Read Mission Local often?

Help grow our newsroom , joining the hundreds of San Franciscans who support us by giving below. Donate today!

Over the last hour and a half, Ted Barrow led a local family from Chinatown through the Financial District, discussing almost two centuries of urban development — and some of the most important rails, ledges, and obstacles in skateboarding history.

The tour closes at the a three-stair ledge that borders the Embarcadero Plaza. Behind Barrow on the plaza stand two massive cubes, carpeted with astroturf and surrounded with high plexiglass walls — temporary installations where, for a minimum entry fee of $30, visitors can play padel, a racquet-based sport that touts itself as “easy to pick up like pickleball, dynamic like squash, and athletic like tenni

See Full Page