Location, location, location. What distinguishes good real estate from bad apparently does the same for skateboard parks.
South Sound communities – like communities across the United States – have made enormous investments in skate parks in the last 10 years or so.
A city as small as Milton spent $250,000 on a state-of-the-art park that opened in 2004. It has proven popular, especially with serious skaters who appreciate its technical design. And it hasn’t kept the police overly busy – another key indicator of a park’s success.
A total of 18 skate parks have been created in Pierce and South King counties since 1996. Most appear to be similarly successful, according to a News Tribune series published Sunday and Monday.
University Place’s $375,000 park, for example, has been a good neighbor. It has also fulfilled the hoped-for role of all these attractions: providing a gathering place for youth who might otherwise be bored silly or getting into trouble.
But some skate parks have themselves been trouble. Sumner’s, for example, has gone sour. Police get hundreds of complaints about bad behavior there, and they’ve investigated 19 cases of violent crime and 36 cases of property crime at the park since 2003. There’s been talk of shutting it down for good.
Often, the fighting, drug use, etc., aren’t caused by the regulars themselves, but by others who show up after sundown.
Why not keep things under control by locating parks near police stations? Even that is no guarantee of success, as Gig Harbor has discovered. The city built its skate park next door to City Hall and a police station in 2000 – and it still generates complaints of vandalism, drug dealing and other crime.
The fact is, few cities can afford to have commissioned officers monitor kids skateboarding, and some denizens of the park appear to like the idea of breaking the rules under the nose of law enforcement.
The single factor behind most well-behaved skate parks is simple: a highly visible, very public location. A constant stream of passersby – on an adjacent arterial, for example – seems to discourage the bad guys quite effectively.
For all the problems some of these parks have had, there’s no question that skate parks in general are a good thing. Earlier generations built ballfields; the parks are their modern equivalent for quirky but highly skilled athletes who are never going to join the high school tennis team.
An hour spent at a busy skate park leaves no doubt that many boarders are extraordinary technical virtuosos. This sport won’t be going away; neither should the parks.
