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!

Hey look!  It’s good news!

The West Seattle Blog just reported this in thier wind-up from the Parks Board meeting last night:

“Bids for parks projects are coming in under budget — including Hiawatha Playfield artificial turf and track improvements (9 bids, it was noted tonight, all below the engineer’s estimate of $1.6 million, one as low as $1.1 million!). With this climate for bids, the Parks Department has new hope for unfunded projects, including the Delridge Skatepark, which is said to be #1 on the list. Design of the skatepark – set for the northeast corner of the park next to Delridge Community Center – had proceeded, but construction money didn’t make it into the city budget – even before the latest round of cuts and revenue-forecast revisions. We’ll follow up on what tonight’s news means for the project.”

Micah Shapiro from Grindline presents the goods.

Despite the immediate lack of construction funding, the Delridge community came out in force to support and participate in the design process for the proposed skatepark in their neighborhood.

The meeting started with a nice intro and overview from Parks’ Kelly Davidson, which ended with a reminder that the Parks Department is actively looking for ways to fund the project.  One option she proposed, was applying for the opportunity funds in the upcoming Parks Levy.  But the outlook for breaking ground is still 2010 at best, and that’s if one of the few options available for skatepark funding develops into actual cash.  Kelly reminded everyone that they should be actively lobbying the City Council to keep the project in the forefront of their minds.

Next up was Nancy Folsom, a neighbor who lives across the street from the park, and Randy Engstrom, executive director of Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, to discuss the public art piece of the project.  Randy and his team secured a grant to pay for a parallell process that will focus on building an art component of the skatepark.  The skatepark site is right at the NE corner of the park that is often seen as the gateway to the Delridge neighborhood, so the neighbors would love to have a showcase piece of public art that welcomes you into the neighborhood and the skatepark.  They presented the process, Nancy had some conceptual images for what the art could look like, and they were collecting signatures from anyone who wanted to be involved.

At that point the Abbotswood/Grindline team took the stage and presented a pretty long and exciting video that showcased a lot of Grindline parks, and highlighted the company’s West Seattle history.  After the video, there was a short PowerPoint presentation that gave the audience a very quick and shallow overview of the Abbotswood/Grindline design methodology, some examples of what makes a successful skatepark, and an evaluation of the current site.

Some details emerged last night that were previously unknown, primarily the target footprint size which is now 10,000 sq/ft.  This is down a bit from the original plan, largely due to the limited funds available for the design process.  The upside is that the conceptual images that Micah showed with a 10K skatepark at the site seemed to look like a good fit.  He also showed some similarly sized parks like Yakima that looked like they managed to fit a lot of fun terrain into that footprint.

Finally there was a short design charette where people broke into tables and discussed ideas for the new park.  There was a diverse group of skaters at the meeting, and it seemed like some of the street vs. transition conflict that’s plagued other skatepark design meetings in Seattle was not present at Delridge.  Everyone seemed like they agreed that there should be a good mix, and that all skill levels should be served.  Some of the ideas that came up were:  a snake run, rebuilding the legendary Schmitz Park bowl that started it all, actual vert in the bowl, a signature feature that is recognizable, a 10ft deep end, multiple types of coping, and much more…

The big take-away from the night was how many people showed up, and how diverse the crowd was.  The room was completely full, and it contained multiple generations of skaters, non-skating neighbors, community artists interested in the arts component of the project, and all of the West Seattle local media.  The Delridge skatepark process continues to be an exemplary model of a community all getting behind a skatepark project, and taking an active role in the process to help make it a positive amenity for the entire neighborhood.

Now if there was only funding….

It’ll be interesting to see what Grindline brings to the table since we’re not sure how much money will be available when it comes time to build the park.  Usually designers use a budget number as a design anchor.  There have been rumors of asking the City Council to amend the recently passed parks levy to move the money from the Myrtle Reservoir park to Delridge.  Frankly, after meeting the people that live around that park, I’d prefer not to hang out there.

Show up to this meeting and make sure when the park gets built, you will want to skate it.

