By MASON ADAMS
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   Every day about 5 p.m., the criminals hit the streets.

    Blending into sidewalks crowded with people, they move down Campbell Avenue, weaving around men and women flooding from downtown Roanoke's office buildings and stores. The criminals, some as young as 13, steadily move up the street, hitting a number of regular stops along the way, always keeping an eye out for police.

    Within minutes, they've been spotted by a sharp-eyed motorist, and the call goes out over the police scanner: "6-37: Skateboarders downtown. Caller says they're interfering with traffic."

    Officers with the Roanoke Police Department respond to the call, but by the time they arrive, the skateboarders have moved on.

    In recent years, the police department and regular skaters have established an uneasy truce, complete with a system of regular warnings that occasionally results in a ticket or seized board.

    "We write the summonses to the repeat offenders, those we've told two or three times," said Officer Mark Harris of the Roanoke Police Department. "Usually we'll warn them if they're on the sidewalks. Usually if they see us, they'll immediately pick it up."

    Most times, the skateboarders are warned or ticketed at regular spots, usually around a concrete ledge that's good for tricks. Seventeen-year-old Adam Atkinson, who skates nearly every day, says he's received two tickets in the past year and a half.

    "We've got about 10 stops downtown," Atkinson said. "The cops don't bother you if you're just going somewhere, but they might follow you a bit. They'll circle the block because they know what you're about to do."

    Several of the spots are near the Roanoke Railwalk, a sidewalk complete with hundreds of feet of concrete ledges running along the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks.

    Harris said the concrete park between the SunTrust and Norfolk Southern buildings near Franklin Road seems to be an especially popular spot, but the skateboarders are always looking for new obstacles.

    "Any time there's a new ramp or curb, that's a big attraction for them," he said. "They're willing to take the risk of getting a ticket to do quality obstacles."

    Some downtown property owners are starting to put metal plates around concrete formations to deter skateboarders. Harris said he has seen crews putting in plates near the railwalk, and

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Greene Memorial United Methodist Church on Second Street has done the same.

    "We put those up to help prevent young people from hurting themselves skateboarding on those raised walls," said Russ Alden, director of Christian service at Greene Memorial. "Teenagers were skateboarding along there, and we felt like that was a hazard both for them and potentially for us."

    A skate park was built in 1999 at Wasena Park, in large part to keep skaters off downtown streets. To some extent it's worked. The park attracts many younger skateboarders and parents, as well as older enthusiasts who don't want to deal with police.

    Steve Bono, 26, used to skateboard when he was younger, but has recently started again as an alternative to workouts at the gym. Bono said he tries to skateboard about five days a week, almost exclusively at parks.

    "I hear stories of kids getting hassled downtown, but that's part of the point of having a park," Bono said. "There's a few bad apples in every group, but most kids here are pretty good. Here they don't get hassled. If you go downtown you're done."

    However, many skaters say the park is not in good shape and doesn't have enough "street" obstacles. Bono agrees, saying most of the obstacles are too far apart and not well-designed. In addition, the metal pipe at the top of one ramp is loose and potentially dangerous. Bono said he intends to bring his tools and work on it, but the warped coping is not easy to fix.

    Another problem with the Wasena skate park is that city police use it as an excuse to keep skateboarders from going anywhere else, they say.

    "I hear that all the time, 'There's a park, why aren't you there?'" Atkinson said. "But until Vinton [skate park, built last summer] went up, there wasn't much here. I mean, you can look at it and see it's a crappy park."

    Police "try to classify people and say, 'We gave you a skate park, so quit grinding at the funeral home,'" said Jake Phelps of the San Francisco skateboard magazine Thrasher. "The cops would much rather roust three kids skating behind the funeral parlor than the kids at the keg parties."

    But it's difficult to make blanket statements about the relationship between police and skateboarders. Every skateboarder has a police story, but they vary widely. Some say they have never had a problem with police, while others tell detailed stories of harassment.

    Most of the skaters who ride downtown and at Wasena Park, however, say things have improved over the past few years. Kenny Johnson, who owns the Greenhouse, a skateboard shop on the Roanoke City Market, said he thinks that is largely because of an influx of younger police officers who skateboarded when they were kids.

    "I just think the policemen down here are younger and can relate to the kids better," Johnson said. "I've had some come in and ask about the kids, to show concern for them. I think it's a whole lot better than it used to be."

    In addition, skateboarding has become more accepted, largely because of coverage of events such as the X-Games on television. And parents who used to skateboard are more supportive of their children doing it. Johnson said skate parks give them an acceptable place to go.

    Bono said that even with its flaws, the Wasena skate park is responsible for his recent skateboarding.

    "If it wasn't for this park, I wouldn't have started skating again," Bono said. "It's just too much hassle in the streets."

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