http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2015/3/29/casselberry_skate_pa.html
CASSELBERRY --
Larry Littrell spent much of Sunday at one of his son Wyatt's favorite spots: a skate park in New Smyrna Beach.
But Littrell's family lives in Casselberry, and they would prefer not
to have to make the hour-long drive every weekend to have their fun.
"He can't skate much during the week," Littrell said. "A lot of the
kids he's met and skated with over the last two years have gotten much
better because they've been lucky enough to live in a town that has a
skate park."
Casselberry doesn't have a skate park, and skateboarding isn't allowed at the parks the city does have.
"A lot of my friends like skateboarding, but they don't have a park,"
Wyatt Littrell said. "All they do is go down the driveway."
Larry Littrell is now leading a growing grassroots effort to convince
Casselberry city leaders to build a skate park. He recently brought it
up at a City Commission meeting.
"So far, I've received positive feedback from the mayor, as well as a
couple of other city commissioners — both from their public feedback at
that meeting as well as in follow-up emails," Littrell said.
Littrell said city leaders want to see a strong show of interest from
the public before moving forward with the idea of a skate park.
Littrell started a Facebook page,
and it includes Casselberry's zip code. It already has almost 300
likes, and Littrell hopes it gets hundreds more soon to show high
interest in the skate park idea.
"The thing I love the most about skateboarding is that it's all on
him, and it's teaching him a life lesson that when he falls down, he has
to pick himself back up, dust himself off and get back after it,"
Littrell said.
Casselberry city leaders begin budget workshops Monday, and the
possibility of a new skate park is something they are expected to
discuss.
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Friday, April 24, 2015
Where Do We Put A Casselberry Skatepark?
From Landscape Architecture Magazine, September 2004
Skateparks at a Dead End
Skateboarding is one of American teens’ most popular sports. So why are skateparks sited where teens can’t reach them?
By Tom Miller
A pile of broken glass lies in the bottom of a four-foot bowl in Canby, Oregon’s public skatepark. A trio of preteens circumnavigates the glass shards as if they do not exist. The skaters explain, “We can’t skate with glass all over the bowl, so we use our shoes to push it all into one place.”
Raise the issue of the skatepark in Canby’s Police Headquarters and heads turn in consternation. Patrol Officer T. Brittain concedes with a field guide of concerns. “The park routinely floods, we see regular graffiti, adjacent businesses complain about property damage from skaters and now have cameras on-site, the helmet requirement is so regularly ignored we could issue exclusionary citations every day. The skatepark has become a hindrance for us.”
What’s up with this place?
Sam Haney, 15, answers bluntly: “They should have put it closer to town.” Like Haney, other skaters are bewildered by the decision to site the skatepark at the terminus of a dead-end road on the industrial edge of town.
Carla Ahl of Canby Planning & Building confirms Haney’s observations. “It has become a place to meet at night for bad behavior. Overall, the skatepark is a good thing, but we could have put a little more thought into its location.”
Canby’s unfortunate situation is all the more striking when one learns that in a state renowned globally for its unparalleled concentration of premier skateparks, Canby’s skatepark, at $330,000, was Oregon’s second most expensive. To understand how this occurred, and how to avoid it elsewhere, a review of skateboard demographics is insightful.
Skateboarding is among the nation’s fastest growing sports. With the International Association of Skateboard Companies counting nearly twenty million enthusiasts its place in the popularity polls is wedged between more traditional—and much better accommodated—sports like soccer and tennis. Skateboarding is more popular among youth ages six to seventeen than baseball.
Yet unlike baseball (or soccer or tennis), there are very few facilities to accommodate skateboarding. Nationwide the number of skateparks hovers around two thousand. A contrast quickly focuses into view: the nation’s cities and towns are unprepared for the waves of skaters flooding their streets, parking garages, and plazas. To cite just one example, Portland, Oregon offers one hundred ninety three municipal baseball fields and just two small skateparks. According to Portland Parks & Recreation, each field is about one hundred thousand square feet
so baseball gets one ninety three million square feet while skateboarders have just sixteen thousand square feet. Put another way, Portland Parks & Recreation devotes twelve thousand times more square feet to baseball than skateboarding, despite skateboarding’s greater popularity among youth.
It appears that skateboarding has kickflipped its way into everyday America and skaters need places to call their own. When officials neglect to provide skateparks, skaters simply make do with the local steps, benches, and ledges. This much Canby understood. Where Canby erred was in allowing the sport’s detractors, rather than its supporters, to determine where and how it would be accommodated.
Canby’s skatepark detractors wanted the skatepark out of sight out of mind. As a result, the town missed the first rule of thumb, which applies universally: skateparks should be sited in high visibility locations. Although skaters can vary from ages five to fifty-five or beyond, the National Sporting Goods Association pegs the average skater at fourteen years of age. The demographic will mature slightly as well-built skateparks encourage longevity among older skaters, but skateboarding is likely to remain primarily the province of teenagers.
When user age demographics are understood, two key skatepark siting criteria become apparent. First, a majority of skaters need to be able to conveniently access the skatepark without dependence on Mom or Dad or mass transit. (Parents are typically working and unavailable to shuttle kids to and from skateparks.) Mass transit is fine where available, but often non-existent in some towns and sporadic in others. The closer to schools or other youth centers the better.
Second, it is important to acknowledge that teens—skaters or otherwise—can be prone to doing foolish and sometimes dangerous things. Adult supervision is critical, but the kind of adult supervision is even more important. When possible, siting skateparks within existing high use areas, such as busy parks or near town centers, establishes the best patterns of oversight. A steady flow of spontaneous spectators and passersby creates consistent de facto supervision which rewards skaters with a needed sense of community inclusion as well as safety and security. By contrast, forced surveillance in the form of de jure supervision can direct a town’s skatepark budget away from needed skatepark square footage and immediately establish an unproductive “them versus us” attitude between skaters and city officials. Encouraging community policing of the skatepark through site design has proven to be the cheapest, most effective way of ensuring youth use the facility for the park’s intent: skateboarding.
Dan Hughes of Renton, Washington, who has twenty-six years of skateboarding experience, notes that skateboarding for the past twenty years has largely been an alternative recreational undertaking. Property owners, city officials, and others in the mainstream have long frowned upon skaters. Non-accommodation has calloused skate culture with non-conformity.
Canby’s decision to site the skatepark on the edge of its industrial zone was the result of the “not in my backyard” effect. Neighbors to more centrally located community lands felt uncomfortable with the prospect of an unknown recreational use close to home or work. The skatepark became the ugly duckling nobody wanted nearby, and the skatepark’s feared impacts were predetermined as a result.
