Localism, Legitimacy or Both?

What happened to freedom. Smh (a lot)

Also nice touch trying to drag in everybody in the mildest of ways, while totally victimizing cyclists.

Private land, fair enough, permission should be asked, respect shown.
Both ways. Who is it hurting? Government claiming free territory is private or does this affect someone's livelihood? Cattle being scared off pastureland? Not on my doorstep snobbery?

Boots and walking sticks should also be confiscated, but that's just provocation. Obviously only going to end in violence.

They used the same excuse about insurance here in pr when I went to the "public gardens", coming from the UK it was a bit of a shock.

In my opinion San Diego is too limited on land to have the 'no dig, no ride' attitude (I totally understand it though). That makes sense up north where land is a plenty, and trees block everything, so if you want a badass spot you can go build one. I think a legal spot is possible, especially after riding in duthie in Washington, which is a legal spot with super fun jumps and slalom trails

There is always gonna be the legal ramifications and the "insurance policy restrictions" that stop fully legit trails , private or public- and esp jumps, etc. And esp here in the USA, where my Euro and Aussie friends have often cited to me some theoretical statistic that there are 5 times more lawyers here, or you are 5 times more likely to get sued here than anywhere else . And they do have a point. There is a culture of lawsuits that permeates the USA

It's definitely nice to be able to ride a trail without having to look over your shoulder all the time, but sadly these trails in San Diego aren't very 8 inch travel friendly. Hopefully the hundreds of dh riders in sd can get their needs met. I see a lot of rocks on black mountain that are just waiting for some tires over them.

With the authority coming in on multiple riding spots and shutting them down and taking bikes in some cases. Everyone needs to go dig, keep it private if you want your trails secret if not thats cool.

This is how I feel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5fts7bj-so

I don't know too much about where these trails are. If you aren't in the middle of nowhere, or private property, things may get dicey in avoiding attention from the city.

This may not be bad though. From what it sounds like, multiple levels of government were involved in this matter. Leisure is a basic human need. Almost like swimming pools, or soccer fields, cycling facilities are just a little ahead of the curve. Your local government does have a responsibility to provide some standard of care.

Most of the time, eliminating all sources of risk (ie plowing jumps) is easiest. Some places like Denver recognizes this demand, and employs riders to provide this standard of care.

All the best trails are off in the woods like in Pennsylvania for instance. This will always be true since bulging trails has been associated with terms like counter culture. In Contemporary society there are plausible ways to make jumps now. Just go to a city council meeting to get these facilities close to the masses (in cities). Tell them you know what it takes to make safe jumps for all abilities.

Who knows, you might even get a budget to make sick stuff every body enjoys

It depends, if a spot is about to be closed down, the only thing you can do ist try to get it legalised!

On the other hand, in my area we have a lot of forest and hills, so most trails are far enough apart to be unnoticed. But there are some guys here who want get a legalised area. We have zero issues and more trails than we can actually ride, so why give that up for 1-2 legal trails that will probably suck, because of all the restrictions?

The same thing happened in the area where my parents live. They had great trails, but in a much smaller area and near a major city, so there was a lot of traffic on them, which caused some problems occasional with hikers. The local club fought for a legal track for about 10 years and finally got one last year. At the moment the track was finished, all the illegal tracks were destroyed by the forestry department, they chopped trees and laid them across every 100m or so. So they exchanged 10 great illegal trails for on very very bad legal track.
Most of the illegal trails are rideable again now, but I don't think the forestry department is going to accept that, I mean from their point of view they gave the bikers a legal track, but nothing changed, they will be pissed at that.

We have the same issues here in South Africa. Our primo riding area in the Cape Peninsula was proclaimed a national park a few years ago. It got burned out in a bush fire a year ago and is still closed. Other trails that I have ridden for over 20 years on city land have now been legalized to help cope with the flood of riders because of the other trails closure. This has actually resulted in fewer trails for me to ride because in legitimizing one small stretch of trail, the others have become even more off limits, if that makes sense.

You have to adapt and find new places to ride and luckily we have other areas a bit further from home with extensive legal trails. Its always a terrible feeling when your home trail is closed or taken away. To me it feels as if a part of my life has been lost - bit like a divorce I think.