"Keep Your Wheels Off the Furniture": The Marginalization of Street Skateboarding in the City of Melbourne's "Skate Melbourne Plan".

This article critically examines the City of Melbourne's Skate Melbourne Plan 2017–2027, focusing on its treatment of street skateboarding in public spaces. While the plan promotes skateboarding as a mainstream sport and supports the development of purpose-built skate facilities, it marginalizes street skateboarding by framing it as disruptive, disrespectful, and damaging to public and private property. The plan prioritizes relocating street skateboarders from Melbourne’s central business district to designated skate parks and hybrid spaces, thereby limiting skateboarders’ capacity for creative place-making and subversive use of "found spaces" in the urban environment. The demolition of Lincoln Square, a prominent street skate spot, and the use of hostile architecture at other sites illustrate the plan’s emphasis on controlling and containing skateboarding within institutionalized spaces, reflecting broader neoliberal governance of youth and public space.