Say hello to your new Seattle skatepark, to be built this Spring:

Photo: SPS

Every once in a while (what I presume is) a BMX rider will send me an email, or post some asinine message in the comments about how skaters are (insult X) and how totally rad BMX riders should just be allowed to ride in Seattle skateparks.  They’re always rife with misspellings, insults, and in reality are probably written by young kids which is fine.  At least I hope so.

Anyway, I finally got a level-headed letter about this topic that compelled me to respond due to the honest question by a parent who lives near the new Delridge park location:

Hello,

I live in Delridge 3 blocks from the park. My son is 9 years old, goes to Pathfinder School. There are lots of young boys and girls in the “hood”.

I own a local Bicycle Repair shop.

I support ANYTHING for kids. Our shop is not into Skateboards or BMX bikes much. We do love to fix bikes, but leave the boards to Stu at Alki or online.

One of my employees, Max, is really into BMX street. He says that boarders and bikers are compatable. He also says that newer plastic bike parts (pegs and pedals, spoke guards, chainring guards, etc.) are skate park friendly and don’t damage the park.

So I was wondering why Skaters and BMX riders don’t join forces? Kids these days are pretty cool and I know they would take turns and show respect.
I don’t see a conflict. I also often wonder why it is painted “No Bikes” on the Marginal Way “park”.

Here is my response:

Hi (name withheld),

Thanks for asking this question. I get emails about this all the time but they are usually in the form of nasty hate mail from bikers.

There are definitely some parks that seem to have found a happy medium between bike and skateboard use in the same park. Those communities should be applauded for making it work. Maintenance and park damage is a concern, but in Seattle and in the majority of skateparks, mixed use simply does not work for one primary reason: we don’t have enough skateparks in Seattle so they’re always very crowded, which makes riding bikes in skateparks dangerous for skateboarders.

There has been a ton of discussion on this topic amongst skatepark advocates in Seattle and elsewhere on the internet. Skateboarders do not hate bikers or anything like that. In fact, many skateboarders are cyclists as well. We’ve had forums in the SPAC meetings that have addressed this issue, with BMX riders involved, and the outcome has always been until we have enough facilities for the underserved skateboarding population in Seattle, the parks will be too crowded for mixed use creating a dangerous confluence of lines and riding styles within the park, and therefore bikes should not be allowed.

All one has to do is go to Lower Woodland skatepark on a day when there are 10 BMX riders disobeying the “no bikes” rule. What they will see is younger and less experienced skaters leaving the park immediately, and the more experienced skaters shifting over to the one advanced bowl that the bikers seem to not want to use. The skateboarders of Seattle fought hard for four years to get that park built, only to then be displaced by 10 BMX riders who were not around during the tough times of getting over the political and bureaucratic hurdles in order to make that skatepark a reality.

To make things worse, when the park is full of skaters and the bikers show up making things sketchy for skaters, they don’t respond well to being asked to respect the rules and leave. In fact, they’ve been real dicks about it on almost every occasion.

This is not to say that I haven’t skated at Lower Woodland and at other skateparks harmoniously with bikers. It works well when the bikers are aware of the issues, respectful of everyone else in the park, and have enough common sense to stop riding if it gets too crowded and they become a safety threat to the other users of the park. Unfortunately these riders are the minority in Seattle skateparks.

Below, I’ve attached a link to what I think is a really sane and balanced view on mixed use and how it can work, or when it doesn’t. Personally, I would really like to see the BMX riders in Seattle get a place of their own, but despite the encouragement and countless offers from the SPAC to help them get organized, no bikers have stepped up to get their hands dirty and do the work that’s required. It seems as though they just want to ride the coattails of the skateboards in Seattle and continue to displace skaters in the parks that skaters worked so hard to get.

Check out this SPS Article on mixed use skateparks.

Hopefully we can get to a place in Seattle where mixed use can become a reality, but it’s going to take a lot more effort from the BMX riders to make it happen in my opinion.

MLJ

Robert Nellams, who heads up the Seattle Center, recently presented the state of things down at Seattle Center.  It turns out, that SeaSk8 was one of the highlights of 2009!

What was really great though, was how positive his impressions are about skateparks now that the park has been on the campus for some time now.  Something that Nellams and others at Seattle Center weren’t super sure about when we originally suggested it.

Check out 84:00 to hear Executive Director Robert Nellams giving major props to the Seattle skateboarding community as a result of his experience with SeaSk8.  He says, “I believe that the skateboarding community gets a raw deal”…”(SeaSk8) is a great…I will repeat this… is a great addition to Seattle Center.

This is a huge win for skateboarders in Seattle, and a great testament to the work that was done by SPAC and most notably John Carr and Ryan Barth on the SeaSk8 project.

