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

In the letter to the editor, Central Plaza store owner recommends that the city should prohibit skateboarding in the plaza, in order to increase the number of shoppers and return businesses to prosperity. Based on unfounded assumptions, additional questions are needed to be answered in order to decide whether the intervention of city officials will bring the predicted results.

First and foremost, it would be desirable to know if the opinion of the Central Plaza store owner who wrote this letter is consistent with the opinion of store owners' majority in this plaza. Making a survey among shop owners, or supplementing the letter with additional signatures would undoubtedly strengthen request of this particular owner, making it more likely for the city to accept proposed recommendation.

Secondly, it would be advisable to investigate what was the trend in the number of shoppers over the past two years in other stores, where skateboarding is not so popular. Did they also experience poor revenues? If the answer is positive, the decreased number of shoppers may be caused by weak economy. Therefore, there may be no connection between skateboarding in Central Plaza and decrease in the number of customers.

Furthermore, Central Plaza store owner claims that amount of litter and vandalism dramatically increased throughout the plaza. Is the litter an vandalism caused by skateboard users? Do they cause any harm to store owners or potential customers? Affirmative answers to these questions would be an additional evidence supporting unsubstantiated assumptions of store owner. If there is direct evidence showing adverse effects of skateboarding on potential customers, city may be obliged to prohibit skateboarding in this area.

Additionally, knowing that the skateboarding increase was noticed before the decrease in revenues, would further support shop owner in his claim. Conversely, if skateboarding became popular when aisles in Central Plaza became empty would undermine his argumentation.

To recapitulate, Central Plaza store owner's recommendation is not totally convincing for the city to take further action. Assumptions made in this letter need more evidence. Support from other shop owners from Central Plaza would be indispensable to convince city authorities.