VENICE, Calif. – Isolation and loneliness are some of the biggest battles Mimi Sullivan has been fighting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her antidote: skateboarding.

“It’s like home. It feels like a family. I have a lot of friends here that I’ve known for a really long time. It’s just a nice community,” Sullivan said.

 

What You Need To Know


  • Dept. of Parks and Recreation filled Venice skate park with sand in April

  • Skaters have been cutting caution tape, digging out sand

  • Dozens of skaters dug sand out over Memorial Day weekend

  • Skate park remains closed under city, county orders

 

That’s why even before the pandemic, she would make the long trek from East Los Angeles to Venice Beach. 

“The commute down here on the train is an hour and hour and half,” said Sullivan. “So if I get up early, it’s just kind of worth it to be able to surf and skate down here.”

But skating at the Venice Beach Skate park violates current LA City and County orders.

“With us and the city, I know that it’s been a challenge. We don’t really like them right now and they don’t like us,” Sullivan said.

Since the shutdown began, it’s been a constant back and forth between the city closing the park off and the skaters breaking the rules. Back in mid-April, the Department of Parks and Recreation decided to dump sand in the park to keep skaters out.

“I saw a video on Instagram of just bulldozers shoveling sand in the park, and I was so sad about it and mad and I get why they were doing it, but I was still really disappointed,” said Sullivan.

So this past Memorial Day weekend, dozens of skaters, including Sullivan, came out in full force to reclaim the park:

“People were here at like 7:30 shoveling sand out and then it ended around 3:00 in the afternoon, there were a lot of people throughout the day,” Sullivan said. 

About half of the skate park is now free of sand, at least for now. 

“We keep shoveling out portions of sand and they come back in and replace it. If they put sand back in here I won’t be happy about it, no one will be happy. We spent so much time and effort as a community just digging this out.” 

 

Related Stories


 

Every few hours, LAPD officers show up, kick everyone out, caution tape gets put back up, and for a while skaters move to a nearby area. 

“I think we’re just gonna wait until they go away and skate it again,” Sullivan said.

Because for people like Sullivan, this is more than just a skate park, it’s a community.