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Page 5 of 6
Part 2: The Skatepark Adoption Model
(Identifying The Community's Skateboarding Needs)
One of the first questions anyone considering a skatepark for their community must ask is, "How much skatepark does my community need?" In the past, communities have formed their skatepark solutions based on such irregular factors as the strength of the advocate's voice, the size of their pocketbooks, the availability of space, and so on. Although these are all realistic considerations, none of them suggest whether the skatepark actually meets the needs of the community. It is only when the skatepark proves too popular—throngs of teenagers and their friends hanging out all day and into the evening—that the broader community then pronounces the skatepark an unmitigated disaster. It's not the fault of the city planners or the advocate, it's the result of poor planning and not fully understanding the need. The skatepark becomes a victim of its own success-too popular, too active, too intense.
No community has yet to face
the problem of having too
many skateparks.
The Skatepark Adoption Model (S.A.M.) takes the guesswork out of planning the skatepark. It's a simple formula that successful advocates across the nation have been using for years. For the first time it's presented in simple, easy-to-understand terms that anyone can use as the starting point to an advocacy effort.
The S.A.M. is composed of two parts. The first step collects information about the community, known as the "target area." This basic information is used to interpret local skateboarding needs. The first step concludes by producing a value (in square footage) for the target area's broadest skatepark needs. The second step demonstrates ways to shape that footage into a skatepark system that will best service the community.
Step One: The Science Of S.A.M.
The process of calculating a S.A.M. recommendation begins by defining the target area in tangible terms. The following information about the target area is required for this step:
1. Youth population of target area (to establish how many skaters will be serviced)
2. Target area's state (to establish the average number of skaters per thousand)
3. Number and approximate size of existing skateparks (if any)
The S.A.M. formula will use these characteristics to accurately assess how many skaters are in the target area, what their terrain needs are, and how well their needs are currently being met.
SKATEPARK PROCESS
Every skatepark in the nation is the result of a systematic process. Understanding it will help you know what your role will be and where you will be influential before you begin.
Before any actual advocacy begins, skatepark advocates face a difficult decision: "What is the target area?" Advo-cates who live in remote or rural areas may want to include the entire town or county. Those who live in a suburb or bedroom community may want to choose a political, geographical, or intrinsic border such as a freeway or river. Some ambitious advocates will want to create a skatepark system for a large metropolitan area-that's fine, too. Whatever the scale, the process remains the same.
The first thing the advocate will need is the area's youth population. The best place to start, especially for larger towns, is the U.S. Census Web site (see "Census" sidebar). There probably isn't a town left in the U.S. that doesn't have its own Web site containing reasonably up-to-date population statistics.
There are 300-million people in the United States. Approximately 80-million Americans are between 5 and 24 years old. Studies show that nearly all skateboarders are between 5 to 24 years old and that 13-million people ride a skateboard each year. Taken together, these statistics suggest that 16% of people between 5 and 24 have or will ride skateboards this year. One can merely find the youth population of a target area and multiply it by 16% to calculate approximately how many people there are skateboarders (multiply the youth population by .16 to find out how many skaters there are).
GETTING INTO GOVERNMENT
For all of the necessary elements of a skatepark to
come together,many different governmental agencies may become involved.It will help
you to know who is basically responsible for what
components.
If the target area lacks clear political boundaries, such as a neighborhood or "everything between Elm Street and the river," determining the total population may be difficult. Sometimes your City Clerk or City Council representative's office will have population figures for districts or neighborhoods. Similarly, it may be easy to find a total population, but not one broken out by age categories (or those categories are too different to be useful). If that's the case, a rough estimate should be fine. About 29% of the national population is between 5 and 24 years old. Multiplying an area's total population by 29% (total population X .29) will yield the youth population, which can then be multiplied by .16 (or 16%) to achieve a rough number of local skateboarders.
Population Exercise In Review
Total U.S. Population (2000 Census): 281,421,906
U.S. Population between 5-24 years old: 80,261,468 (28.5% of the U.S.)
Skateboarders in the U.S. (2000 American Sports Data): 12,997,000
Skateboarders to total U.S. Population: 4.6%
Skateboarders to U.S. Population between 5-24 years old: 16%
This final number is the closest approximation of the skateboarding population possible without doing a specific study.
The total number of skaters in the target area can be used to determine how much terrain those skaters need. For skateboarding to remain a safe, rewarding activity for a community's youth, the terrain should be designated as a skateboarding area and provide enough space as to not displace potential users or drive them to places where skateboarding is not appropriate. When asked what they might do differently, most park planners who were involved in creating a skatepark in their community will say that they didn't make the skatepark large enough. Allocating a proper amount of space for the skatepark is not a matter of luxury, but of safety. Overcrowded skateparks are dangerous and ultimately displace skaters back to the streets.
SKATEPARK TYPOLOGY
Skateparks come in all shapes and sizes, so what you call a skatepark may not be the same as what someone envisions when you say it. Other advocates have found it useful to sometimes express the different kinds of parks by name.
To find out how much terrain your community's skatepark should provide, find the total number of skaters in your target area on the following list. Next to each category is an appropriate description of the amount and type of terrain they will need.
