Have you ever taken the time to just sit back and reflect upon those golden years when you were just a kid riding a bike? You didn't know much about the sport, and even the smallest pile of dirt, or a piece of plywood and a couple of bricks were an amusement park all in themselves?
Well, I never really did until recently.
I stopped in to one of our local inner city "fix-it-yourself" bike shops here in the concrete jungle known as Los Angeles. Myself, and one of the guys who work there are avid MTB riders, and we both live miles away from any form of dirt or hills. We got to talking about how cool it would be if there were some place we could ride here in the city. Fortunately for us one of the customers overheard our conversation and let us in on a little plot of land that some kids had taken over and had built some jumps and a teeter-totter. Of course we jumped on a bus right away, and headed across town.
When we arrived at the spot, it was full of young teenagers. They were all sporting shovels, and digging so furiously there was a giant dust cloud that the wind was carrying across the street into a busy shopping center. The ground was littered with an assortment of department store bikes, quality bikes, and some were a mix of both. There was even a girl moving dirt with a makeshift wheelbarrow . It was a plastic garbage can filled with dirt inside a shopping cart.
I introduced myself to the kids, and a few of them even knew who I was and were totally blown away that I was standing in their lot. After a few handshakes and what have you, I took a walk around the small plot of property to have a look at what they had going on. Right away I had to ask "do you guys have any water?". Although they were trying to shape everything out, they didn't know the glory of water. It all looked pretty cool, but was pretty much unrideable as it was mostly shaped up piles of sand. One of the kid's says "yeah, we have a spicket right over there". I asked him how come they weren't using any water to build with. They had no clue what I was getting at or why you would do such a thing.
I decided to walk across the street to the shopping center. I picked up about 40 feet of garden hose, a case of drinking water, and bought lunch. I connected everything, made a small mud pile, and shaped a roller for them. Then packed it in and rode it. We all chipped in and started digging. We dug until the sun went down and some time into the night. I went back a few days later, and started fixing all the berms, and added in a bunch of rollers. I got the kids into the idea that a pump track would be the way to go, and from there they could build things bigger and bigger as they progress. That's exactly what we did.
That Saturday I went back to help again. About an hour in the local fire department stopped by with a city official. Apparently we had created what they call an "attractive nuisance". After a little bit of conversation, they decided that as long as we keep the property clean, eliminate the wood structures, and the neighbors don't complain, that they will turn a blind eye. Lucky for us, we've had nothing but support from the surrounding neighbors. In fact, they have been bringing out stereos, helping out with equipment to dig with, etc., etc. There has been nothing but positivity from the neighborhood. Parents are bringing out their small children, We built a very small inside line for the littlest kids.
All in all, it just goes to show that even in gang ridden "less desirable" areas of big cities that people can come together as a community. In this case it was mountain bikes that brought them together. Who would have thought that a mountain bike could be such a positive influence in a place where there isn't a mountain for miles?
LA city pump track from Cycle Jerks on Vimeo.
-Gary Elliot
(A.K.A.) Ratt Bones
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