Just a reminder that there’s a SPAC meeting tonight.  The agenda is below:

Skate Park Advisory Committee Meeting Agenda – May 10, 2010

*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 Skatepark Update

6. River City Skatepark Update

7. Lower Woodland Update and Application for Lights

8. Northgate Redevelopment Update

9. John and Summit and 9th Avenue NW Skate Dot Update

10. Jefferson Park Skatepark Update

11. Sandel Playfield Miniramp

12. Maple Leaf Skatepark

13. Lake City Skatespot

14. SLAG Update

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

This month’s SPAC meeting was plagued with an unusual amount of good news.  I’m not sure how to handle it.

——

It looks like someone forgot to eat breakfast before sitting down in front of Rhino.  At least throw in one of those SeaSk8 bacon strips guys!

Grindline took all of the feedback they gathered from the last meeting, and came up with these delicious new renderings.  Our folks at Parks tell us that these have been vetted through the initial layer of review with the Parks internal design folks, and may only need minor revisions.  Possible problems include the cantilevered slabs (safety), and some minor grading issues.

Features/changes of note include:

• the deathbox/gap theme
• the removal of the cool mini-ramp feature to the West of the bowl section
• the bowl being split into two
• the missing brick-stamped transition wall around the tree
• the apparent solution to the “which way to bend the kidney” problem
• the return of the Bainbridge shallow end (minus the pool block)

The SPAC meeting this Monday will serve as a de-facto feedback session on this new iteration of the design. Feel free to show up to the meeting and provide your input directly, or post it here in the comments section and I will deliver it for you.

The next scheduled meeting for the Seattle Parks and Recreation Skate Park Advisory Committee (SPAC) will be next Monday November 9.  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.  Hope to see you there.

Please note that Parks has just received the Delridge Skatepark revised design package from Grindline Skateparks based on the input received during the last public meeting for this skatepark.  This will be your first chance to review the revised design and provide additional comments.  The SPAC will work with Parks to distribute this design to the community if you cannot make the meeting.

Skate Park Advisory Committee Meeting Agenda – November 9, 2009*Meeting will begin @ 7pm sharp*

1. Approval of Agenda

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

3. Delridge Skatepark – Revised Design Review and Comments

4. Dahl Playfield Skate Dot Update

5. SeaSk8 Update

6. River City Status

7. Lower Woodland – Lights?

8. Northgate Redevelopment Update

9. John and Summit Skate Dot Update

10. SLAG Update

Come get the latest info on Seattle skatepark developments, and find opportunities to get involved.

The meeting is at 100 Dexter, in the Parks Department headquarters.

Skate Park Advisory Committee Meeting Agenda – September 14, 2009

*Meeting will begin @ 7pm sharp*

1. Approval of Agenda

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

3. Delridge Skatepark – Funding Status and Design Path Forward

4. Parks for All Levy – Skatepark Projects Path Forward

5. Dahl Playfield Skate Dot Update

6. SeaSk8 Update

7. River City Status

8. Lower Woodland – Outstanding Items?

9. Northgate Redevelopment Update

10. John and Summit Skate Dot Update

11. SLAG Update

12.  Skatepark Construction – Special Construction Legislation Path Forward

Seattle artist Perri Lynch was pretty stoked to be chosen as the artist to work on SeaSk8′s art component.  She’s probably ecstatic now that her art has been installed, but we don’t know that for sure because she’s somewhere in India.  Who knows…maybe she’s looking at these pictures to see how things went.

I can report that, yes, the art is installed.  I can also confirm that it is definitely awesome.  Can you guess what the images are that are imposed on the glass?  (The Space Needle is a reflection)

The park is still closed, as there is more pouring and finishing to do.  (note: someone has already posted evidence of a poaching mission).  However, Shaggy and SPAC friend Justin tested out the glass wall and gave it the thumbs-up:  “It’s like skating a dusty masonite ramp.  It’s slippery, but it’s doable.”

Both dudes got about half-way up the glass wall, but were getting another 3-4 feet higher on the concrete vert wall to the North of the glass.  They were both kicking from the SW corner of the park, which is pretty much the farthest you can get away from the glass.  It seemed like Shaggy was getting more speed by coming off the steeper banked side and cutting over, but like I said they both reached about the same altitude.  There was a little barking coming from the wheels against the glass, but for the most part it was silent.  Justin said “it was like skating on ice”.

Go forth young lunatics.  Reach for the skies.  But please wait until the park is open, because if not you will be kicked out, and possibly arrested.

Check out the comprehensive wind-up of last meeting’s SPAC meeting over at the WSB. There isn’t much that I can really add to it.