——-

NEWS RELEASE
Gregory J. Nickels, Mayor
Timothy Gallagher, Superintendent
www.seattle.gov/parks

For immediate release                                                   January 6, 2009

Contact:         Karen O’Connor  -  206-233-7929
Karen.o’connor@seattle.gov

PARKS TO HOLD SECOND PUBLIC MEETING
FOR DELRIDGE PLAYFIELD SKATEPARK

SeattleParksand Recreation will host the second of three public
meetings for a skatepark at Delridge Playfield on Wednesday, January 14,
2009from 6 – 8 p.m.at YoungstownCulturalArtsCenter.
YoungstownCulturalArtsCenteris located at 4408 Delridge Way SW,
SeattleWA98106. This meeting will discuss the scope of work for the
design of a skatepark at the Delridge Playfield.

The first meeting focused on prioritizing the best location for the
skatepark within the Delridge Playfield. The design consultant will
present proposed site plans and gather ideas from the community in the
second and third meeting.

In June 2006, a host of citizens and city departments, including
SeattleParksand Recreation, the Seattle Department of Transportation,
the Portof Seattleand the SeattleSchool District, nominated 130 sites
throughout the city for the Skatepark Advisory Council to analyze as
potential locations for skate facilities.  The Delridge Playfield was
selected as a park site because it met most of the selection criteria
and because it is already an active site.

For more information visit the web site:
www.seattle.gov/parks/maintenance/DelridgeSkatePark.htm or contact
Parks Project Manager Kelly Davidson at 206-684-0998 or
kelly.davidson@seattle.gov.

Here is the official response to the SPAC’s earlier letter, from Parks Superintendent Timothy Gallagher on the Delridge funding situation.  It’s not pretty, but I’m not sure anyone could have made a difference here.  I have to say…  Timothy Gallagher has brought a refreshing sense of transparency to the the process by responding directly to the skaters and doing his best to understand our point of view.  Too bad we have no money now that we have the support we need.

——-

November 26, 2008

Dear Mr. Barth:

Thank you for writing about the Delridge Skatepark, which Parks and Recreation is developing as an element of our Skatepark Plan Implementation capital project. It was our intention to design this project in 2008 and construct it in 2009.

During budget deliberations, the City found that revenues to the City from real estate excise taxes, which had been earmarked to pay for this work, have been drastically reduced due to the huge reduction in real estate activity. Although we are proceeding with the design work this year, the construction funds were not appropriated in the 2009 capital budget.

Parks regards this budget decision as a delay in the Delridge Skatepark project rather than as a cancellation. We understand the importance of providing facilities that our youth can use to engage in healthy recreational activities. We, too, were very disappointed to have to delay this project, and we still anticipate building it as soon as funding becomes available. We will work hard to make that happen.

Thank you for your continued advocacy on behalf of the skating community.

Sincerely,
Timothy Gallagher
Superintendent, Seattle Parks and Recreation

This Friday December 5th (6pm-10pm…presentation at 8pm) at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, there will be an art show and presentation on skateable art and creative skatepark design, including an exhibition from five amazing Seattle artists:

• Perri Lynch (SeaSk8 artist)
• Jay Meer (Northwest Skatepark mural pioneer)
• Bryan Busalacchi (Nomadic Skateboards)
• John Wold (Grip Tape Art)
• Brennan Coyle (painted skateboard art)

Along with the art exhibition, there will be a presentation on skateable art and skatepark design by Peter Whitley from Skaters for Public Skateparks, some action-packed skate video that highlights the cutting edge work by Delridge skatepark designers: West Seattle’s own Grindline, as well as a multi-media presentation on the relationship between art, public spaces, and skateboarding by pioneering Northwest skatepark mural artist Jay Meer.

To top it off there will be food, prizes, and opportunities to learn more about the Delridge skatepark project.  We will also be collecting video testimonials for a future project that documents the need for facilities like skateparks in local communities. The funding for the Delridge skatepark’s construction was recently cut out of the annual budget by the City Council, so it’s very important that you stop by and show your support for this project.  This will also be a great opportunity for non-skaters to learn more about the rich culture that surrounds skateparks, and witness some of the amazing works created by the skateboarders in your community.

As reported yesterday on the West Seattle Blog, The Delridge skatepark funding is about to get cut out of the budget by the City Council.  As usual, this is a huge blow to skaters in West Seattle, and more potentially bad news for a user group that has seen it’s fair share of disappointments.

The city has a significant budget shortfall largely due to a 30% decrease in property taxes, and it’s looking hard for ways to make up for it.  In times like these, development and acquisitions are often the first things to get shafted, which in general makes sense.  I understand that times are tough, and some difficult decisions need to be made.  But let’s be honest… cutting funds for a free activity for people of all ages during a time when folks don’t have a lot of money to spend on entertainment, seems really short-sighted.

