Linda Vista's SkateWorld is more than a building

Skateworld heaven

While I’m not a resident of Linda Vista, I am a native San Diegan and regular patron of SkateWorld (“Linda Vista’s Skate World, you’re fine, now go away,” Neighborhood News, March 1). As a resident of Coronado, I do not have a district representative on the San Diego City Council but hope that this venue may be a forum for me to express my concerns over the sale of this site. SkateWorld is more than a building or a piece of property, it’s a safe place for families to have fun, socialize and exercise. It’s a place I look forward to going every weekend along with my 13-year-old son and on occasion, other family members and friends. Every Friday night we throw our skates in the trunk and head to Linda Vista. We grab dinner at a neighborhood restaurant then head to SkateWorld and skate until it closes. I absolutely treasure these “skate dates” with my son. It’s one of few things we can both enjoy together. He’s made lots of friends from other schools and neighborhoods. He can skate all day/night long for $10. (You can’t do anything for ten bucks anymore!). I’m happy to take him roller skating as often as he wants because I know exactly where he is, he’s getting lots of exercise, he’s socializing and he’s NOT parked on the family room couch staring and a phone/tv/computer screen.

Because it’s one of the last rinks around, we’ve made many friends that live all over the county while skating at SkateWorld. Our friends come from as far away as Carlsbad, Santee and Poway to Linda Vista to skate. We’ve met many young, service men and women from local Navy and Marine bases who come to SkateWorld to meet people, and connect with their new “home” port of San Diego. SkateWorld isn’t just a gathering place for the immediate neighborhood, it facilitates community far and wide across San Diego County. To the members of San Diego City Council, please do not allow the sale and ultimately closure of SkateWorld. It’s one of very few places that people of all ages can afford to go to for entertainment, recreation, socialization and community. To lose this unique gathering place would be both heartbreaking and irreversible. There is no store that will routinely bring together so many different people from all parts of San Diego in the way that SkateWorld does.

• Heather Neibert
• Coronado

Matters of life and death

The Women’s March and Walk for Life should no longer be a mile let alone a world apart (“Women’s March and Walk for Life – a mile or a world apart?” News Ticker, January 24). Recently, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris BOTH voted against saving babies born alive during botched late-term abortions. They voted to let these innocent, LIVING babies die all alone, in pain, with no medical care at all. Both senators constantly whine about the most vulnerable being separated from their illegal alien mothers or killed by guns or drugs. Well, isn’t a newborn baby just as vulnerable? Don’t they need protection? What about a baby that is born with a disability? Will they next on the kill list? Californians are not monsters. We do not believe in infanticide. Senator Feinstein and Senator Harris aren’t representing us. They might not care about these children, but WE DO. They need to know their political lives are in our hands just as much as the lives of the unborn are in theirs, and they WILL be held accountable.

• Patti J. Smith
• Vista