By contrast, in San Jose, California, long a hotbed of skateboarding, police and city planners worked with Dreamland Skateparks to determine the best site for a skatepark. San Jose’s CPTED process determined that the ideal location for a skatepark for police is one that can be passed and observed from the ease of their own vehicles. By reducing the supervisory presence from on-site oversight to simple drive-bys as necessary, San Jose’s police believe they will decrease inevitable unease that occurs when skaters and police meet face to face.
Design Matters
Good visibility is critical to a skatepark’s success, but high quality design is just as important says Carter Dennis, director of the San Antonio Skatepark Coalition in Texas. Proper design helps to establish respect at and for the skateparks because it attracts older, more mature skaters who have a clear appreciation for the privilege of a skatepark. Adult skaters tend to be comparatively more proficient than teens and their combination of age and ability sets the tone and example for other users. “Skaters need to be excited about their park’s potential if you want them to care for it. You have to hire designers who actually skate. And I don’t mean ‘used to skate.’ I mean, they skate today; they know what’s going on in skateboarding right now.”
Steve Gump, a 40-year old skater and father of two who frequents Newberg, Oregon’s skatepark, supports Mr. Dennis’s suggestions. “No amount of non-skater supervision can replace the calm efficiency of adult skaters self-policing the skatepark. We regulate by example. It’s a cultural thing. But it only happens when the parks are good enough to attract skaters of all abilities, including the older generation. I don’t waste my time at poorly designed parks that don’t challenge me. Each park establishes its own behavior. If you want older, more responsible skaters out there, you need to design for us too. That means providing terrain that challenges high level skaters.”
Visibility and design help to select the best site for a skatepark. Knowing how many will skate and frequent the skatepark may be equally valuable, as the number can surprise even recreation professionals. A recent survey directed to skatepark managers through the National Parks & Recreation Association revealed that the single most common complaint among skatepark managers is that they did not build their skateparks large enough to meet need. As a result their parks are overcrowded and unsafe, which translates into skaters inevitably returning to the locations they used to skate prior to the establishment of the skatepark.
So how many will skate? Counting hands at community meetings rarely provides an accurate assessment of how many will use the skatepark. There is the challenge of getting youth to city meetings. Another is the indifference many young adults have today for government process; even if they can attend they may be unlikely to bother. Further complicating matters is the reality that skateparks will necessarily be destinations more regional than local until each community has provided its own facility. With just two thousand spread thinly across the nation today, skaters will be traveling across city lines to share skateparks for years to come. And because each skatepark is unique—more like a golf course than football field—skaters will always travel to “session” something distinct, no matter how many skateparks are provided.
Unfortunately no known data collection exists to determine the number of skateboarders in any given area. One crude but approximate measurement to gather a number of local skaters is to extract a local number from the estimate of twenty million nationwide. The US Census reports over 292 million residents nationwide. The International Association of Skateboard Industries suggests 20 million Americans skateboard, so 7% of Americans skateboard. Assuming Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has an equal share of that percentage, more than 105,000 of Philadelphia’s 1,500,000 residents skateboard. Philadelphia is at the forefront of skatepark controversy today with the city’s decision in 2002 to render inaccessible to skaters “Love Park” (aka JFK Plaza), a city plaza globally renowned for its unintentionally attractive skateable elements. Inevitably, that decision prompted outrage among local skaters who began to organize and lobby for skateparks. The city is currently in the process of planning a million dollar plus investment in skate facilities. While there is no established guideline for skatepark size, if Philadelphia employs a standard based on Oregon’s acclaimed parks—about one to two square feet of skateable surface per resident—that investment will initiate the beginning of continued financial support for city skateparks in Philadelphia.
Once a reasonable guess at the number of expected users is generated and high visibility sites are identified, some communities favor sites that offer opportunities to expand in the future. Given skateboarding’s burgeoning growth over the last ten years it is unlikely many communities have the financial resources to meet the skatepark need all at once. As the nation’s youth trend away from traditional team sports to more individualized activities like skateboarding, developing skateparks in phases can be a wise move. A practical way to develop skateparks in phases is to ensure the sites selected allow for expansion.
While developing a successful skatepark can be a challenge, it need not spin communities new to the process like a Tony Hawk 900. By taking into careful consideration the three key elements of high visibility, proper design, and adequate size that compliment the traditional environmental concerns such as topography, subjacent support, and drainage already familiar to landscape architects, city decision-makers are well poised to provide superior skateparks for their communities. The kids get it. Canby skateboarder Haney ponders the glass in his bowl and offers, “We don’t want hassles with cops and whatever. We just want to skate.”
References
“The Makings of a Skatepark,” Landscape Architecture, April 2004.
Skateparks at a Dead End
Skateboarding is one of American teens’ most popular sports. So why are skateparks sited where teens can’t reach them?
By Tom Miller
A pile of broken glass lies in the bottom of a four-foot bowl in Canby, Oregon’s public skatepark. A trio of preteens circumnavigates the glass shards as if they do not exist. The skaters explain, “We can’t skate with glass all over the bowl, so we use our shoes to push it all into one place.”
Raise the issue of the skatepark in Canby’s Police Headquarters and heads turn in consternation. Patrol Officer T. Brittain concedes with a field guide of concerns. “The park routinely floods, we see regular graffiti, adjacent businesses complain about property damage from skaters and now have cameras on-site, the helmet requirement is so regularly ignored we could issue exclusionary citations every day. The skatepark has become a hindrance for us.”
What’s up with this place?
Sam Haney, 15, answers bluntly: “They should have put it closer to town.” Like Haney, other skaters are bewildered by the decision to site the skatepark at the terminus of a dead-end road on the industrial edge of town.
Carla Ahl of Canby Planning & Building confirms Haney’s observations. “It has become a place to meet at night for bad behavior. Overall, the skatepark is a good thing, but we could have put a little more thought into its location.”
Canby’s unfortunate situation is all the more striking when one learns that in a state renowned globally for its unparalleled concentration of premier skateparks, Canby’s skatepark, at $330,000, was Oregon’s second most expensive. To understand how this occurred, and how to avoid it elsewhere, a review of skateboard demographics is insightful.
Skateboarding is among the nation’s fastest growing sports. With the International Association of Skateboard Companies counting nearly twenty million enthusiasts its place in the popularity polls is wedged between more traditional—and much better accommodated—sports like soccer and tennis. Skateboarding is more popular among youth ages six to seventeen than baseball.
Yet unlike baseball (or soccer or tennis), there are very few facilities to accommodate skateboarding. Nationwide the number of skateparks hovers around two thousand. A contrast quickly focuses into view: the nation’s cities and towns are unprepared for the waves of skaters flooding their streets, parking garages, and plazas. To cite just one example, Portland, Oregon offers one hundred ninety three municipal baseball fields and just two small skateparks. According to Portland Parks & Recreation, each field is about one hundred thousand square feet
so baseball gets one ninety three million square feet while skateboarders have just sixteen thousand square feet. Put another way, Portland Parks & Recreation devotes twelve thousand times more square feet to baseball than skateboarding, despite skateboarding’s greater popularity among youth.
