Western Front - 1997 January 17

              Page 9
Two
One Stick
Friday,
Jan. 17,1997
Volume 99
Issue 3
WESTERN FRONT Western Washington University Bellingham, Washington
Skateboard park in motion
Front/Tim Klein
Skateboarder Ross Moitke, 15, does a kick flip at the Puyallup YMCA
sports park, which Bellingham is using as a model.
By Tim Klein
The Western Front
Skateboarders and in-line
skaters will no longer have to
commute to Vancouver or
Bellevue to find a skateboard
park because the Bellingham City
Council is building a street skate
park.-
The project, which is slated for
construction at Civic Field Park
this summer, will cost an estimat­ed
$70,000, said Byron
Elmendorf, director of Parks and
Recreation. The. city allocated
$45,000 and received an $8,000
donation from the Whatcom
C o m m u n i t y
Foundation but needs
and additional $15,000
to cover project
expenses.
"We are look­ing
for contributions in
the form of either
money or labor," said
Leslie Bryson, the
Design and
D e v e l o p m e n t
Manager. "We are still
at the starting stages."
The exact loca­tion
has not been deter­mined,
but it has been
narrowed to the east or
west side of Puget
Road at Civic Field.
City Council
Member Louise
Bjornson said she feels
the project is necessary
and will increase safe­ty.
"We have bas­ketball
courts and ten­nis
courts. This is
another piece of play­ground
equipment,"
Bjornson said. "It is
safer to skate in a
skateboard park than
down Holly (Street)."
The street skate
facility will not charge
an admission fee.
Elmendorf said he
hopes this will pro­voke
participants to
help clean and maintain the facil­ity.
Skateboarders and in-line
skaters will share the facility. It
will be a concrete structure, about
the size of a basketball court,
with railings, curbs, ramps and
See Park, page 3
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MLK dream: a work in progress
By Jana Alexander
The Western Front
Everyone was invited to the birthday party Wednesday
in the Viking Union main lounge for the man who was
arrested 29 times in his life for resistance to unjust laws.
Although the reverend and professor Martin Luther
King, Jr. was assassinated April 4, 1968, the Ethnic
Students Center and more than 100 others celebrated his
spirit with singing, dancing and poetry recitals.
King dedicated his life to the peaceful challenge of laws
that discriminated against people in general, especially
racial minorities. He was inspired by Gandhi's principle of
non-violent persuasion, "Satyagraha."
The ESC is inspired by the same goal that King had.
Its mission statement
reflects King's dream:
"The Ethnic Student
Center is a safe and sup­portive
environment for
historically under-rep­resented
ethnic groups
and allies while provid­ing
cultural and educa­tional
programs."
Today the dream is at
a crossroads, said
Joanne Lagasse,
Coordinator of the ESC.
"Uniting at the
Crossroads" is the ESC's theme of the year, Lagasse said.
ESC members plan to get active in doing the work still
left to achieve King's dream of equal representation for
"all, not only in our hearts, but codified by law.
King's dream is in danger, said Larry Estrada, professor
and Director of American Cultural Studies. California's
"Civil Rights Initiative," proposition 209, which effective­ly
eliminated affirmative action in California, offered a
"false moralism" with its verbiage. Estrada said the initia­tive's
intentions are to take back the small gains made by
affirmative action.
"It has no basis in reality," Estrada said.
Affirmative action has only started to benefit minorities,
See Dream, page 4