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Aug 25, 2010 4:57 PM |
Quote:
Phoenix to build its 5th skate park with $50,000 donation
4 comments by Emily Gersema - Aug. 25, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Skateboarders will have a fifth plaza to roll up and down ramps in Phoenix, city officials said Tuesday as they accepted a $50,000 donation from nationally recognized skateboarder Rob Dyrdek's foundation.
Dyrdek said his foundation and an organization, Street League Skateboarding, will also donate for the park or plaza more than $10,000 worth of equipment. Much of it will be recycled from the league's skateboard competition this weekend at the Jobing.com Arena in Glendale.
"We're basically building a 15,000-square-foot urban skate plaza in Jobing .com this weekend. We can reuse some of it," Dyrdek said.
Officials know the donation won't cover all construction costs.
"We'll have to at least match (the donation)," Deputy City Manager Rick Naimark said.
As skateboarding has risen in popularity, cities have become more accepting of the street sport. They are building more special park areas where the skateboarders can practice without breaking any local laws and without fear of crossing paths with cars or pedestrians.
Phoenix has two skate parks at Paradise Valley and Pecos parks and two above-ground skate plazas at Desert West near Maryvale and Hermoso Park in south Phoenix.
The Rob Dyrdek Foundation has helped pay for construction of five skate parks and plazas in Los Angeles, said Paul J. Vizcaino, the foundation's executive director.
Vizcaino said he contacted Vice Mayor Michael Nowakowski last week to discuss the possibility of building a new skate park in Phoenix, expanding the organization's "Safe Spot, Skate Spot" effort outside California.
Nowakowski said he and Vizcaino knew each other because they worked together at the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation and United Farm Workers of America. Vizcaino said the foundation aims to build parks around the country to create professional skating areas for kids.
Dyrdek knows what it's like to have nowhere safe to skate.
He said he has been riding a skateboard for about 25 years - ever since he was 12, zipping through streets and weaving across sidewalks, office parks and parking lots.
Naimark said the Parks and Recreation Department will look at several possible parks for building what will probably be a new skate plaza.
The eight-member Parks and Recreation Board will weigh in, and so will neighbors of the potential sites at public hearings. The board, though, will have final say on the plaza's location, size and design.
The winning park could easily be chosen on the basis of one factor: cost.
Naimark said the city has some money available for park improvements, but the cost of designing and installing a new skate plaza could vary from site to site.
And, in a budget crisis, the cheapest option is often the best.
Mayor Phil Gordon said, though, that the city also will consider how many skateboarders would use the park - and whether neighbors would welcome it.
"Sometimes neighbors don't even want a park - period," he said.
Laura Martin, who with two other business partners runs three Cowtown Skateboards shops in the Valley, said skateboarders have hoped the city will consider building a downtown plaza or park because there are no areas designated for skaters there.
Hermoso Park Skate Plaza near 20th Street and Southern Avenue, about 5 miles south of downtown, is the closest option for skateboarders who live downtown
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/p...#ixzz0xdb2xN7m
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Central Phoenix (which I think is what most people mean when they say "Downtown") desperately needs a skate park. I hope they consider either Encanto Park or Steele Indian School Park for this project. If not either of those spots then somewhere between the 7s, Camelback and the railroad tracks.
EDIT: VV True maybe that can be part of Deck Parks redesign. My one concern would be that Deck Park is a fairly small park, so I wouldn't want the skate park taking over too much of it. My hope has always been for Deck Park to be redesigned into an urban park like Chicagos Millenium Park. But maybe some of those underutilized dirt lots or parking lots could be bought up by the city and the park could be expanded and the skatepark could go there. |
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