It appears that skateboarding has kickflipped its way into everyday America and skaters need places to call their own. When officials neglect to provide skateparks, skaters simply make do with the local steps, benches, and ledges. This much Canby understood. Where Canby erred was in allowing the sport’s detractors, rather than its supporters, to determine where and how it would be accommodated.
Canby’s skatepark detractors wanted the skatepark out of sight out of mind. As a result, the town missed the first rule of thumb, which applies universally: skateparks should be sited in high visibility locations. Although skaters can vary from ages five to fifty-five or beyond, the National Sporting Goods Association pegs the average skater at fourteen years of age. The demographic will mature slightly as well-built skateparks encourage longevity among older skaters, but skateboarding is likely to remain primarily the province of teenagers.
When user age demographics are understood, two key skatepark siting criteria become apparent. First, a majority of skaters need to be able to conveniently access the skatepark without dependence on Mom or Dad or mass transit. (Parents are typically working and unavailable to shuttle kids to and from skateparks.) Mass transit is fine where available, but often non-existent in some towns and sporadic in others. The closer to schools or other youth centers the better.
Second, it is important to acknowledge that teens—skaters or otherwise—can be prone to doing foolish and sometimes dangerous things. Adult supervision is critical, but the kind of adult supervision is even more important. When possible, siting skateparks within existing high use areas, such as busy parks or near town centers, establishes the best patterns of oversight. A steady flow of spontaneous spectators and passersby creates consistent de facto supervision which rewards skaters with a needed sense of community inclusion as well as safety and security. By contrast, forced surveillance in the form of de jure supervision can direct a town’s skatepark budget away from needed skatepark square footage and immediately establish an unproductive “them versus us” attitude between skaters and city officials. Encouraging community policing of the skatepark through site design has proven to be the cheapest, most effective way of ensuring youth use the facility for the park’s intent: skateboarding.
Dan Hughes of Renton, Washington, who has twenty-six years of skateboarding experience, notes that skateboarding for the past twenty years has largely been an alternative recreational undertaking. Property owners, city officials, and others in the mainstream have long frowned upon skaters. Non-accommodation has calloused skate culture with non-conformity.
Canby’s decision to site the skatepark on the edge of its industrial zone was the result of the “not in my backyard” effect. Neighbors to more centrally located community lands felt uncomfortable with the prospect of an unknown recreational use close to home or work. The skatepark became the ugly duckling nobody wanted nearby, and the skatepark’s feared impacts were predetermined as a result.
By contrast, in San Jose, California, long a hotbed of skateboarding, police and city planners worked with Dreamland Skateparks to determine the best site for a skatepark. San Jose’s CPTED process determined that the ideal location for a skatepark for police is one that can be passed and observed from the ease of their own vehicles. By reducing the supervisory presence from on-site oversight to simple drive-bys as necessary, San Jose’s police believe they will decrease inevitable unease that occurs when skaters and police meet face to face.
Design Matters
Good visibility is critical to a skatepark’s success, but high quality design is just as important says Carter Dennis, director of the San Antonio Skatepark Coalition in Texas. Proper design helps to establish respect at and for the skateparks because it attracts older, more mature skaters who have a clear appreciation for the privilege of a skatepark. Adult skaters tend to be comparatively more proficient than teens and their combination of age and ability sets the tone and example for other users. “Skaters need to be excited about their park’s potential if you want them to care for it. You have to hire designers who actually skate. And I don’t mean ‘used to skate.’ I mean, they skate today; they know what’s going on in skateboarding right now.”
Steve Gump, a 40-year old skater and father of two who frequents Newberg, Oregon’s skatepark, supports Mr. Dennis’s suggestions. “No amount of non-skater supervision can replace the calm efficiency of adult skaters self-policing the skatepark. We regulate by example. It’s a cultural thing. But it only happens when the parks are good enough to attract skaters of all abilities, including the older generation. I don’t waste my time at poorly designed parks that don’t challenge me. Each park establishes its own behavior. If you want older, more responsible skaters out there, you need to design for us too. That means providing terrain that challenges high level skaters.”
Visibility and design help to select the best site for a skatepark. Knowing how many will skate and frequent the skatepark may be equally valuable, as the number can surprise even recreation professionals. A recent survey directed to skatepark managers through the National Parks & Recreation Association revealed that the single most common complaint among skatepark managers is that they did not build their skateparks large enough to meet need. As a result their parks are overcrowded and unsafe, which translates into skaters inevitably returning to the locations they used to skate prior to the establishment of the skatepark.
So how many will skate? Counting hands at community meetings rarely provides an accurate assessment of how many will use the skatepark. There is the challenge of getting youth to city meetings. Another is the indifference many young adults have today for government process; even if they can attend they may be unlikely to bother. Further complicating matters is the reality that skateparks will necessarily be destinations more regional than local until each community has provided its own facility. With just two thousand spread thinly across the nation today, skaters will be traveling across city lines to share skateparks for years to come. And because each skatepark is unique—more like a golf course than football field—skaters will always travel to “session” something distinct, no matter how many skateparks are provided.
Unfortunately no known data collection exists to determine the number of skateboarders in any given area. One crude but approximate measurement to gather a number of local skaters is to extract a local number from the estimate of twenty million nationwide. The US Census reports over 292 million residents nationwide. The International Association of Skateboard Industries suggests 20 million Americans skateboard, so 7% of Americans skateboard. Assuming Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has an equal share of that percentage, more than 105,000 of Philadelphia’s 1,500,000 residents skateboard. Philadelphia is at the forefront of skatepark controversy today with the city’s decision in 2002 to render inaccessible to skaters “Love Park” (aka JFK Plaza), a city plaza globally renowned for its unintentionally attractive skateable elements. Inevitably, that decision prompted outrage among local skaters who began to organize and lobby for skateparks. The city is currently in the process of planning a million dollar plus investment in skate facilities. While there is no established guideline for skatepark size, if Philadelphia employs a standard based on Oregon’s acclaimed parks—about one to two square feet of skateable surface per resident—that investment will initiate the beginning of continued financial support for city skateparks in Philadelphia.
Once a reasonable guess at the number of expected users is generated and high visibility sites are identified, some communities favor sites that offer opportunities to expand in the future. Given skateboarding’s burgeoning growth over the last ten years it is unlikely many communities have the financial resources to meet the skatepark need all at once. As the nation’s youth trend away from traditional team sports to more individualized activities like skateboarding, developing skateparks in phases can be a wise move. A practical way to develop skateparks in phases is to ensure the sites selected allow for expansion.
