of Silver Sprung on Ellsworth Drive. White shirt security guards, red shirt Urban Crewmembers, and brown shirt Montgomery County officers are vigilant in their goal of making the town safe from skateboarding teens.

Earlier in the summer, Lisa, my eldest, discovered an interesting wrinkle in the way the "no skateboarding" policy was enforced. Old timers may remember that Ellsworth Drive was once a public road. As a part of the development agreement Montgomery County leased to the developer, for a term of 99 years at the rate of one dollar a year, several pieces of public property, including the section of Ellsworth that runs through the development project.

Under this agreement this leased public property takes on a new legal definition; it becomes Public Use Property, which turns out to be private property disguised as public property. The ground lease agreement grants the tenant (PFA Silver Spring LC--the Peterson Companies, Foulger Pratt Companies and Argo Investment Company) full authority to "impose and enforce" rules and regulations it deems necessary -- which is another way of saying the First Amendment stops at the gates of Silver Sprung.

PFA security guards vigorously exercised their authority under this agreement to prohibit all skateboarding on Ellsworth Drive between Georgia Avenue and Fenton. While bicycles and pedestrians were granted full use of the street, skateboarding youth were interdicted the moment they set wheels to pavement.

In her research my daughter discovered that the eastern portion of Ellsworth Drive, the part in front of City Place, was not covered by the lease agreement. One third of the street remained public and was presumably governed by the public laws of Montgomery County -- and, it seemed, still subject to the First Amendment. Despite their policy, security guards had no jurisdiction to enforce PFA rules on a public street.

Lisa and my sons, Daniel and Isaac, concocted a plan to test this theory. On Saturday morning skateboarders began to converge on our house. After feeding them pancakes and orange juice, Lisa gathered the motley crew of about fifteen teens in a circle on the driveway for a pep talk. She told them that this was about their right to stand up and contest something that was unfair. She made them promise to maintain discipline: to be respectful and to let her do the talking if security guards or police confronted them. In high spirits and ready for anything, they set off on their skateboards for their rendezvous with destiny uncertain how this would all play out.

I had volunteered to be their cameraman so I had an insider-outsider perspective on the day. I taped them as they crossed Fenton from the east; skateboards in hand, they were at the same time giddy, anxious, and determined. When they reached the forbidden Silver Sprung they smoothly dropped their boards on to the street and one-by-one proceeded to skate single file around the perimeter of the road-- being careful to avoid the western part of Ellsworth.

Personal experience had prepared each of them for the worst: a stern reprimand with threats of tougher consequences for future disobedience. Nothing had prepared them for what actually happened. The security guards said nothing and did nothing. Wordlessly they did the slow, determined cop-walk past the growing ranks of skateboarding teens.

The shoppers on the sidewalk, unaccustomed seeing an army of skateboarders freely skating in Silver Sprung, seemed confused and did what most urban dwellers do when they face confusion-- they pretended everything was normal.

After circling for an hour in the hot sun, relief at not being confronted turned into disappointment at not being confronted and, eventually, outright fatigue. It was time to pull out the big drums. This was Daniel's idea. It had worked well at the Bush town meeting protest.

Within minutes the entire downtown development was filled with the cadence of a dozen drums: the sound of war/the sound of dance. Skateboarders lacking drums tapped out the rhythm of their cause on the decks of their skateboards. Other skateboarders set up a makeshift jump by stacking skateboards on top of each other. They all took turns displaying their skills by "ollying" over the rising obstacle: first two boards, then three, and finally seven.

The sound of the drumming transformed the shoppers as well. First small children, entranced by the beat, pulled parents closer. Other adults slowed down to watch the teens, a threat to nobody or thing, and enjoyed their drumming and feats of skateboard. Finally, both adults and small children joined in the drumming itself, and rediscovered a public pleasure on par with the delights of the interactive fountain. It was primal, communal, and free of charge.

The whole mood of the day switched with the coming of the drums. The teens ceased staging a protest and began to create the much talked about Silver Spring skate park--right there on forbidden Ellsworth Drive. Equally amazing, the adults around them were not reproaching the teens for being outlaws, but were joining in the revelry. Now how cool is that?

To see a web video, go to www.nonoskateboarding.com