Early morning is the time to go to Delridge, if you can. There were only 3 other people there this weekday morning at 9am. Great for beginners and/or, ahem, folks like me who have been skating for almost 20 years but REALLY need to focus.

Grindline was there fixing  the sidewalk that was torn up from the construction. It’s gonna be nice. I appreciate a good sidewalk. Now that we have a great skate park, I think it’s important to 1. connect the parks  for pedestrians/skaters and 2. make it safer to get there.

Building a great public space (aka: skatepark) is not just about the skateable features within the concrete footage, but following it all the way through – improving the space around it to make it easily accessible for all and creating a strong infrastructure that will last for generations.

There is so much to learn and think about when it comes to living in the city. Being able to focus on skate parks has been a great lesson and now… maybe I can tackle the rest, as overwhelming as it can be.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be take action on all the challenges, but I do know that now I’ll be able to warm up on my way to the skate park on the next early morn.

At the Delridge Skate Park opening, a couple of us skate park advocates were STRONGLY encouraged to show up to these meetings to speak up for our community (read; more/improved skateable terrain). Apparently, we have about 10 MILLION DOLLARS in the budget for Parks and Green Spaces and no one from the skateboarding world has spoken up. The cool thing is that we don’t even need to stay for the whole meeting- we could just show up/sign up to speak for the Public Comments part of the meeting- the first 10 or so minutes and then take off. I live in West Seattle and have 2 young kids, so it’ll be hard to pull off, is there anyone else that can make it? Or maybe we can figure out a way to call in? I’ve seen that done for WA Healthcare Authority meetings. If I can juggle it- get my kids fed and start their homework, I’ll be there to advocate for improvements at the Alki Community Center/ Lower Playground. There are a bunch of kids who have fallen in love with skateboarding and need a good open flat space to get their skills to really enjoy Delridge SP! And Alki has been on the Citywide Skate Park Plan for a skate dot! Right now, there are no dollars penciled in for that part of West Seattle either.