The list relies upon the simple calculation that 1 skateboarder requires a minimum of 1,500 square feet, but that 9 other skaters can use that terrain simultaneously (skateboarders typically take turns while recreating). Essentially, a municipality should provide approximately 1.5 square feet per "weekly" skateboarder in their community. The list also accounts for the reasonable assumption that a community will never have 100% of their skateboarding populace out at the same time (the "weekly" skateboarder is approximately one-quarter of the larger skateboarding population).
Less than 500 skateboarders: 8,000 square feet of total terrain.
This should be a single facility with a variety of terrain styles.
501-1,200 skateboarders: 16,000 square feet of total terrain.
This solution should contain at least one full-size (10,000+ sq. ft.) skatepark.
1,201-2,000 skateboarders: 24,000 square feet of total terrain.
This should be reflected as a skatepark system featuring at least one neighborhood skatepark and several skate spots.
2,001-3,000 skateboarders: 32,000 square feet of total terrain.
This should be reflected as a skatepark system featuring a regional skatepark, one or more neighborhood skateparks, and several skate spots.
3,001-5,000 skateboarders: 48,000 square feet of total terrain.
This should be reflected as a skatepark system featuring a regional skatepark, several neighborhood skateparks, and several skate spots.
5,001-8,000 skateboarders: 64,000 square feet of total terrain.
This should be reflected as a skatepark system featuring a regional skatepark, several neighborhood skateparks, and several skate spots.
8,001-15,000 skateboarders: 96,000 square feet of total terrain.
This should be reflected as a skatepark system featuring one or more regional skateparks, several neighborhood skateparks, and several skate spots. We strongly suggest that at this scale a comprehensive plan is developed.
15,001-24,000 skateboarders: 120,000 square feet of total terrain.
This should be reflected as a skatepark system featuring several regional skateparks, several neighborhood skateparks, and several skate spots.
A target area is defined in two ways:
1. The specific number of skaters in the community
2. The specific amount of terrain they need
The square footage of any existing skateparks within the target area may be subtracted from the total amount of required terrain. This last number is the total amount of skatepark footage that should be advocated for (presuming that the existing parks meet a reasonable standard for quality).
Step Two: The Art of S.A.M.
Knowing the total square footage is a great starting point for any skatepark advocacy effort. Anyone can now deliver on-message responses to "easy" questions and begin crafting arguments based on fact instead of speculation and anecdotal testimony.
If the total needed space is larger than 12,000 square feet, it can be divided into more than one skatepark. Many advocates simply divide it as they see fit. Experienced advocates and skatepark planners recommend a diverse variety of terrain types and sizes to best meet the needs of the diverse skateboarding community.
Skateparks, like most traditional parks, can be categorized into different classes. (Skatepark typology is discussed more thoroughly in Chapter Four.) The largest is the regional skatepark. It attracts skaters from a broad area, even touring skaters, due to its size and diverse terrain types. Regional skateparks generally offer terrain that can't be found in any other place in the region. This is usually due to the volume of space; designers can include every type of attraction if given enough size to work with. With expansive regional skateparks, however, designers are not compelled to omit bolder concepts to conserve space for traditional elements. The size that regional skateparks offer designers often results in bold new structures that become signature elements of each park.
The neighborhood skatepark is the standard by which all other skateparks are held. Neighborhood skateparks are the dominant scale that most communities instinctively go to due to their size and value. These parks are between 5,001 and 25,000 square feet and usually include all of the traditional elements that skaters expect. Neighborhood skateparks are intended to service a specific community, usually within a certain radius of the facility, and generally favor "a little bit of everything" over doing one thing really well.
Tacoma converted a small underused space into an active community attraction for less than $5,000.
Skate spots, a new scale of skatepark, are quickly emerging as a solution to skateboarding needs when land is at a premium. The skate spot is not a traditional skatepark, but rather an area where skateboarding is permitted. A small number of structures are included that attract skaters, but usually the space is not designated for that activity exclusively. There are several kinds of skate spots.
Anyone applying the S.A.M. formula probably knows much more about the skateboarders in a community and what their needs are than anyone else. As advocates work with the S.A.M. results, they will collect additional information from other local agencies and adjust the numbers.
Consider some of these examples:
If the target area has more retirees than the national average, the needs may be less than the S.A.M. results. If the target area includes a college or university or is largely active and recreational (ski resort towns, for example), the needs may be greater than the S.A.M. results. A target area's proximity to famous skateparks may also increase the need due to skateboarding tourism, and a high youth-crime rate may suggest a greater need for recreational opportunities targeting youth.
Step Three: The Son (Or Daughter) Of S.A.M.
Astute S.A.M. veterans may observe that the current formula does not adequately reflect population density. This is an omission of necessity for the time being. S.A.M. developers simply lack reliable research on how density impacts skatepark design, though there is certainly no shortage of opinions on the matter. When this factor can be quantified it will certainly become part of the formula in future versions.
An online version of the Skatepark Adoption Model is available at skatersforpublicskateparks.org. Anyone can use it by simply typing in the size of a community and choosing the region. The local skateboarding population will be produced that may help you identify your local skatepark needs.
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