One of my favorite places on earth is Venice Beach’s relatively new skatepark. What I love is not just the sheer physical grace of the structure, but the spontaneous, unspoken, human order it upholds. Somehow, no one ever pushes in line, everyone is welcome, there is no hierarchy among the grizzled boomer skate-rats and the ten-year-olds. And much of it happens in silence. It’s a Hayekian’s dream (yep, nerd/poseur alert).

- Andrew Sullivan

I will now cover for knowing only slightly what a Hayekian is by quoting from Jon Stewart’s closing speech at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear:

And yet these millions of cars must somehow find a way to squeeze one by one into a mile-long, 30-foot-wide tunnel carved underneath a mighty river.  Carved by people, by the way, who I’m sure had their differences.  And they do it.  Concession by concession.  You go, then I’ll go.  You go, then I’ll go.  You go, then I’ll go, “Oh my God, is that an NRA sticker on your car?” “Is that an Obama sticker on your car?”   Well, that’s okay. You go and then I’ll go.

There must be fifty ways to end a post involving both Venice Beach skateboarders and commuters passing underneath the Hudson River. Here’s the way I’m picking: noticing that I already have a “skateboard” hashtag, checking to see what “skateboard” posts I’ve done, and finding a forgotten photo I shot last fall. It’s a guy on a skateboard right by a sign directing bike traffic toward the Hudson. I really really really loved shooting in New York.

Notes

  1. davidquigg posted this