While developing a successful skatepark can be a challenge, it need not spin communities new to the process like a Tony Hawk 900. By taking into careful consideration the three key elements of high visibility, proper design, and adequate size that compliment the traditional environmental concerns such as topography, subjacent support, and drainage already familiar to landscape architects, city decision-makers are well poised to provide superior skateparks for their communities. The kids get it. Canby skateboarder Haney ponders the glass in his bowl and offers, “We don’t want hassles with cops and whatever. We just want to skate.”
References
“The Makings of a Skatepark,” Landscape Architecture, April 2004.
Monday, April 20, 2015
Why Support A Casselberry Skatepark?
1. The skatepark will provide a safe place to recreate.
A majority of the deadly accidents that happen to people while they’re skateboarding involve a motor vehicle. In towns and cities across the nation the most interesting terrain for skateboarding is found in the streets and sidewalks. The skatepark will be the safe place to skate but for it to be effective it must be more interesting than what’s out “in the wild.”
2. Skateparks, if designed and constructed correctly, are fiscally conservative and require very little maintenance.
When a skatepark is built correctly it will require virtually no structural maintenance for years. The nation’s oldest skateparks have been servicing skateboarders for 30 years and most have required little more than cosmetic maintenance. For a skatepark to meet this high expectation it should feature no fixtures; all of the materials used that are intended to be skated on should be fixed into the forms with grout and concrete. (In other words, skateparks that require no maintenance have no kick-plates, screws, bolts, or other components that will loosen through vibration and weather over the years.)
3. Skateboarders are currently under-served in the area.
As a community we understand that we need to support our youth who wish to pursue active, healthy lifestyles. Without community support those groups are required to build their own support systems outside of our community. Do we want to sit by while a significant portion of our youth meet their recreational needs with no support or involvement from our community?
4. Skateboarding has millions of participants nationally and is growing while team sports participation is in decline.
When one considers that skateboarding is the third most popular recreational activity for kids between 6 and 18 years old, it might be assumed there would be skateparks all across our community. We have baseball fields, soccer pitches, jogging paths, and plenty of other places for people to be active. Yet we have no skateparks! It’s time to address the needs of today’s recreational youth.
5. Skateboarding is a 2.5-billion dollar industry.
For decades skateboarding has been on the leading edge of youth marketing. Today it’s serious business with lucrative video games, television shows, and brand names that launch dozens of product lines. With all of this marketing, more kids than ever before are eager to learn to skate. The demand is enormous and skateparks are the place to start.
6. Skateboarders are a vital part of urban communities.
Skateboarding has been a commonplace feature of the urban environment for over 40 years, and a part of American culture since the 1950s. It’s so popular with youth that today there is no city on the planet that doesn’t have it’s own skateboarding group of kids. Our local skateboarders are not part of a fringe group of kids who are into something unique and uncommon.
7. A skatepark can attract skateboarding tourists if designed to do so.
Dozens of skateparks in the United States—and abroad—enjoy a reputation for being places that skaters dream of visiting someday. For skaters, places like Burnside, Kettering, Orcas, Louisville, Black Pearl, Lincoln City, and others share an allure that rivals Disneyland.
8. With national health issues looming for today’s youth, it’s time to offer a greater number of healthy, athletic choices.
You don’t often see obese skateboarders. Lots of skateboarders skate several times a week and often for hours at a time. There is clearly a commitment for these kids to develop their skills, yet they do this without coaches, leagues, and often without even an appropriate place to do it.
9. The low cost to participation makes it accessible to everyone.
Skateboarding is inexpensive and is economically feasible to any family’s financial situation. While hand-me-down equipment is commonplace, even a new skateboard can be purchased for around $60 and last for years if taken care of. That’s all a person needs. There is no additional equipment, no “green fees,” no travel expenses. To get into skateboarding one only needs a skateboard and a place to do it.
10. Thousands of other communities understand the value of skateparks.
If they had the opportunity to do it again, when asked what they might have done differently with their skateparks many Parks directors claim they would have made the skatepark larger. When skateparks are designed to succeed, they succeed wildly. If you contact any Parks Department with a successful skatepark, they will rank it as one of their most popular, well-used facilities. (Seriously, try it!)
11. Skating in a park is much safer than skating in the streets.
In 2006, 42 people riding skateboards died. Of those, 40 of them were not in a skatepark and 27 of those involved a motor vehicle. In other words, of these 42 deaths, 40 of them might have been prevented had the person been skating in a skatepark instead of the streets.
12. Our community already has hundreds, and maybe thousands of skateboarders.
The skatepark visitors are ready to go. We don’t need to wait and hope that patronage emerges over time. They are here now.
13. In the future there are going to be many legitimate places to skate in the city. The time to embark on that positive future is now.
Creating a skatepark in our community is inevitable. It’s only a matter of time before everyone comes to understand the opportunity skateparks represent. There is no reason to delay the investigation any longer. The time to start this process is today…right now.
14. A skatepark is a place where skateboarders and other people who might not cross paths in the street can come together.
Skateparks are social spaces that will attract interest from all parts of our community. In cities across the nation the local skatepark is a landmark that everyone is familiar with. Our skatepark will include amenities that visitors can enjoy so that it’s understood by eveyrone—skaters and onlookers—that we appreciate and support what these kids are doing.
15. Skateparks can displace other less desirable activities in an area.
Skaters love skateboarding. That’s what they’re into. For the dedicated skater, any activity that disrupts their time skateboarding is going to be a problem…and few obstacles will prevent the skater from pursuing it. When skateparks are built in places where there are existing problems—criminal activity, vandalism, and so on—the skaters will serve to displace those people who prefer a remote, secluded environment.
16. The skatepark can be an attraction for family outings.
It is increasingly common to see families skating together. Often, a mother or father that skated in their youth has their interest rekindled when their children get into it. It’s a great way for a family to spend time together yet without requiring a lot of planning, expense, or preparation.
17. Skateboarding is cool and the skatepark will enhance the community’s reputation.
There’s no doubt that skateboarding is often at the center of whatever happens to be popular among today’s youth. For lots of people, spending time at the skatepark will be something cool to do that doesn’t cost any money. For our community, having a great skatepark will serve to show the region that we understand how to engage our young adults.
18. Good skateparks have volunteers to help maintain the facility.
The central members of the skatepark committee will become the stewards of that facility. As skateboarders dedicated to the park, we will work with Parks to host lessons, workshops, and other events. We will be at the skatepark regularly and will protect the facility that we’ve worked so hard for.
19. Skateparks can draw skateboarders away from less appropriate areas.
If we don’t have a skatepark, people will continue to skate wherever there is compelling terrain. We should put the skatepark where we want there to be activity and away from those places where we don’t.
20. Young and old people enjoy skateparks.
Skating has been a part of our culture for more than 50 years. There are skateboarders well into their 50s who still enjoy pushing around a park. The skatepark is a place where the young and old can recreate together as equals. This is important for adult skateboarders but equally important for the younger set.
