[caption id="attachment_15647" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Construction of the skatepark at New Castle County's Glasgow regional park is expected to be completed by the end of the year."]
You expect to see swing sets and baseball diamonds in the average park, but residents of northern Delaware should get accustomed to seeing something far less familiar —public skateboarding facilities.
New Castle County is building a skateboard park in Glasgow, the city of Newark has embraced the idea as well, and an organization called the Wilmington Skate Project hopes to build a skate park in Wilmington that would be elaborate enough to draw skateboarders from surrounding states.
It may surprise people outside the skateboarding subculture to know that it’s not a marginal activity—currently there are 6.8 million skateboarders in the United States, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. And contrary to the stereotype of skateboarders as stoned-out slackers or rebellious punk rockers, a diverse group of people enjoy the sport.
“Over the years, kids have always been approaching us about doing some kind of skate facility,” said Jonathan Husband. As New Castle County’s engineering and environmental services manager, county parks are part of Husband’s responsibilities. The problem is that paved public areas are off-limits to skateboarders. “We recognize the need,” Husband said, “to give them a place to go.”
Skateboarding on sidewalks or at shopping centers, where it wasn’t permitted, was a “nuisance,” Husband says. And skateboarders were becoming so advanced in their abilities that they needed a facility designed to accommodate them. “Everything was pointing to the fact that we need to provide this,” Husband said.
In 2002, when the county was first holding public meetings about a master plan for a park in Glasgow, local skateboarders—“our children, basically,” Husband says—suggested building a skating area there. Initially, the idea got a cool reception.
But Husband began researching skateboard facilities around the country, and discovered that, in fact, skateboarding was no more hazardous than soccer or football. Municipalities were protected from lawsuits to some extent because, as with other active sports, participants are expected to know the risks involved. And even when skateboarders got hurt doing some dangerous stunt, they tended not to sue over it. County lawyers told him they “weren’t going to lose any sleep” over the idea, Husband says.
[caption id="attachment_12656" align="alignright" width="215" caption="Click here to view a slide show presentation of our visit to the 7th Street Skate Spot."]
Over time, Husband got everyone involved to approve the idea, and currently construction is underway on an approximately 20,000-square-foot skateboard area near the entrance to Glasgow Park, on the northeast corner of Routes 40 and 896. The cost is $768,000 - with the state of Delaware contributing $350,000 in the form of a grant from the Delaware Trust Fund. The skateboard park is part of the $2.5 million dollar third phase of the park project. County officials hope this phase of the project, including the skateboard park, will be completed by November. Two more phases are scheduled to add amenities cut from previous phases due to budgetary constraints and light the park’s perimeter walking path.
Newark’s parks also have skateboarding sites in their future. Charlie Emerson, director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, says the city eventually will have four “skate spots” in their parks, small areas of no more than 4,000 square feet with the kind of railings, benches, steps, and small ramps seen in the more modest skateboard parks.
Part of the funds will come from an anonymous donor who pledged to match the city’s contributions up to $40,000. Emerson says the city plans to apply for state grants and for in-kind donations from contractors to help defray the building costs. The full $80,000 would not be sufficient to build all four skate spots, Emerson says, so the city may also contribute funds from its own budget and will also cover the ongoing maintenance costs.
Emerson says the move to create public skateboard parks is “happening all over the country,” in part because research shows the sport is no more dangerous than other activities typically pursued in public parks. Insurance providers, reassured, are giving their blessing to the idea. Emerson says he’s visited six public skateboard parks in the region, and all but one were built in the last three years.
The county’s more ambitious Glasgow Park will have steps, railings, ledges, and two “bowls”—large, rounded depressions, like empty swimming pools. These features are a response to the sport’s evolution. In the early 1970s, the modern skateboard—larger, more maneuverable, and with better traction— allowed riders to develop of tricks using curbs, benches, railings, and similar common street features. During a 1976 drought, skateboarders started using empty swimming pools, developing the “vert” (for “vertical”) style. Today this is done in skate parks that have half-pipes, other sorts of curved walls, and bowls.
These kinds of parks are relatively common on the West Coast—Portland, Oregon has five public skateboard parks and plans to build 14 more—and the sport is more visible and mainstream there, according to Joe Castro Brevoort, an avid veteran of the Wilmington skateboarding scene. “Out there,” he said, “it’s like Little League.”
The East Coast “is behind on that whole thing,” says Brevoort, but he’d like to see it catch up. For one thing, there are plenty of middle-aged skateboarders who don’t want to do unauthorized riding in parks meant for pedestrians. Brevoort, who’s 38, says—from personal experience—that it’s embarrassing to be escorted out of a park by a security guard younger than yourself.
And giving people old and young an authorized place to practice their sport would enable others to see that it’s actually a character- building experience. The tricks require a lot of practice, and the learning curve involves literally falling down a lot. “It teaches you so much about life,” Brevoort said. “It really teaches you not to give up.”
East 7th Street Skate Spot
DFM News visited one venue many local skateboarders' currently use to perfect their skills - a lot in a small park on Wilmington's lower east side.
[flashvideo file=http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/seventh-street-skate-park.flv image="http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/seventh-street-skate-park.jpg" /]
Brevoort is a board member of the Wilmington Skate Project, a group that publicizes skateboarding and has created a skateboard park on East Seventh Street. But their real ambition, according to Mark Calder, co-founder and current president, is to build a full-featured skateboard park in the city.
Calder says he discussed the idea of a park in the city more than ten years ago with Kevin Kelley, a city councilman who has supported the idea. Originally they envisioned a modest park, but over time they were inspired to create an elaborate park like the ones in California and the Pacific Northwest.
Kelley says his support for the project stems from a longtime interest in recreation opportunities for young people. He recently had $225,000 in funds for the skate park put back into the city's budget after it was removed in an austerity drive, and the budget will be voted on in the next few weeks.
The current proposed location for the skate park is near the Maryland Avenue exit of I-95, although Calder says the project is considering other locations. Kelley says the East Seventh Street site is a possibility but it is in a flood zone.
Calder expects the ambitious design to draw skateboarders from neighboring states. “If we build this, we will have a national-level skate park,” Calder said. “There’s no doubt people would definitely put it on their list of places to go.”
And Kelley feels a skate park could greatly benefit the area. "The skate park will connect the neighborhood with the waterfront," he said. "All that good energy from all those people there can only make a positive impact on the neighborhood."
According to Calder, it’s no surprise that municipal park and recreation departments in the region are accommodating skateboarders more and more. After all, he says, their role is to offer the kinds of recreation opportunities people want. “In today’s world,” he said, “that’s skate parks.”
