Delridge meeting #1: July 30th
In an unprecedented move of swiftness and progression, the Parks Department has already scheduled the first design review meeting for the Delridge skatepark. The meeting will be at the Delridge Community Center, and will start at 7:30pm.
The Parks Department released the RFQ last week, and the deadline for potential designers to throw their hats in the ring is Monday. The process then moves forward with a review of all the qualified designers, and then interviews of the finalists will occur during the week of July 14th. A designer will be selected before this first meeting, and will be in attendance to listen to ideas and gather feedback to incorporate into the first round of design concepts.
The proposed skatepark will be large enough to provide terrain for all skill levels, and contain both transition and street skating features. Exactly what goes into the park will be decided by the skatepark designer and the skateboarders who attend the design meetings.
The Seattle Parks Department has gotten much better at focusing the public design meetings into actual design discussions, and not allowing anti-skatepark rhetoric to overtake the otherwise productive discourse. Angry neighbors often use these design meetings as a platform for providing “feedback” like we saw at Myrtle Reservoir, where grown adults referred to teenage skateboarders as “criminals” and accused them of being drug dealers. While no voices should be silenced, and everyone should be allowed to voice their opinions, a room full of young people should not have to endure slander and defamation in order to be a proactive contributors to a community process. There are plenty of other ways for people to express their disdain for teenagers to the Parks Department.
Hopefully we will see skateboarders and the Parks Department working with the neighbors and community to ensure that this new skatepark is a welcome addition to the neighborhood, and is designed with everyone’s input respected and recognized. When it works well and stays positive, the skatepark design process can actually bring neighborhoods together, and show young people that they are appreciated and supported by their communities. It can also serve as a platform for educating the non-skateboarding members of the community about the positive aspects of safe and accessible public skateparks.
Seattle Parks has also been pro-actively attending Community Council meetings and gathering input from important community organizations like the Delridge Neighborhood Development Organization. This outreach should go a long way in bringing people into the fold from the beginning, and allowing them to provide input when it can actually make a difference.
So far…so good. The Parks Department is really putting their best foot forward on this project. Let’s hope the West Seattle skateboarders and their friends and neighbors reciprocate by getting involved and keeping it positive.
The West Seattle Blog reported on this earlier today, so go over there and post a comment if you feel inclined.
