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Wednesday, 19 September 2007 |
Do It Yourself skateparks are becoming more common as cities, strapped for cash, are willing to entertain the idea of a facility that is both inexpensive (to the city) to create, promotes ownership by its users at its core, and avoids much of the bureaucracy of hiring a niche designer and construction company that may or may not be experienced in the type of terrain that the skaters require.
Most famously, the skatepark under the Burnside Bridge in Portland, Oregon started out as a guerrilla project in 1993. When Burnside began, nobody seemed to care about the land—it was a dormant, derelict piece of property. Portland skaters seized the opportunity to begin building small banks running up the massive back wall. These were not immediately bulldozed, so they built more features and the positive impacts of the skatepark began to manifest. The skateboarding and building activity there drove away the drug dealers and users who occupied the space previously. Pretty soon, the small renegade project filled out to a full-blown 15,000-square-foot skatepark and ultimately received the blessing of the city government. The Burnside story is legendary among skatepark builders and advocates as testament to what can be done with little more than passion for an idea.
Today, many more avenues exist for skatepark advocates, thanks in no small part to the Burnside pioneers. DIY skate spots and skateparks are popping up all over with official support from the local governments that own the property. Famous DIY public skateparks built by skaters themselves stand on otherwise unusable property in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Philadelphia, among other places. The key to the success of any DIY skatepark is the leadership of skilled and experienced skatepark builders. If you plan to learn how to work with concrete while you build your DIY skatepark, the results will likely reveal that. But DIY done right is a good solution for some areas. It’s progressive and in most cases a win-win for the communities that take this direction.
Authorized DIY has a very similar advocacy track as a traditional skatepark, except that initial response from the bureaucracies that preside over the property tend to be much more negative. The real and imagined liabilities are countless and, as a result, most authorized DIY projects start off being illegitimate; a few features are built, they don’t yield any controversy, so a few more go in. At some point everyone comes to the table to talk about what’s going on “under the bridge.” As an advocate, whether you are employed by the city or are a skateboarder (or both), this is where your powers of persuasion will be most tested. The advocate in favor of a DIY skatepark is essentially asking the City to allow unsanctioned construction to continue. You can imagine the number of severe concerns this will raise.
The most persuasive arguments for an existing DIY skatepark will be the cost-savings presented to the tax-payers and the sense of ownership and pride that the users will have in the facility. The biggest challenges will be in the sanctioning of the spot (e.g., liability) and the association if the facility is deemed a failure by community standards.
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