Silver Springs, Maryland

[Grinch]

A group of skaters in Silver Springs, Maryland have been working for years for the right to skate. The powers that be finally decided to give them a spot and allocated 3,000 square feet for a plaza. Not much space but the space isn't the concern.

After allowing meeting after meeting with Skaters the design which was chosen by the county was this;



Funny thing is that the skaters were never given an opportunity to see the other proposals submitted, one of which is this;



Now, this is not a design discussion and neither design is earth-shattering but the point is that the County chose for them with no skater input and are now ignoring every call or attempt to speak out about this... Those who have any thoughts please visit the Facebook page and comment up...

For the record the budget is $75,000

http://www.facebook.com/SilverSpringSka ... 1785819650

[Carter Dennis]

Both designs look fun, but that first design has some issues. First of all, the quarterpipe set back in the brick planters is escalated. This is aesthetics over functionality. When you go up to do a grind on that skinny quarterpipe you will end up face first on the bricks.

Again both designs look fun, but the second one offers way more. Flow, bank to ledge, steps, hubba and those set back hips are cool.

[Carter Dennis]

What a cool skatepark effort. I wish these kids luck on getting the design they want.

http://silverspringskateboarding.blogspot.com/

Who are the city people we can contact?

[John Bracken]

I remember talking to some parks and rec people from Silver Spring at least 4 years ago about a street plaza. Good to see they are making some headway. From what I remember from the converstaion was siting issues. The skaters wanted a spot in downtown Silver Spring, but the parks commission and some NIMBYS wanted it in an industrial area.

[Grinch]

The choice of site doesn't seem to be the issue- it's that after all these years of fighting the park was chosen without ANY input from the skaters.

Skateparks are for skaters and they should have at least some some input. The fact that NONE of the skaters saw any of the proposals is just the type of process that this site can help skaters avoid.