The following appeared as a letter to the editor from a Central Plaza store owner Over the past two years the number of shoppers in Central Plaza has been steadily decreasing while the popularity of skateboarding has increased dramatically Many Central Pl

According to a letter to the editor, Central Plaza store owners are recommending the prohibition of skateboarding in Central Plaza in order to revert the dwindling business back to its burgeoning state. They are of the opinion that skateboards popularity has acted as impediment into their business due to frequent skateboarders in the place. However, before the argument of Central plaza owners can be analysed, answers to three questions are required.

To begin with, How is popularity of skateboarding in central plaza responsible for descending business in the plaza? It is not clearly mentioned in the argument that what obstacles skateboarders bring which makes it difficult for the business to grow. Perhaps, the skateboarders are the people who are bringing business to the Central plaza and they are using skateboards just to save time. Moreover, it can be the case that the skateboarders shop items while skating which is actually implicitly providing little aid to already dwindling business in the Central plaza. If any of the above scenarios comes true, then the position of Central Plaza store owners doesn’t hold water.

Secondly, Is the vandalism in the plaza done solely by skateboarders? Owners of Central plaza stores do not elucidate it properly whether the littering and destruction of property has hand of people other than skateboarders as well. For instance it can be the situation that the vandalism is being done by some competitors of other plaza who just want to destroy the plaza in order to turn shoppers to their plaza. Additionally, Other situation can be that the skateboarders are so frequent in the central plaza throughout the day that the culprits of vandalism are not getting sufficient time to cause harm as they are always being watched by some of the skate boarders in the central plaza. If these are true than the argument made by store owners is significantly weakened.

Lastly, How can decrease in skateboarding cause business to boom again in central plaza? Owners of store haven’t made it clear that once the skate boarding is prohibited than what factors would cause business to revert back. Perhaps, the factor that store owners are ignoring are more crucial than the people skateboarding in the central plaza – maybe the central plaza store owners are not customer friendly or may be the prices of merchandises in the central plaza have significantly increased in comparison to other nearby places and that is the main reason for lesser market. If such cases come true than the claim that skateboarders are the main culprit does look valid.
In conclusion, the argument as it stands now, is considerably flawed due to its reliance on several unstated assumptions. If answers to the above stated questions are provided by the store owners and perhaps a systematic study is conducted in analysing them, then the validity of store owners argument can be assessed properly.