What pisses me off even more, is that skatepark advocates have worked hard to successfully direct a bunch of money into the Seattle Parks Department system, only to have Parks do nothing with it.

For instance, Lower Woodland skatepark was funded via heavy lobbying during the Ballard Bowl debacle, and from a grant that this skatepark advocate personally went to Olympia to ask for.  When the skatepark’s overall size was reduced by Parks in an effort to placate angry Greenlake neighbors, there was over $100K surplus in the skatepark budget on opening day.  Instead of putting in lights, water fountains, or (gasp) paving the path around the park instead of using that pea gravel that gets all over the skate surface, the money just sat unused for so long it has now been earmarked for some other purpose.

Another example is the “skate dot pot”.  This fund was given to the Parks Department by the City Council to build skatedots as outlined by the Citywide Skatepark Plan.  Despite persistent effort made by the SPAC to develop these skatedots, not a single dollar of this money has been spent on skate dots.  The only money that has been used from this fund was a small amount to kick-start the Delridge project, which now looks to be dead in the water.  The only skatedot project that seemed like it might get legs is at John and Summit, a manual pad that Parks mistakenly estimated would cost $10K, is now languishing behind a slow moving Parks effort for months and only seems to even have gotten this far because of constant prodding from skaters.  Every SPAC meeting in the last year has included some discussion with Parks staff about getting the skatedot process going and nothing has happened.

So really…where is the real inefficiency here?  Skaters have been successfully securing funds for Seattle skateparks for a few years now and we’ve built one park.  It’s disheartening to work so hard as an advocate, only to have a lack of action on the execution side toss those hard-earned resources to the wind.  Perhaps we should start taking a close look and find out who is responsible for sitting on large sums of money that were specifically given to them by the City Council to build skateable terrain in this city, only to have those funds squandered and the re-absorbed into some general fund for mowing lawns.  Meanwhile, skatepark projects on the other side of the city can’t get off the ground because of budget cuts?!?  If I was this ineffective at my job I’d be fired, and so would you.

On the positive side, the Parks Levy has passed, which has some funding for skateparks, but not enough for the parks listed in the levy.  The levy funds are really only seed money to be spread over the next 6 years.  The Delridge skatepark process has actually been moving forward nicely with relative Seattle Parks newcomer Kelly Davidson at the helm.  But Delridge is not included in the levy, and looks like it may fall out of funding for the next two years.  The projects in the Levy will also have to undergo the same process that we’ve already begun at Delridge, with great success and overwhelming community support.  In effect, this latest chain of events threatens to set West Seattle skatepark development back another three years, just when we were gaining a genuinely positive momentum that has yet-to-be-seen on a skatepark project in Seattle.

I know we’re living in tough financial times, and that this new development is largely due to factors that lie far outside of the Seattle city government and Parks Department’s ability to make things better.  But things have been so screwed up up to this point that there is no headroom in the system in case of emergency.  What bugs me is that with one hand we’re throwing skatepark money into the fire, and the other hand is begging for more.  I don’t blame anyone for not giving Seattle Parks more money for skateparks when they can’t even spend the bread they’ve been given thus far, especially when there’s a huge budget deficit.

I urge you to write an email to the City Council budget committee today, because time is short.  Explain to them that you feel like we’ve really achieved something special in West Seattle with the Delridge skatepark process, and the community can’t afford to lose this opportunity.  Tell them that we’re engaged in the process, we’ve gained momentum, and that the Parks Department is actually responding to us on this project.  Let’s not throw a wrench into the machine right when it finally seems like it’s working…

Send it to:

Tom Rasmussen

Richard McIver

CC:

Timothy Gallagher

Just a quick update on Chad’s condition from Grindline:

“He’s recovering well and doing OK.  Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and emails.”

I still can’t believe that the meeting was so positive and productive.

If ever there was a community that deserved a skatepark, it’s the Delridge neighborhood.

West Seattle Herald coverage

Seattle P-I coverage

West Seattle based Grindline got the design gig for the park that will sit less than two blocks from the house Mark Hubbard bought when he helped start the NW Skatepark revolution.

The first design meeting is this Wednesday @ 7:30pm, in the Delridge community center. Show up and let Grindline know what you want to see in this park.