How would a group of sk8r boyz go about proposing an addition to the skate park?

In My Humble Opinion
1

A few years ago, our town had no skateboard park. A group of high school students researched, cajoled, circulated petitions, and I don’t know what all else until the city relented and built a skateboarding area in one of the city parks.

Today, my son came home and told me he and the rest of the local skateboarders are trying to work out how they can get a new area added on. Specifically, they want a ramp leading through an underground tunnel and ending in a bowl. A tunnel is certainly feasible; we have several of them in town, the local walking trail passes under several major roads. But the kids are unsure where they should start.

Keep in mind this is not a formal group; it’s just a bunch of kids who love skateboarding, and who originally banded together to protect the skate park when the city council was talking about tearing it down due to “problems with juveniles congregating.” :rolleyes: These kids got together to clean up the park, held meetings with the police to find out what they could do to become more self-policing, and took it upon themselves to keep an eye on things and report any problems. Now on any given day you can go down there and find skaters from age 5 to age 30 flinging themselves off the halfpipe.

I’m guessing that if they’re serious about this, they’re going to have to find an engineer or contracter or something that could give them a rough estimate of what such a thing would cost, yes? And they’d have to prepare a proposal for the city council, and probably circulate a petition, and show how they plan to raise money for it (they’re already talking fundraisers, but I don’t think it’s possible to hold enough bake sales to come up with the kind of money they’d need). I’ve never been active in local government and I’m not sure how these things work; any ideas?

2

They might try to get an engineer to volunteer his/her time to draw up the proposal (including costs, if possible). Get dressed up real nice and get an appointment with the appropriate city officials and try to sell their idea.

It wouldn’t hurt to get some adults (like teachers, police officers, etc) for support.

3

I think they should show that it’s already well-utilized by the community, and that it’s a safe and clean place for people to gather. If they could get the local police to give them a report showing that there are few or no police calls in the park, that would help, too. If they also say that they’ll foot the cost of the additions, it would be much easier to pass if the council doesn’t have to budget for it.

StG

4

And don’t use the phrase “sk8r boyz” in the proposal! :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue:

5

Well, I just did a cursory search through the call history for the police department; looks like we had somewhere around 80 calls to the skate park last year, but that includes things like traffic stops and foot patrols. There have been a few fights, but when you get that many teenagers together day after day, they’re gonna get stupid occasionally.

One of the teachers at the alternative school my son attends would probably be more than willing to help them out; she takes her class (they all skate; it’s a major pastime for the “at risk” kids around here) down to the skate park for P.E., and she’s the kind of energetic teacher who would seize the chance to use this as a teaching opportunity. I’ll check with the boy and see if anyone’s talked to her about it yet.

Well, you know, someday they’ll be superstarz, slammin’ on their guitarz… :smiley:

6

I think their best bet would be to try to enlist some fragments of the local bureaucracy to their cause.

My mum was the chairwoman of the local residents association on the estate where she lived a few years ago - some of the local kids presented her with a petition saying they would really really like a skateboard park.

Two years of nattering with the local council, discussing things with the local elected folks of various levels, inviting police community liasison officers, fundraising, letter writing and so on, they got the government to drop £20,000 in ‘community support funding’ (plus some money they raised themselves) on this, which at the time was the best skating facility for about 50 miles around.

The selling points were basically:
[ul]
[li]The little sods will skate anyhow, so it makes sense to control where they do it[/li][li]Much safer to have them skate on a properly designed facility[/li][li]In a location where residents won’t be disturbed by the activity[/li][li]Open, visible location so any trouble can be seen[/li][li]Lots of community support for the initiative expressed over a long period[/li][li]Will keep the little hooligans occupied during their spare time and reduce petty crime[/li][li]It will stop that annoying old woman from writing endless letters and making endless phone calls[/li][li]If a bunch of grey-haired old biddies are actively promoting it then it can’t be that bad an idea, surely?[/li][/ul]

It was most odd when I went home to visit - I’d be walking down the street with my old mum and all these pimply little rat-faced hoodies would stop to mumble a few words of thanks or update mum on their latest plans for a grind-off or whatever. My mum was collecting a pension AND she knew da word on da street, innit!

Basically, the local authorities will give a 200% credibility markup if there is support from what they count as ‘respectable’ sources - in this case the same people they were talking to about improved rubbish collection, fencing along the road, pensioners activity groups, rebuilding the kiddies paddling pool and so on. And StGermain is right that if the cops don’t like the idea, you’re pretty much screwed, although they might not be too bothered about the number of calls they get - in mum’s case the cops were delighted to get teenagers out of verious dark alleys, empty car parks and the like into a nice open floodlit spot they could casually eyeball from a main road and that was overlooked by 100+ houses.

Plus which it gives ‘the man’ some measure of leverage - everyone knows that if there is serious trouble the place will get shut down, so it’s normally kept clean & tidy and there is serious peer pressure applied to anyone being too rowdy.