21. Skateparks support vibrant, healthy communities, just like many other athletic facilities.
Every good skatepark has a group of regular patrons. These people may not know each other socially outside of skateboarding but at the skatepark they are friends and colleagues. The brotherhood of skateboarders has strong bonds that cross economic, geographic, and even language barriers. Skateparks are a great way of starting that kind of social cohesion right here.
22. Skateboarding is mainstream.
With 13-million participants in the U.S., skateboarding can hardly be characterized as a niche group of special users. In fact, skateboarding is as popular (and often more so) than most “all-American” sports. We see skateboarding in commercials. There are television shows about skateboarding and starring famous skaters.
23. Skateboarding is a popular spectator sport.
There are more than 2-million skateboarding videos on YouTube with many featuring over 5-million views each.
24. Skateparks are flexible in design and can work in many different size plots.
Donald, Oregon features one of the nation’s most well-known skateparks. It is 2,500 square feet, cost $35,000 to build, and serves a town population of 750 residents. Yet it attracts celebrity skateboarders and others from across the nation.
25. The skatepark will be a place to go after school.
For skaters, the skatepark provides a third place in their lives. For the most dedicated skaters they will spend most of their free time at the park. The skatepark will have the amenities necessary for providing a comfortable place for its visitors, including secure places to drop a backpack, set a bottle of water, or just sit and relax.
26. Neighborhood skateparks allow younger skaters to recreate safely close to home.
As a matter of public safety we prefer to have our children recreating close to home or in places that are safe in the public eye. That is why our skateparks should be near where the skaters live.
27. This skatepark effort will turn skaters into community activists.
While some people may consider skateboarders the dregs of society, we will see their passion applied to phases in the process that will rival any other community action group.
28. There are experts who will help our community plan the skatepark.
The people behind the world’s most successful skateparks are available to help us plan for our own success, and they’re eager to be involved. With so much experience at our disposal we are confident that our new skatepark will be phenomenal.
29. The best time to start the new skatepark is today.
It costs us nothing to begin planning for the new skatepark. However, those plans will become a catalyst for local youth to engage in the civic process. The only thing we need right away is a commitment to mutual collaboration on the new skatepark plans. There is no value in delay.
30. If a city doesn’t have a skatepark, it is a skatepark.
Skateboarding is happening with or without a skatepark. By not supporting our local youth with a skatepark, it doesn’t mean they’ll quit skating. It just means we are putting them at risk of injury and run-ins with law enforcement.
A majority of the deadly accidents that happen to people while they’re skateboarding involve a motor vehicle. In towns and cities across the nation the most interesting terrain for skateboarding is found in the streets and sidewalks. The skatepark will be the safe place to skate but for it to be effective it must be more interesting than what’s out “in the wild.”
2. Skateparks, if designed and constructed correctly, are fiscally conservative and require very little maintenance.
When a skatepark is built correctly it will require virtually no structural maintenance for years. The nation’s oldest skateparks have been servicing skateboarders for 30 years and most have required little more than cosmetic maintenance. For a skatepark to meet this high expectation it should feature no fixtures; all of the materials used that are intended to be skated on should be fixed into the forms with grout and concrete. (In other words, skateparks that require no maintenance have no kick-plates, screws, bolts, or other components that will loosen through vibration and weather over the years.)
3. Skateboarders are currently under-served in the area.
As a community we understand that we need to support our youth who wish to pursue active, healthy lifestyles. Without community support those groups are required to build their own support systems outside of our community. Do we want to sit by while a significant portion of our youth meet their recreational needs with no support or involvement from our community?
4. Skateboarding has millions of participants nationally and is growing while team sports participation is in decline.
When one considers that skateboarding is the third most popular recreational activity for kids between 6 and 18 years old, it might be assumed there would be skateparks all across our community. We have baseball fields, soccer pitches, jogging paths, and plenty of other places for people to be active. Yet we have no skateparks! It’s time to address the needs of today’s recreational youth.
5. Skateboarding is a 2.5-billion dollar industry.
For decades skateboarding has been on the leading edge of youth marketing. Today it’s serious business with lucrative video games, television shows, and brand names that launch dozens of product lines. With all of this marketing, more kids than ever before are eager to learn to skate. The demand is enormous and skateparks are the place to start.
6. Skateboarders are a vital part of urban communities.
Skateboarding has been a commonplace feature of the urban environment for over 40 years, and a part of American culture since the 1950s. It’s so popular with youth that today there is no city on the planet that doesn’t have it’s own skateboarding group of kids. Our local skateboarders are not part of a fringe group of kids who are into something unique and uncommon.
7. A skatepark can attract skateboarding tourists if designed to do so.
Dozens of skateparks in the United States—and abroad—enjoy a reputation for being places that skaters dream of visiting someday. For skaters, places like Burnside, Kettering, Orcas, Louisville, Black Pearl, Lincoln City, and others share an allure that rivals Disneyland.
8. With national health issues looming for today’s youth, it’s time to offer a greater number of healthy, athletic choices.
You don’t often see obese skateboarders. Lots of skateboarders skate several times a week and often for hours at a time. There is clearly a commitment for these kids to develop their skills, yet they do this without coaches, leagues, and often without even an appropriate place to do it.
9. The low cost to participation makes it accessible to everyone.
Skateboarding is inexpensive and is economically feasible to any family’s financial situation. While hand-me-down equipment is commonplace, even a new skateboard can be purchased for around $60 and last for years if taken care of. That’s all a person needs. There is no additional equipment, no “green fees,” no travel expenses. To get into skateboarding one only needs a skateboard and a place to do it.
10. Thousands of other communities understand the value of skateparks.
If they had the opportunity to do it again, when asked what they might have done differently with their skateparks many Parks directors claim they would have made the skatepark larger. When skateparks are designed to succeed, they succeed wildly. If you contact any Parks Department with a successful skatepark, they will rank it as one of their most popular, well-used facilities. (Seriously, try it!)
11. Skating in a park is much safer than skating in the streets.
In 2006, 42 people riding skateboards died. Of those, 40 of them were not in a skatepark and 27 of those involved a motor vehicle. In other words, of these 42 deaths, 40 of them might have been prevented had the person been skating in a skatepark instead of the streets.
12. Our community already has hundreds, and maybe thousands of skateboarders.
The skatepark visitors are ready to go. We don’t need to wait and hope that patronage emerges over time. They are here now.
13. In the future there are going to be many legitimate places to skate in the city. The time to embark on that positive future is now.
Creating a skatepark in our community is inevitable. It’s only a matter of time before everyone comes to understand the opportunity skateparks represent. There is no reason to delay the investigation any longer. The time to start this process is today…right now.
14. A skatepark is a place where skateboarders and other people who might not cross paths in the street can come together.
