Don’t pave paradise La Jolla should not pave paradise and put up a skateboard park. For almost 100 years, the La Jolla Recreation Center has provided a place where the community can recreate. Toddlers and young children use the tot lot while their parents and grandparents watch and socialize. Elementary-aged children use the field everyday with after school programs and sports. Teenagers and adults use the basketball courts and the tennis courts. Seniors use the auditorium for their exercise classes and dances. And La Jollans of all ages come together as a community for Easter Egg hunts, pancake breakfasts, Christmas parades and numerous other events several times each year. And, almost every community group uses the various rooms to hold their meetings. The idea of a skateboard park at a historical facility across from churches, a pre-school, museums, a women’s club and residences is just a poor choice. It will not only hurt the immediate area, but will also turn all of the streets and sidewalks leading to the Rec Center into virtual skateboard highways, creating noise and antagonism throughout the village of La Jolla. On April 28, La Jolla Parks & Recreation Inc. (the advisory group for the Rec Center) will vote on the whether or not a skateboard park should be a part of the Rec Center. Even if the proposal passes, it is sure to end up in countless years of litigation just like the seals at Children’s Pool and other controversial ideas. All of this comes just as the Rec Council was ready to begin the public vetting process for the refurbishment of the La Jolla Recreation Center and bring a real positive change that all La Jollans would enjoy for years to come. Even if the community decides that La Jolla needs a skateboard park, the Rec Center is not the appropriate place. La Jolla should not pave paradise and put up a skateboard park or we will be forced to live with its ill fated effects in perpetuity. – Chip Rome, President, La Jolla Parks & Recreation, Inc.