著者

鳴尾 茉樹

出版者

地理科学学会

雑誌

地理科学 (ISSN:02864886)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.63, no.2, pp.66-79, 2008-04-28 (Released:2017-04-15)

参考文献数

8

被引用文献数

2

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This paper aims to clarify the development process of a public skateboarding park in Himeji city. In 1999, the delinquent behavior of youths became a social problem in Himeji city, and the youths would often gather at a spot around Himeji station. Since skateboarding-on and around the central shopping street-was also viewed as a problem, the police would reprimand the skateboarders. A young woman "A" hoped for a solution for the conflict between the skateboarders and the police. She began a signature campaign on the street for the development of a skateboarding park. A group of high school students and several skateboarders joined her movement; they established a group named "sports park-wo-tukuroukai" and made a petition with over 10,000 signatures to the Himeji city council through an alderperson of the Communist Party. Initially, the council rejected this petition; however, a Diet member of the Liberal Democratic Party supported the "sports park-wo-tukuroukai" in order to win the Lower House election. Subsequently, the council considered the petition. At the same time, a "kitaizoku-regulation" was placed by the city executives. This regulation aimed to put an end to the delinquent behavior of the youths around Himeji station. Since the council required the executives to finance the skateboarding park, this regulation was accepted. The city executives agreed to this request, and both the regulation and the budgeting of the park were accepted by the council. In 2001, the municipal administration set up a skateboarding park in the public area reserved for the construction of the hall within a duration of two years. As is evident from above, the youths' petition was used as a political tactic. However, at the moment, the skateboarding park still exists in this place because the public hall construction was terminated and the plan was rejected by the present mayor, owing to the financial crisis faced by the city. In the meantime, the skateboarding park is being utilized by many people, and now, it has become one of the important places for skateboarders in Himeji city. It is not exactly known how long such a situation will persist. Well, we could say that the youths' hope led to the establishment of the skateboarders' whereabouts in Himeji city.