Skateparks are social spaces that will attract interest from all parts of our community. In cities across the nation the local skatepark is a landmark that everyone is familiar with. Our skatepark will include amenities that visitors can enjoy so that it’s understood by eveyrone—skaters and onlookers—that we appreciate and support what these kids are doing.
15. Skateparks can displace other less desirable activities in an area.
Skaters love skateboarding. That’s what they’re into. For the dedicated skater, any activity that disrupts their time skateboarding is going to be a problem…and few obstacles will prevent the skater from pursuing it. When skateparks are built in places where there are existing problems—criminal activity, vandalism, and so on—the skaters will serve to displace those people who prefer a remote, secluded environment.
16. The skatepark can be an attraction for family outings.
It is increasingly common to see families skating together. Often, a mother or father that skated in their youth has their interest rekindled when their children get into it. It’s a great way for a family to spend time together yet without requiring a lot of planning, expense, or preparation.
17. Skateboarding is cool and the skatepark will enhance the community’s reputation.
There’s no doubt that skateboarding is often at the center of whatever happens to be popular among today’s youth. For lots of people, spending time at the skatepark will be something cool to do that doesn’t cost any money. For our community, having a great skatepark will serve to show the region that we understand how to engage our young adults.
18. Good skateparks have volunteers to help maintain the facility.
The central members of the skatepark committee will become the stewards of that facility. As skateboarders dedicated to the park, we will work with Parks to host lessons, workshops, and other events. We will be at the skatepark regularly and will protect the facility that we’ve worked so hard for.
19. Skateparks can draw skateboarders away from less appropriate areas.
If we don’t have a skatepark, people will continue to skate wherever there is compelling terrain. We should put the skatepark where we want there to be activity and away from those places where we don’t.
20. Young and old people enjoy skateparks.
Skating has been a part of our culture for more than 50 years. There are skateboarders well into their 50s who still enjoy pushing around a park. The skatepark is a place where the young and old can recreate together as equals. This is important for adult skateboarders but equally important for the younger set.
21. Skateparks support vibrant, healthy communities, just like many other athletic facilities.
Every good skatepark has a group of regular patrons. These people may not know each other socially outside of skateboarding but at the skatepark they are friends and colleagues. The brotherhood of skateboarders has strong bonds that cross economic, geographic, and even language barriers. Skateparks are a great way of starting that kind of social cohesion right here.
22. Skateboarding is mainstream.
With 13-million participants in the U.S., skateboarding can hardly be characterized as a niche group of special users. In fact, skateboarding is as popular (and often more so) than most “all-American” sports. We see skateboarding in commercials. There are television shows about skateboarding and starring famous skaters.
23. Skateboarding is a popular spectator sport.
There are more than 2-million skateboarding videos on YouTube with many featuring over 5-million views each.
24. Skateparks are flexible in design and can work in many different size plots.
Donald, Oregon features one of the nation’s most well-known skateparks. It is 2,500 square feet, cost $35,000 to build, and serves a town population of 750 residents. Yet it attracts celebrity skateboarders and others from across the nation.
25. The skatepark will be a place to go after school.
For skaters, the skatepark provides a third place in their lives. For the most dedicated skaters they will spend most of their free time at the park. The skatepark will have the amenities necessary for providing a comfortable place for its visitors, including secure places to drop a backpack, set a bottle of water, or just sit and relax.
26. Neighborhood skateparks allow younger skaters to recreate safely close to home.
As a matter of public safety we prefer to have our children recreating close to home or in places that are safe in the public eye. That is why our skateparks should be near where the skaters live.
27. This skatepark effort will turn skaters into community activists.
While some people may consider skateboarders the dregs of society, we will see their passion applied to phases in the process that will rival any other community action group.
28. There are experts who will help our community plan the skatepark.
The people behind the world’s most successful skateparks are available to help us plan for our own success, and they’re eager to be involved. With so much experience at our disposal we are confident that our new skatepark will be phenomenal.
29. The best time to start the new skatepark is today.
It costs us nothing to begin planning for the new skatepark. However, those plans will become a catalyst for local youth to engage in the civic process. The only thing we need right away is a commitment to mutual collaboration on the new skatepark plans. There is no value in delay.
30. If a city doesn’t have a skatepark, it is a skatepark.
Skateboarding is happening with or without a skatepark. By not supporting our local youth with a skatepark, it doesn’t mean they’ll quit skating. It just means we are putting them at risk of injury and run-ins with law enforcement.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Its Time To Make Some Changes:
Skateboarding Is Still a Crime, But the Sport Is Admirable
Laura Beth Nielsen
More than 25 years after I met and fell in love with my skateboarder boyfriend-now-husband, skateboarding is still a crime. When he takes our sons Zach, 16, and Skyler, 13, skateboarding in our home town of Evanston, just north of Chicago, they still are met with the possibility of tickets and fines up to $500 for skateboarding in the wrong place. Those wrong places include any municipal garage, parking lot, street, certain sidewalks, and on any planters, curbs, benches, ramps or rails. And yet, with the launch of spring, more skateboarders will be headed outside to practice their sport.
Even more insidiously, my sweet but long-haired kids are subject to the continued supervision, tacit disapproval, and even harassment by police officers, business-owners, and ordinary people for their choice of sport. That is even though it is a sport exemplifying the values of sportsmanship, dedication, perseverance, and determination that we celebrate in hero-athletes like NFL great Joe Flacco and and the college athletes we are watching this week in the NCAA basketball finals.
Skateboarding emerged in the 1960s, developed by surfers for an activity when the ocean waves were no good. It took off and was perceived as a money-making fad by big business in the 1970s. But skateboarding is a profoundly difficult and technical sport, leading many skaters to give up, and institutional backers pulled out. The primary skate magazine,Quarterly Skateboarder, was published from 1964-1965, and was revived in 1975 as Skateboarder only to fail again in the early 1980s.
In the 1970s and '80s, cities enacted ordinances prohibiting skateboarding, skate parks were filled in, and people who had fallen in love with the sport of skateboarding were left with nothing more than their skateboards and the curb in the local grocery store parking lot. And then only until the manager shooed them off his private property. That's when skaters started to create their own culture, networks, and commerce from the ground up.
For the next 50 years, skateboarders developed a largely independent sports industry now estimated to include more than 11 million skaters supporting a $4.8 billion market in the United States alone. The National Skateboarding Association was established in 1981 and the first X Games, which featured skateboarding, were held in 1995. By 2011 the X-games had an estimated U.S. viewership of 37 million and a world-wide audience of 232 million people in 192 countries. Now, even non-skating kids do not remember life before the X-games,Tony Hawk andThrasher Magazine. At least one public school in North Dakota has even added skating to its physical education regimen.
And yet Evanston, like other college towns, will not consider a skate park as part of a new recreation center. No university has a skatepark, though the University of Maine is considering one. A planned skate park in Skokie, Ill., the town adjacent to Evanston, was scrapped despite support from the Chamber of Commerce and Chief of Police.
