Here are the much-requested dimensional specs for the Delridge design.  (click the image for a larger/almost actually readable version)  Remember, you must get your feedback posted here by November 20th to have it considered.

Some helpful details:

· The long low wall/ledge that sits on the grass (see first attachment figure) between the skatepark and the benches may be moved to the southern edge of the skatepark so we get a barrier (requested by folks in Parks) that is skateable.
· The egg bowl is 10 ft deep with a foot of vert and the shallow is 6 ft deep
· The flow bowl shallow end (looks like a U) will be between 3 to 4 ft deep and the remainder of the flow bowl except the extension will be between 5 and 6 feet.  The extension will be 7 ft and just hit vert.
· The brick stamped area will be similar to Bellevue bank except smaller height.

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.

This kind of crap has happened so many times with skateparks in Seattle, I can’t find the energy to write about it anymore.  So I’ll just point you over to the fine folks at the West Seattle Blog, who have covered it (and will continue to) quite nicely.

Remember folks, it ain’t a skatepark until you’re rollin’ on it.

Update:  Council member Rasmussen chimes in with his support.

When we were losing the Ballard Bowl (V1), a bunch of us went and volunteered at the Ballard community clean-up day.  We grabbed hedge sheers, rakes, paint brushes, and got to work.  This immediately earned us respect from the non-skating members of the neighborhood who wanted to support us but were a little unsure.  It allowed people to see skaters as simply another part of their community, instead of this insular self-serving special interest group.  But most importantly, it allowed me to take my sheers over to where the Mayor was pruning, and really put him on the spot about what was going on with the skatepark situation.  I think he took me more seriously when I had a giant sharp implement in my hand!

Well here is a very similar opportunity for skaters to show the neighborhood that’s been so supportive and welcoming to them, that they are interested in contributing.  Volunteers are needed to help build the  playground at the Delridge Community Center. Funding depends on the  neighborhood being able to commit a certain number of people.

You should send an email by July 2nd to helpdelridgeplay@gmail.com if  you can help.

Friday, July 17th
6:30 am to 2:00 pm

No special skills are needed, except for an  ability to wake up early and take the day off work, possibly.

There will be edible gardening preparation,  painting, and other fun activities other than strictly building. Come bond  with your neighbors and help improve the area.

There will also be an art wall that they are hoping people will want to help paint.

Please show up and let Delridge know you’re down for more than just yourself.

Tonight Grindline unveiled the most recent design concepts for the Delridge skatepark, and it’s distinguishing feature may just be an actual living tree.  Yes that’s right…a tree.  One skatepark opponent at the Myrtle Reservoir meeting said, “I’m here to speak for the Earth, and we should preserve the green space in this park by not adding any more concrete.”  Well it seems that the Earth and skateboarding can co-exist, as evidenced by these images courtesy of Grindline.

Photo courtesy of the West Seattle Blog

Make sure to get over to the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center tonight at 6:30pm, to see the Grindline vision for the park, and provide your input for the final design.

The design has not officially been unveiled, although Micah was showing it at Delridge Day, and you can kind of see it here in this photo.

Personally, I would like to see more intermediate features integrated into a flow area that fills the hole in the middle. This park is going to be heavily used, and everyone who wants to skate transition is going to crowd the bowl without something else.

Regardless, please show up and contribute to the next Seattle skatepark.

As a part of the upcoming Delridge Day event at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, this Saturday May 30th, there will be some skate action in the parking lot.

Chances are, you will be able to convince Micah into showing you the final design if you turn up at this.  But the better wager is that you will have a great time watching a bunch of kids compete for free stuff.

Delridge Day is also a great opportunity for West Seattle skateboarders to get involved and educated about the community that they will be skating in everyday.  The Delridge community has been overwhelmingly welcoming of the skateboard community, including efforts by non-skaters in the neighborhood to reach out to skaters and actively learn about skateboarding and skate culture.

But this is a two way street.  The skateboarders really need to reciprocate by not only showing up to participate the skate event, but also by walking around and getting engaged in all of the great things that the Delridge community has to offer.

Skaters:  go to this event to meet and engage with your new neighbors.

Last night the Parks Levy Oversight Committee voted unanimously to shift the $250K allocated by the Parks For All Levy to the Myrtle skatespot, to help fund the Delridge project.  Which, pretty much completes the funding picture for the Delridge project.

The downside of this is that the angry neighbors who called skaters “degenerates”, “drug dealers”, “thieves”, and even accused them of defacing a monument to fallen soldiers in Olympia in a public meeting, were successful in keeping a neighborhood skatespot from being built.  The kids in the Myrtle neighborhood will now have to travel all the way to Delridge to skate.

The upshot is that no kids will have to enjoy their healthy recreational sport of choice in the vicinity of adults that clearly fear and despise young people so much that they’re willing to demean them to their faces.

Thanks Myrtle neighbors!  I hope you enjoy your new homeless camp/cell tower farm/jungle gym #5000/place where teenagers are going to have nothing to do so they’ll be doing all the things you don’t like them doing anyway.

You win at life.  Congrats.

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!