Tacoma DIY skatepark is saved. How neighbors and ‘Alchemy’ kept Fawcett alive
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Skaters and neighbors organized cleanup, built Fawcett DIY and reclaimed lot.
- Alchemy Skateboarding raised funds, secured insurance and signed $1-per-year lease.
- Foundation grants and local donors contributed $50k+ to reopen and maintain park.
What does it take for a group of Tacoma skateboarders to save a spit of concrete they transformed from a burned-out lot to a community gathering space? A whole lot of fundraising, neighbors in high places and a conversation over hot dogs at a Rainiers game, to start.
The secret ingredient? A trusted nonprofit that is no stranger to finding creative ways to serve the city’s youth.
Over the summer, local skaters descended on 710 Fawcett Avenue armed with shovels, wheelbarrows and weed whackers. What had once been an eyesore attracting trash and bad behavior became a clean lot where kids and adults could grind ledges and pop over obstacles. Neighbors stopped by to see what was happening and pitched in, too.
But the skatepark dubbed Fawcett D.I.Y was nearly doomed. The sort of takeover of the vacant property happened without the owner’s permission, who foresaw broken necks and liability. The skaters had to take down their ramps and rails by June 25.
“When they said it was going, the whole community was just like, ‘What?’” said David Waite, 51, a skateboarder who runs 35th Ave. Skate Shop in Federal Way.
A neighbor, Sean Walker, noticed a change within days. Gone were the sounds of skate decks snapping off the ground and boards clattering. A homeless encampment started to crop up. Trash and needles accumulated.
“Hearing skateboarders is a lot nicer sound than hearing car alarms and broken glass and people screaming at each other because they’re arguing,” Walker said.
‘We thought it was dead in the water’
One of the skaters who helped lead the charge on Fawcett, Alex Fazekas-Boone, was undeterred. Fazekas-Boone began a journey to become more involved in advocating for better access to skating in Tacoma a couple of years ago, which led to him being a community board member at Alchemy Skateboarding, a nonprofit that has worked with the city and Pierce County to provide programming for young people.
He doesn’t remember who floated the idea that eventually saved the park. But in talks between Alchemy and the property owner, Debbi Anderson, it was decided that if the skaters could remove all of the liability and financial burden that came with the lot in the form of property taxes, insurance, maintenance and utilities, they could strike a deal.
Over a couple of months, according to Fazekas-Boone, 38, Alchemy’s board of directors deliberated and asked questions, got insurance quotes and went back and forth with the landlord. Eventually they agreed, if two years worth of expenses could be raised, Alchemy would take on the project
Fazekas-Boone started a GoFundMe to take donations that has raised nearly $8,000 over five months. But that’s far off of how much was needed. The property also turned out to be two parcels, according to Boone, and the expenses were going to be more than what was originally anticipated.
“We had kind of given up multiple times during the process. Like, we thought it was dead in the water,” Fazekas-Boone said.
Then came a serendipitous meeting. Over the summer, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a Baltimore-based nonprofit that has been a longtime partner with Pierce County in its efforts to reform juvenile justice, hosted a cohort in Tacoma from the National Association of Counties.
The visit included a tour of juvenile-justice programs in the area, which brought them to Alchemy’s skate shop, Grit City Grindhouse, a few blocks from Fawcett. Alchemy’s executive director, Taylor Woodruff, talked through the programming he offers to young people who come in contact with Pierce County Juvenile Court.
Later that day, the cohort was treated to a baseball game at Cheney Stadium. Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello, who lives near Fawcett with Walker, his partner, got to chatting with a senior associate with the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Mello introduced her to Walker, and over some hot dogs, one thing led to another.
“From the first word I said about the skatepark she was all in,” Walker said.
“Sean started talking about this neighborhood project we’re working on, and she’s like, ‘How much more do they need?’” Mello said. “And Sean said they need ‘X’ amount to finish it, and she’s like, ‘Great! Let me ask a few more questions,’ and like a week later there was a check.”
