Coach Bill / Dad, Entrepreneur Special Educator, American Political Scientist, Writer, Musician.

Santurce, Puerto Rico, USA Latest News: After speaking at length with various municipal government offices, one of them suggested that a signature petition effort to organize the local community around the formalization of the skatepark, garden, and fishing area would serve as a bulwark against government expropriation and possible purchase of the property by a private owner. The ‘Parque Punta Las Marias,’ situated in San Juan, Puerto Rico’s Atlantic coast in the Santurce neighborhood of Punta Las Marias, is heavily protected land by the local residents looking to keep it as a place of urban respite. It has been ground zero for a non-violent, community-driven turfwar symbolizing a microcosm of what has been happening to the island itself. Deep in bond debt, Puerto Rico’s government has looked to develop local industry, garner outside investment, and sell-off land in order to stay as close to solvency as possible. At the same time, many Puerto Ricans have become increasingly invo...

Housing for Adults with Special Needs High-quality at-home/ community 1:1 and Special Educational services for individuals Mentoring services for at-risk youth   Executive function-based Youth Sports programs for youth and adults with special needs operated by qualified special educational professionals Special Needs Housing As of fifty years ago, across the United States of America, including Connecticut and New York, of which the focus is herein, housing for adults with severe special needs was in the form of asylum centers. Since then, awareness in human rights and the rise of special educational services has led to a movement towards state-funded housing and privately-run organizations offering adult-special needs housing. Even so, the waiting list for such housing is constant, and the quality of the housing itself is mid to low-quality in its recreational and residential amenities. It can be aptly put forth that this is a segment of the population that is under...

A pessimist approached me in conversation yesterday. He said to me, “for two years, you have been talking about bringing people together at the skatepark and nothing has happened. He continued, “I look around and nothing has changed. There is no one here and no one knows about what you do.” I sat and waited for him to finish. He was not done. “Skateboarding is not about bringing people together. ‘Scooter kids’ come in and take over with no respect. The students you bring in are not skaters, they have nothing to do with skateboarding. To them, skateboarding is a fun thing they do at a scheduled hour. They are not ‘thrashers.’ You failed Bill and you the true skaters do not even show up at the park anymore. Bringing in  ‘special needs people’ to skateboard is dangerous too. This is not a place for them. They should not be allowed to skateboard here. In here, it is possible to die. The ‘special needs kids’ will never be true skateboarders. It is not right what you have d...

Mr. Newlin's son on Mount Rainier, Dad took photo A while back I was fortunate to pin down an incredible Dad, Philippe Newlin. He has constantly transitioned and transformed himself across his life and I wanted to share a segment of his life, as well as his thoughts on skateboarding with the public. In and of itself, skateboarding helps us practice important life skills, which can be extrapolated across our life far away from the Olympic sport of skateboarding. Mr. Newlin’s story is quite interesting in that he has steadfastly kept up his mental prowess over the years, catapulting from one endeavor to another without skipping a beat.  Soft skills (which are ‘abstract’ life skills, like humility, perseverance, grit, tenacity) and cognitive executive function skills flexed in his youth on the streets of Manhattan seem to not have lost their mental-muscle power over the years. Mr. Newlin, manages a wine importing business in the United States for a family-owned compa...

Having vision and purpose to affect our local, national and global culture is a lofty and noble idea which may sound nice but in reality, involves sacrifice, smart work, focus, effort, patience and tremendous perseverance. In our stock market driven global economy, money is king and lots of it seems to be sign of success. But is it possible that their are some success stories which are perhaps more important than the dollar given the time money has  historically had to bring about positive change in the limelight? Can business and goodwill somehow create a marriage made in heaven? How do we bring about hope and positive change into the life of people when we are not the heads of multi-national corporations with deep pockets?  As part of the continued growth of the social enterprise endeavor I am spearheading, one that brings together typical and special needs youth into the American Originals Skateboarding League, my interest in other similar, yet different soci...

There are a but a few things that can deliver such an epic wave of social good as the creation of machines of social entrepreneurship. Show generations of people how to build their own ‘machines,’ give them the ‘know how’ to effectively and efficiently manage and succeed in coupling business with empathy and we create a seismic shift into strengthening the foundational principles on which this country was birthed from. In past essays, I have written on the importance to address the needs of urban and rural youth by making skateboarding parks ubiquitous. Skateboarding is an executive function skill-toning activity that replicates the emotional control, grit, perseverance and goal-directed persistence needed in other parts of our lives. Riding the wood planks on rolling wheels in special skate ‘flow’ parks remains  a novel, repetitive and fun, Olympic-sport deemed exiting by scores of youth, and an alternative for those who may want to try something different to the traditio...

updated 9:48 am 4/7/17 Yesterday I entered a level four maximum security jail. I had a volunteer interview with the chaplain there. I saw no inmates and only entered into the administrative section of the jail to have a conversation with the chaplain on my social enterprise proposal. We discussed the viability of a key component of my proposal, that of physically revitalizing the Bridgeport, Ct. playgrounds after a collaborative grant search and acquisition of funds to purchase new equipment, along with any possible training needed for the first round of inmates I would theoretically be working with. The idea is to have the men give back to the community and to themselves by beautifying the communal environment of the city and therein, through their work, that they do ‘soul work’ in the process of the physical exertion and mission of the endeavor. To this the chaplain let me down gently, explaining that though my proposal was a good one, given the security level of the jai...