Because there is a city ordinance prohibiting skateboarding on the street in Evanston, walking down the street with skateboard in hand can lead to a conversation with the police. They ask skaters to fill out "contact cards" in order to create a record of interactions with police -- documents that are, at the very least, constitutionally suspect. Yes, in the summer we can take the train to an outdoor park in Chicago. But in the winter, we are left driving 75 miles to Milwaukee to practice our sport.
Resistance to skateboarding and skateboarders at the local level despite the commercial and corporate success of the sport are astounding. Companies such as Fallen, Anti-hero, SpitFire, and Independent support the sport as well as more mainstream corporations like Vans and Nike.
But I am not just a rabid skate-mom, who wishes my sons could practice their sport closer to home and wear their skate logos without judgment. I also am also a Northwestern University sociologist of law who is trained in participant-observation and makes a living observing and analyzing social interactions.
As any soccer mom, basketball mom or football mom knows, having two kids who practice the sport means I've spent lots (and lots and lots) of time in skate parks all around the United States and parts of Europe. And what I observe is a sport practiced by dedicated and enthusiastic young people who should be admired, not scorned.
Skateboarders are dedicated; they show up to practice, rain, shine, or snow (if they have a place to do it) without a schedule. No coach tells them when to arrive, how long to work, or what the next trick is.
And yet they make progress. Even when the next trick involves staring down a 7-stair jump, dropping into a bowl that secretly terrifies their mom, or trying a 360 flip to manual for 12 years before landing it, skaters keep at it.
Skateboarders have a unique community; they teach, coach, learn, practice, and regulate their practice area silently but effectively. If you have ever watched skaters at a skate park, you know that two skaters cannot drop into the bowl at the same time. Avoiding collision in the bowl is crucial to avoid a trip to the hospital. And yet, no queue is formed because everyone wants to start their run from a different place in the park. Somehow, an unspoken arrangement plays out where everyone gets their turn.
When newer skaters show up who don't yet know the arrangement, they are gently guided, then chided about how to assess the park and determine whose turn is next. Better skaters coach weaker skaters saying things like, "your weight needs to be forward," "bend your knees more," or just, "try man." No one thinks twice if the more advanced skater is 8 years old and the skater getting the advice is 45.
Skaters are independent and self-sufficient; the sport is built on American principles we hold dear. It is practiced by independent trail blazers with unshakable belief in their athleticism and their sport. They gently enforce a set of guidelines for the benefit of the greater whole with the elders firmly but fairly guiding the next generation.
Despite these admirable qualities and the development of a sport that everyone wants to watch on television, communities still refuse to support this sport and skaters continue to be viewed as trouble. Skate institutions (like my own family's summer home away from home,Lake Owen Camp), are shutting down. Police stop skaters while business owners and citizens shoo away these athletes with thinly veiled threats. .
To be sure, some skaters want to be perceived as outsiders. Rebellion is part of the allure of the sport. But this edge has emerged because of the continued wholesale rejection of the sport and its athletes. And, despite the stereotype, skateboarders are no more likely to smoke pot than any other teenage boys.
It's time to make some changes. When a skater is practicing on a curb or stairwell, stop and admire his or her grace and athleticism. Compliment the trick. If your baby is sleeping or you are in a meeting and the noise is bothering you, consider explaining this to skaters rather than simply yelling, "I'm calling the cops!" Then, encourage your city to build a skate park (or at least don't protest it) because, as the skaters will tell you, "if your town does not have a skate park, then your town is a skate park."
Laura Beth Nielsen is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Law at Northwestern University, Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation and a Public Voices Fellow through The OpEd Project. She can skate flat in heels, roll into a bowl, and never, ever pushes mongo.
Laura Beth Nielsen
More than 25 years after I met and fell in love with my skateboarder boyfriend-now-husband, skateboarding is still a crime. When he takes our sons Zach, 16, and Skyler, 13, skateboarding in our home town of Evanston, just north of Chicago, they still are met with the possibility of tickets and fines up to $500 for skateboarding in the wrong place. Those wrong places include any municipal garage, parking lot, street, certain sidewalks, and on any planters, curbs, benches, ramps or rails. And yet, with the launch of spring, more skateboarders will be headed outside to practice their sport.
Even more insidiously, my sweet but long-haired kids are subject to the continued supervision, tacit disapproval, and even harassment by police officers, business-owners, and ordinary people for their choice of sport. That is even though it is a sport exemplifying the values of sportsmanship, dedication, perseverance, and determination that we celebrate in hero-athletes like NFL great Joe Flacco and and the college athletes we are watching this week in the NCAA basketball finals.
Skateboarding emerged in the 1960s, developed by surfers for an activity when the ocean waves were no good. It took off and was perceived as a money-making fad by big business in the 1970s. But skateboarding is a profoundly difficult and technical sport, leading many skaters to give up, and institutional backers pulled out. The primary skate magazine,Quarterly Skateboarder, was published from 1964-1965, and was revived in 1975 as Skateboarder only to fail again in the early 1980s.
In the 1970s and '80s, cities enacted ordinances prohibiting skateboarding, skate parks were filled in, and people who had fallen in love with the sport of skateboarding were left with nothing more than their skateboards and the curb in the local grocery store parking lot. And then only until the manager shooed them off his private property. That's when skaters started to create their own culture, networks, and commerce from the ground up.
For the next 50 years, skateboarders developed a largely independent sports industry now estimated to include more than 11 million skaters supporting a $4.8 billion market in the United States alone. The National Skateboarding Association was established in 1981 and the first X Games, which featured skateboarding, were held in 1995. By 2011 the X-games had an estimated U.S. viewership of 37 million and a world-wide audience of 232 million people in 192 countries. Now, even non-skating kids do not remember life before the X-games,Tony Hawk andThrasher Magazine. At least one public school in North Dakota has even added skating to its physical education regimen.
And yet Evanston, like other college towns, will not consider a skate park as part of a new recreation center. No university has a skatepark, though the University of Maine is considering one. A planned skate park in Skokie, Ill., the town adjacent to Evanston, was scrapped despite support from the Chamber of Commerce and Chief of Police.
Because there is a city ordinance prohibiting skateboarding on the street in Evanston, walking down the street with skateboard in hand can lead to a conversation with the police. They ask skaters to fill out "contact cards" in order to create a record of interactions with police -- documents that are, at the very least, constitutionally suspect. Yes, in the summer we can take the train to an outdoor park in Chicago. But in the winter, we are left driving 75 miles to Milwaukee to practice our sport.
Resistance to skateboarding and skateboarders at the local level despite the commercial and corporate success of the sport are astounding. Companies such as Fallen, Anti-hero, SpitFire, and Independent support the sport as well as more mainstream corporations like Vans and Nike.