Woodruff said the foundation reached out saying it wanted to support Alchemy with a $35,000 grant that would primarily go toward reopening Fawcett. He said the goal is to support at-risk youth, and this fit into the bigger picture of Alchemy’s work.
That wasn’t the only huge fundraising boost that helped save the park. Over the summer, the issue was pitched to South Sound 100, a giving group led by Walker and other locals. Members of the group put up a $100 every three months and then get together to vote on one of four nonprofits that will receive the money. According to the group’s website, Alchemy was given $15,200.
A ‘Win-win’ for Tacoma property owner, skaters
Woodruff said Walker has been a big advocate for Alchemy and the Fawcett DIY. His advocacy also brought in more individual donations to the GoFundMe, including $100 from the speaker of the Washington State House of Representatives, Democratic Rep. Laurie Jinkins.
Jinkins represents the 27th Legislative District, which encompasses northern Tacoma and part of South Tacoma, as well as Ruston and Fife. Jinkins, who gave out of her own pocket, said Walker rarely finds a bad investment opportunity.
“I just thought it was a unique idea,” Jinkins told The News Tribune. “I don’t know how it’ll turn out, but it seemed worth it to try to take kind of a, I think, a fairly blighted partial block in the city and let people transform it into something that young people were excited about using, were excited about building and were excited about kind of claiming for themselves.”
With enough money raised to cover the property’s expenses, Alchemy signed a $1 a year lease agreement with the property owner, according to Woodruff. The owner, Anderson, said it was a “win-win.”
“They’re policing the site, and they’re keeping it clean and safe,” Anderson said. “So from that standpoint, whether they skate it one minute or not, they are good custodians of the property.”
Fawcett DIY lives
With the lease signed, the skaters wasted no time getting Fawcett set up to skate again. The morning after it was official, Fazekas-Boone and others cleaned up garbage and hauled in ramps. On an Instagram page for the park, Fazekas-Boone announced a reopening skate jam for the next day, Nov. 9.
“WE’RE SO BACK!!!,” the post’s caption began.
People drove in from Port Orchard, Portland and Seattle to be there, Fazekas-Boone said. Skaters lined up to grind and kickflip obstacles, filming impressive tricks and cheering each other on with the skateboarding world’s version of applause, a chorus of skate decks smacked against the ground. Neighbors came by to enjoy hot dogs, including Mello and Walker.
“He was really cool to see,” Fazekas-Boone said of Mello. “Like, oh this is rad, our freaking Pierce County executive is down here just hanging out.”
Madison Blu’an, a local roller skater who lives on Hilltop, started coming to Fawcett in the park’s early days. She said there isn’t a skate park within 10-15 minutes of where she lives, so she kept going back because it was local. She and other skaters, like Waite, praised the spot for prioritizing simple features over jamming too much into a park at the expense of practicality.
“I showed up to the opening jam, and it was incredible,” Blu’an, 24, said. “The park was, like, so full, but everyone was so happy to be there, and it was such a warm community to be in.”
Fazekas-Boone said he’s been going back to the park every day that it’s dry. He said it’s been heartwarming to see a group of 12-year-old kids coming back day after day to use it.
“They’re skating from all over Tacoma, like, on foot down to the skate park,” Fazekas-Boone said. “It’s just exactly what we would like to see, getting kids outside and skating and having fun and like building a little community there around very easy, cheap stuff to do.”
Fawcett has bought itself some time, but it’s the nature of DIY skateparks to be ephemeral. Although the property isn’t on the market, Anderson has plans to eventually redevelop it into housing once the economy turns around. Even if someone comes around tomorrow who is interested, according to Anderson, these things take time, and it would take about a year to get permits. When she’s ready, Anderson said the skaters would get a 60-day notice.
“They’re sand castles,” Fazekas-Boone said. “They’re eventually going to go back into the ocean, and that is just, it’s the way of it.”