Too bad there’s no bowl!  (ha ha just kidding…)

Funding passed the committee of one, and we are on to the full council vote next week.

Skip to 109:00 for the skatepark discussion.

Meet me at the Skylark for a celebratory beer tonight?

The meeting will be in the usual location in the Parks and Recreation Building located at 100 Dexter North, Seattle, WA 98109.  The current draft of the meeting agenda is pasted below.  Sorry for the late notice.  This date crept up sooner than expected given the holidays.

As always, please check www.seattleskateparks.org <http://www.seattleskateparks.org/> for more information.

Skate Park Advisory Committee Meeting Agenda – January 11, 2009

*Meeting will begin @ 7pm sharp*

1. Approval of Agenda

2. Public Comments (limited to 2 minutes per individual)

3. Delridge Skatepark Update

4. Dahl Playfield Skate Dot Update

5. SeaSk8 Update

6. River City Update

7. Lower Woodland Update and Application for Lights

8. Northgate Redevelopment Update

9. John and Summit Skate Dot Update

10. Jefferson Park Skatepark Update

11. Parks and SPAC Communications Regarding Upcoming Projects

12. SLAG Update

I don’t think anyone expects this to be Seattle’s next big thing, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to get skated.  These photos come courtesy of Seattle Parks Department, and don’t really show a lot of the stuff you want to see, but I’m sure there will be some more very soon.  Please send them in if you get some, and I’ll try to get some myself next week.  And before you freak out, the ledges at the bottom of the stairs are at the edge of the park, and are meant to control traffic and rogue board action.

Scott posted up some pictures of the first pour at Dahl playfield over at SPS.

It’s a small beginner-level park, and mostly street, which is exactly what this neighborhood needs.   Hopefully the relatively unknown contractor doesn’t blow it.

The City Council vote that was supposed to put the Delridge construction funding into play has been delayed until January.  The reasoning for this as explained by Susan Golub from Seattle Parks:

The Delridge skatepark funding ordinance is at the City Council.  The Council staff person assigned to review it was slammed with work, and there were a couple of solely technical corrections that needed to be made… so, the bill will be the first item before the Parks Committee in January.  The staff person had no substantive issues, the technical corrections have been made, so it should be smooth sailing.  The delay until January on the funding ordinance will not have an impact on the project schedule.

It’s entirely conceivable that there were higher priorities than the Delridge funding, and Parks has assured me that the construction can still start in the Spring if the funding comes through in January.  The only real concern I can see is that the committee that will be voting on this funding is now going to be chaired by new council member Sally Bagshaw, with whom skatepark advocates have never met.  I’m also curious about what these technical corrections were, and why the details about them weren’t communicated to us.  I’m only concerned because sometimes there are underlying issues that aren’t outed for political reasons and there could be some risk here that we don’t know about.

The plan is for Ryan, Scott and I to head down to the meeting in January where they’re voting on this funding so we can introduce her to the SPAC and the Citywide Skatepark Plan.  I’m buying the first round of beers when this funding goes through.  This design process has been stressful.

I personally find Skate Like A Girl to be the single most positive movement in the Seattle skateboarding scene.  As an organization they’re involved, supportive, and effective.  As people, they’re golden.  Most people don’t realize that they’ve been the main community builders down at the new SeaSk8, even during times when a few a-holes threatened to ruin it for everyone down there.  It’s not a question of whether or not you should support them, it’s when.

Here’s an idea:  SLAG is hosting the second Wheels of Fortune contest at Skatebarn in Renton, on Sunday December 20th.  Why not go down there and cheer on the skaters, buy a T-shirt, and show your support while having a great time?

Or…maybe you’re interested in competing.  Here’s the Registration form.

There has been a skatepark in the plan for Jefferson Park’s mega-redesign since at least 2002 when the “final” site plan was published as a result of funding from the last Seattle parks levy.  Well now it looks like this.  The new Parks For All levy brings $1M for a skatepark project in this much needed area of the city, which has nothing to offer in terms of safe and accessible (official) public skateable terrain.

There is also a $10K donation from Sub Pop records that’s just waiting for someone to get the design process started.  But guess what?  No one has stepped up to make it happen.  Boo. The lawn bowling area?  Yeah, that has a group of people behind it.  Someone even stepped up to make sure that the squirrels have a place to store their nuts (okay I made that up…but c’mon skaters!)

On December 1st, there’s going to be a meeting about the overall expansion of the park, and it’s really important that someone shows up to support the skatepark part of the project.  If you live in that area, and you would like to see your one million ten thousand dollar skatepark not suck, or better yet, actually happen….then please turn out to the meeting and get involved.

Shoot me an email if you need more info, encouragement, or help getting plugged into the ultra-gratifying world of skatepark advocacy.