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

The Central Plaza store owner makes an argument for prohibiting the skateboarding in Central Plaza to increase the business in it.He supports his argument by providing evidence in form of increased popularity of skateboarding and ascribing a causation of reduced business. He also provides additional support in form of increased litter and vandalism. However, the recommendation in order to be sound has to answer a number of questions due to inherent fallacies present in the premises.

Firstly, the argument suffers from misinterpreting correlation as causation. How can the store owner be sure that just because decrease in business has coincided with increased popularity of skateboarding, the latter caused the former? The store owner fails to provide sufficient evidence to establish causality. It may be that the products that are sold in these stores are so substandard that instead of increased purchases due to greater foot falls , there has been decrease in business due to spreading of negative feedback.

Secondly, another question that store owner fails to answer is whether the increased amount of litter and vandalism can be attributed solely to users of skateboarding. It may be that this increased litter may be due to leftovers from eatery products that have been purchased from the stores themselves.If it were so it is their responsibility to ensure adequate garbage disposal. The vandalism may be due to outsiders as skateboard users are more likely to be focussed in their training. There is no evidence to say it is done only by skateboard users.

Thirdly, there is dubious assumption that prohibiting the skateboarding will increase the business. It may be that by reduced foot falls due to the prohibition might actually be further devastating for the businesses in the Central Plaza. Furthermore, there seems to be an inherent bias on part of the store owner against the skateboarding and there is a need to question his motivation regarding the recommendation.

In conclusion, the argument made by the store owner in favour of prohibiting the skateboarding suffers from a number of fallacies. There is need to provide additional evidence to support his claim of causality and projection of future increase in business. Until then, recommendation can not be considered apt.