GRANITE MEDALLIONS
Feature: 8.1
Skate
As I write these words, Vancouver is in the midst of a corporate overhaul in the form of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Everything here is positioned to accommodate the influx of tourists, athletes and media – advertisements with those five linked rings have been burned into my eyeballs and steps have been taken to herd ‘undesirables’ into temporary shelters or delegated protest zones. But, there’s at least one up-side to the exorbitant spending of tax dollars by Olympic cities… new skate spots! The construction of new sports venues, plazas, metro lines and public sculptures are all part of the Olympic tradition. Yet this architecture built to support the Games – a celebration of exclusive athleticism – unintentionally creates new spaces for street skating.
