Wallingford Babies Redux: This Time It's the Skateparks

Listen people, skateboards are not a tool of the devil. Wouldn't you rather have your kids outside, getting some exercise in a publicly-sanctioned location, rather than either sliding down your neighbor's handrails or off doing much worse? Not if you live in the Greenlake/Wallingford neighborhood, it would seem.

The Seattle Times reports that the city is starting a round of public hearings tonight regarding a proposal to build a network of skate parks in Seattle. You know, places where kids can play. It is a fine idea, unless, of course, you're a member of the Lower Woodland Neighborhood Association. In that case, you make completely asinine, illogical arguments against putting a skatepark there, including "kids will just get bored of it in a couple years" and why build them anyhow, when "the pool of potential users will dry up as families with children leave Seattle for more affordable places to live." Oh, Kris Fuller, you're a funny one.

The NIMBY types like to throw around insanely small estimates of the number of skateboarding kids in the city (3,000) to suggest that the city shouldn't move forward with the plan. They claim to be "pro-skateparks", but just not anywhere near them. Sounds like another nearby neighborhood association we're pretty familiar with by now, who get a shoutout from the LWP nay-sayers on their site, no doubt for advice on how to stonewall anything fun or new being introduced into public parks that they don't own.

The LWP wailers go into gory detail about the impact the skatepark will have on them, its proxmity to their homes, the hours it will be open...waitaminute, they're actually worried it will get used. Which one is it, Lower Woodland Park neighborhood association? That no-one will want to use it, or that you fear it will be as wildly popular as it should be, and you have to face up to the changes required by living in an insanely dense urban location? Once you've got an answer, by all means let Seattlest know.

On a slightly different slant, what the Seattle Times failed to note was that, if demand is really so low, why the hell did a bunch of skateboarding kids take it entirely upon themselves to find a spot under the West Seattle bridge where they could start building their own skatepark with their own sweat equity? Yep, sounds like there's no demand there whatsoever.

The Times writer also didn't bother to call any local skate shops to get their perspective, or even an indoor skatepark. Had he done so, he might have chatted with Jill at Renton's Skatebarn, who says that they currently have over 600 kids per week come through their facility, and sign up about 50 new members every week. Their numbers keep growing--that's a couple hundred new skaters every single month. She believes the numbers cited in the Seattle Times article by those against the new skateparks are "very skewed." Mike at Wallingford's indoor spot Inner Space feels the same way--the neighborhood was very wary of having him set up shop there, but thousands of kids make their way there on rainy days and to take classes, and the initial typical furor from the neighbors finally died down. (Even despite the possibility that an outdoor park could impact his buisness, Mike agrees that more parks are important for a sport that's caught up with little league baseball in terms of popularity amongst young kids.)

The Skatebarn is having a big ol' party next Wednesday the 21st, to celebrate National Go Skateboarding Day. They'll be open all day, and anyone who shows up will get in for FREE. Seattlest suggests all the kids out there who are interested in skateparks in the Seattle area show up, get some photographic evidence of how much you care and how many of you there are, and send your photos and opinions in to the Seattle Times, the Lower Woodland Neighborhood association, and the City of Seattle Parks Department for consideration:

Lower Woodland Park Neighborhood Association
info@lowerwoodland.org

Seattle Times
sbhatt@seattletimes.com

City of Seattle Parks Dept
Kim Baldwin
206-615-0810
kim.baldwin@seattle.gov