I will say that it’s a testament to all fo the hard work that the Delridge community has put into this park, that we had not only such a stellar turnout of community members last night, but that the Superintendent and Planning Director are so supportive of the project.

There were lots of other important issues discussed at the meeting.  I’ll post the minutes as soon as possible.

Photo credit: West Seattle Blog

It’s still very early, and none of this is set in stone yet, but SPAC Chair Ryan Barth and I met with Tim Gallagher and Susan Golub from Parks yesterday to discuss funding for the Delridge Skatepark.

As the WSB reported a few weeks ago, the Parks Board announced that several projects had bids that came in way under projections, and that there would actually be a surplus of funds available.  They said they would be interested in using these funds for the Delridge skatepark, and yesterday the Superintendent confirmed that this was what could happen if skaters can generate enough support amongst the Parks Board.  Right now, the funding they are thinking about allocating to Delridge is $500K, but there is more available.

It may surprise you, but that’s not enough to construct a park the size of a typical Skatespot as defined by the Citywide Skatepark Plan.  So the next step may be to shift the Myrtle Reservoir skatedot funding from the Parks For All Levy to Delridge.  If you’ve been following skatepark advocacy in Seattle at any point over the last few years, you know that a few loud voices came out to the Myrtle Reservoir meetings and scared Parks enough to put the skatedot plans for that site on hold.   It will take City Council approval, but this seems likely to happen based on my experience and a good line of communication between skatepark advocates and the City Council.  The amount currently designated for the Myrtle skatedot is $250K.

The remaining issue, which has been ongoing for a while now, is the overall size of the Delridge skatepark.  The Superintendent told me yesterday that the amount of funds that would be pulled from the surplus would be gauged by the size of the park being designed.  The problem with this is that the size of the park was reduced to 10K sq/ft because they didn’t know what the construction budget was going to be.

So now we’re in a position where we’re being allocated money based on a design that was based on the fact that we didn’t have any money!

I’ve been beating this drum for a while now, and was afraid this would come back to bite us.  What we need to do right now is to start making our case to Parks and the Parks Board that the skatepark’s size was determined in the absence of a construction budget, and needs to be re-evaluated now that funding is available.  This needs to happen before the design process is complete, which is in essence, next week.

Here’s why Delridge needs to be larger:

• This park will be West Seattle’s first and only skatepark for sometime, and there are a lot of skateboarders in West Seattle.  This 10K sq/ft park will quickly become crowded and overrun, creating safety issues for skateboarders, and putting undue pressure on the facility’s surroundings.

• There is some room to expand the design, not drastically mind you, but there is potential for 4-6K sq/ft of additional space that would make a huge difference.  We’re not asking for the world here.  This request is reasonable.

• The design is somewhat cramped by the 10K sq/ft limitation set by Parks on this site.  Skateboarders would greatly benefit from a less condensed design, with more room to spread out.  The community would also benefit by having a more aesthetically pleasing and better integrated skatepark.

I will be making these points at the next SkatePark Advisory Committee meeting, which is on Monday the 11th, at 7pm, in the Parks HQ at 100 Dexter. Superintendent Gallagher will be there, along with the Delridge Project Manager Kelly Davidson, and Planning Manager Kevin Stoops.  This will be a great time to give Kelly the community support she needs to add some needed square footage to the design, by making some public statements during the meeting.  There will also be a committee vote on whether or not the Myrtle funds should be diverted to Delridge.

There will also be a representative from the committee that is working on an impressive piece of skateable public art for the skatepark, to report on that project’s progress.

This is an important meeting for the Delridge Skatepark!

Please consider coming to the SPAC meeting to show your support, and drag along other folks from the community to join you.

Thanks!

Due to schedule conflicts the next meeting for the Seattle Parks and Recreation Skate Park Advisory Committee (SPAC) has been delayed a week and the meeting will be on Tuesday January 20.  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.

Hope to see you all there.   I will follow up later next week with another reminder.

Ryan Barth
Chairperson, Skate Park Advisory Committee

Skate Park Advisory Committee Meeting Agenda – January 20, 2008

*Meeting will begin @ 7pm sharp*

1.      Approval of Agenda

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

3.      Dahl Playfield Skatepark Update

4.      SeaSk8 Update – Contractor Selected and Programming/Management

5.      River City Status

6.      Delridge Skatepark Status

7.      Lower Woodland – Outstanding Items?

8.      Northgate Redevelopment Update

9.      John and Summit Skate Dot Update

10.  Proposition 2 Skatepark Funds

11. Roosevelt Skate Dot Update

11. Wall of Death Skate Spot Update

12. SLAG Update