As for costing, mum just found out who in the UK built skateboard parks and wrote to them all asking for outline quotes, which they happily did for free. The winning contractor even brought their sponsored skate team down for the opening day, which was cool.

If you can manage to convince the local government that such a facility is a good idea because it will reduce crime/cheer up voters/build community spirit/make them look good/win votes/re-engage hooligans with society or whatever, they normally have budgets big enough that a skate park can be funded out of the rounding errors. It’s just that normally skate kids aren’t the best at attending endless meetings, navigating through all the various budgets and funding schemes, filling application forms and so on. Retired medical secretaries, on the other hand…

7

You need to do a lot of the footwork yourself, and probably find the funding.

Then there’s what Zig Ziglar says about success: To get what you want from the people who can give it to you, you need to figure out how to get them what they want.

When you say the city “relented” to build the current park, it sounds like they had some concerns. The same concerns may arise in regards to the addition, or they may feel they’ve done their part and the kids should just be satisfied.

You need to look at the whole thing from the point of view of the city, anticipate their concerns, and figure out how to minimize them from your end.

8

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. The leader of the agitators (that’s just what I call’em) is a very nice kid with a green mohawk who also did a lot of work to get the original park built. I fear they might hit a brick wall with this idea, though; it’s like scotandrsn said, the city is probably going to decide they’ve done enough and the kids need to shut up. This is not a teenager friendly town; the skate park is the only thing it has going for it, and like I said in the OP, the city has already tried to shut it down once. It’s always been that way. When I was a teenager they shut down the video game arcade after just a few months because we would stand outside and chat. So it was back to wandering aimlessly up and down the streets and congregating on the steps of the church across from the movie theater. At least the church folks never griped about us.

If I can corral one of the cops at work tonight, I’ll get his opinion on the thing.

9

I’d play up the benefits…added safety by seperating advanced from beginning skaters, fewer collisions from spreading out the skaters (get some ambulance-involved stats if you can). If the kids can skate at the park, they aren’t skating on handicap ramps and raised garden beds. Kids are outside and active constructively, so are less likely to be overweight, on drugs, breaking windows at abandoned factories. Parents and kids can spend time together doing something both generations enjoy. If you can show that usership of the park is up from what was projected, that would help too. I’d talk to local businesses and organizations about matching funds. I’d talk to surrounding businesses that benefit from the park, like a drug store that sells sodas to the kids, or a library that gets extra foot traffic with kids and families in the area. Also, think about ways to attract non-skaters to the park with a walking/jogging trail for mom and dad or playground equipment for little non-skaters. This way the park isn’t just for 10-30 year old juvenile delinquents and overgrown juvenile delinquents (in the eyes of the ole fuddy-duddies on the town council)

Next, I’d be honest about the problems. Yes, there were 80 police calls, how does that compare to other parks in similar areas? What can reasonably be done about that? Yes, kids congregate and can get unruly…can community members or older kids volunteer to be mediators when there are arguments?

Finally…profit! If you are expanding…is there room for a vendor to rent out skates, repair skates and boards, sell sodas and snacks with part of the profit going to the city? Will people pay $10 a year for a skate pass like most public pools have? Can you put on a show and charge admission in your newly build bleachers? Rent out the grounds for birthday parties and group events?

10

Have a look at the success of a park called Bordertown in Oakland. Caltrans was about to rip out the illegally-built park under the freeway, but the skaters were able to rally enough support to persuade Caltrans and the city to allow it to stay. If nothing else, it might be useful as a precedent showing how skaters and local governments can cooperate.

Google it up with the terms: oakland skateboard caltrans bordertown

11

Sorry for the belated posting, but I only now saw this thread. Marlitharn, here are some helpful links for you in case you haven’t seen them before:
Skaters for Public Skateparks

Tony Hawk Skatepark Foundation

Both sites are chock-full of advice and success stories. At least you’ve already got the skatepark in place, which is the hardest part.

As for designers and contractors, you might want to consider Grindline or Wally Hollyday as both of them do work all over the country. Whichever designer and contractor you use, make sure they’re reliable and experienced in working with skatepark terrain and not just concrete in general. Indeed, it’s preferable for them to be skaters themselves. I’ve heard too many horror stories of park features that were expensive but ultimately unskateable because they were designed and built by contractors who wouldn’t know what to do with a skateboard if Tony Hawk himself were on hand to give them instruction.

Good luck and keep us updated!

12

This sort of thing usually happens because one particular member of the council was sympathetic enough to push for it. It would be useful to find out who that was and see if he’s still there; he can help you if anybody can, and he’ll be your best source of realistic information about how tough it will be to make it happen.

13

The group should try to anticipate the fears of people outside of itself - for example, that the tunnel might provide a relatively comfortable, covered blind spot where people may congregate to get up to michief such as drugs and mugging.

Having anticipated these feared problems, they should propose robust solutions to them; in the case of the tunnel, perhaps it could be designed in such a way that a clear view through it exists from some busy, public vantage point, or perhaps security cameras could be installed to cover blind spots.

The idea is to dispel objections before they gain momentum.