But I am not just a rabid skate-mom, who wishes my sons could practice their sport closer to home and wear their skate logos without judgment. I also am also a Northwestern University sociologist of law who is trained in participant-observation and makes a living observing and analyzing social interactions.
As any soccer mom, basketball mom or football mom knows, having two kids who practice the sport means I've spent lots (and lots and lots) of time in skate parks all around the United States and parts of Europe. And what I observe is a sport practiced by dedicated and enthusiastic young people who should be admired, not scorned.
Skateboarders are dedicated; they show up to practice, rain, shine, or snow (if they have a place to do it) without a schedule. No coach tells them when to arrive, how long to work, or what the next trick is.
And yet they make progress. Even when the next trick involves staring down a 7-stair jump, dropping into a bowl that secretly terrifies their mom, or trying a 360 flip to manual for 12 years before landing it, skaters keep at it.
Skateboarders have a unique community; they teach, coach, learn, practice, and regulate their practice area silently but effectively. If you have ever watched skaters at a skate park, you know that two skaters cannot drop into the bowl at the same time. Avoiding collision in the bowl is crucial to avoid a trip to the hospital. And yet, no queue is formed because everyone wants to start their run from a different place in the park. Somehow, an unspoken arrangement plays out where everyone gets their turn.
When newer skaters show up who don't yet know the arrangement, they are gently guided, then chided about how to assess the park and determine whose turn is next. Better skaters coach weaker skaters saying things like, "your weight needs to be forward," "bend your knees more," or just, "try man." No one thinks twice if the more advanced skater is 8 years old and the skater getting the advice is 45.
Skaters are independent and self-sufficient; the sport is built on American principles we hold dear. It is practiced by independent trail blazers with unshakable belief in their athleticism and their sport. They gently enforce a set of guidelines for the benefit of the greater whole with the elders firmly but fairly guiding the next generation.
Despite these admirable qualities and the development of a sport that everyone wants to watch on television, communities still refuse to support this sport and skaters continue to be viewed as trouble. Skate institutions (like my own family's summer home away from home,Lake Owen Camp), are shutting down. Police stop skaters while business owners and citizens shoo away these athletes with thinly veiled threats. .
To be sure, some skaters want to be perceived as outsiders. Rebellion is part of the allure of the sport. But this edge has emerged because of the continued wholesale rejection of the sport and its athletes. And, despite the stereotype, skateboarders are no more likely to smoke pot than any other teenage boys.
It's time to make some changes. When a skater is practicing on a curb or stairwell, stop and admire his or her grace and athleticism. Compliment the trick. If your baby is sleeping or you are in a meeting and the noise is bothering you, consider explaining this to skaters rather than simply yelling, "I'm calling the cops!" Then, encourage your city to build a skate park (or at least don't protest it) because, as the skaters will tell you, "if your town does not have a skate park, then your town is a skate park."
Laura Beth Nielsen is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Law at Northwestern University, Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation and a Public Voices Fellow through The OpEd Project. She can skate flat in heels, roll into a bowl, and never, ever pushes mongo.
Skatepark Advocacy Inspires Casselberry Youth
Seeing the issue of advocating for a skatepark in Casselberry, Florida inspire a couple of teens to spend the day traveling through the neighborhood seeking supporters for the SKATE 32707 petition is nothing short of uplifting.
Active sports like skateboarding and BMX teach lessons that translate well to real world success and they are clearly evidenced here as well.
To get the attention of our elected officials at Casselberry City Hall, SKATE 32707 is going to make the issue of bringing a skatepark to Casselberry top of mind until there is positive movement towards that goal.
Despite being given an initial answer of "show us support for the idea"; despite clear & obvious support, the goal line was moved forward without any clear or achievable finish line. Instead, our request became the catalyst for the creation of a Parks Master Plan, something the city has not had nor studied since 2005.
No different than learning the next trick on a skateboard or bike, we're going to stay focused, continue to work & persevere. We know this: its not if a skatepark will be built, its a matter of when.
The kids of Casselberry deserve their own place where they can enjoy skateboarding and BMX. Its tiem to get them off the streets and into a park.
With determination and focus like the kind displayed by our youthful supporters today, we will succeed in seeing our goal achieved.
Active sports like skateboarding and BMX teach lessons that translate well to real world success and they are clearly evidenced here as well.
To get the attention of our elected officials at Casselberry City Hall, SKATE 32707 is going to make the issue of bringing a skatepark to Casselberry top of mind until there is positive movement towards that goal.
Despite being given an initial answer of "show us support for the idea"; despite clear & obvious support, the goal line was moved forward without any clear or achievable finish line. Instead, our request became the catalyst for the creation of a Parks Master Plan, something the city has not had nor studied since 2005.
No different than learning the next trick on a skateboard or bike, we're going to stay focused, continue to work & persevere. We know this: its not if a skatepark will be built, its a matter of when.
The kids of Casselberry deserve their own place where they can enjoy skateboarding and BMX. Its tiem to get them off the streets and into a park.
With determination and focus like the kind displayed by our youthful supporters today, we will succeed in seeing our goal achieved.
Friday, April 17, 2015
Support for Casselberry Skatepark Building
The idea may have only recently risen to the top, but in a month's time community support is growing.
Almost daily, signs of support are springing up in the quiet neighborhoods of Casselberry, Florida.
Adults and kids of all ages are excited at the prospect of seeing their sport of choice receiving funding to build a skatepark. As the second fastest growing sport in America, many other cities across the nation have seen the need and applied a policy of equal access to recreation funds beyond so called "traditional sports". As Casselberry, Florida moves forward to improve their city, in hopes of attracting new residents, the addition of facilities like a skatepark for residents who engage in a healthful and active lifestyle will only serve to support that bid.
Almost daily, signs of support are springing up in the quiet neighborhoods of Casselberry, Florida.
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| Support a Skatepark in Casselberry |
Monday, April 6, 2015
Sign Our Petition
SIGN OUR PETITION FOR A CASSELBERRY SKATEPARK
We need community support to leverage the City Commission into action. For years tax dollars have been spent providing facilities for so called "traditional" sports. Most recently, $1.3 Million was spent to complete a one mile bike and walking trail.
A skatepark is needed in Casselberry. Lots of kids are stuck with nowhere to skate because they are unable to travel to nearby cities to enjoy a skatepark.
Its time to change that and bring a skatepark to Casselberry. Support providing our city's youth with a first class facility for their active lifestyle choice.
We need community support to leverage the City Commission into action. For years tax dollars have been spent providing facilities for so called "traditional" sports. Most recently, $1.3 Million was spent to complete a one mile bike and walking trail.
A skatepark is needed in Casselberry. Lots of kids are stuck with nowhere to skate because they are unable to travel to nearby cities to enjoy a skatepark.
Its time to change that and bring a skatepark to Casselberry. Support providing our city's youth with a first class facility for their active lifestyle choice.
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