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Thursday, 20 September 2007 |
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Like the skateparks themselves, every community has a different way of managing their skateboarding facility. Some skateparks were built under strict guidance from the City Attorney, enforce pads and helmet use, and have hours of operation, security fences, and verbose signage to educate the users on park policy. Other skateparks are unsupervised, unfenced, self-regulated, and on virtual no-maintenance schedules. How does this dynamic spectrum impact the success of the skatepark? Are some practices better than others? In this chapter we will explore the different concerns faced by park management and provide insight into the factors that lead to problems as well as different methods of eliminating or mitigating those problems.
Skateparks are new facilities for most Parks Departments that require careful analysis if they're expected to succeed.
Maintenance and policy are the two issues that can most impact the health of an existing skatepark. It’s always best to have a firm grasp on what the maintenance and policy expectations are before the park is designed so that significant concerns can be managed partially by park design. It’s often difficult to fix an existing skatepark problem without the means to go back and adjust certain aspects of the park design.
This chapter is presented a bit differently than the others. Instead of approaching the topic as a whole, it’s more logical to jump right in and deal with specific concerns. This chapter is divided into three major sections: General Considerations, Metal/Wood Structures, and Concrete. Within each of those sections are issues faced by many skatepark administrators.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 10 February 2008 )
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