A Save The Skatepark initiative has been started, and seems to be making progress towards removing the dirt that fills the bowl at the skate park at East Side Recreation Field. The bowl was filled in last year as an “interim solution” to the liability problems that the city was facing after laying off the skate park supervisors due to budget cuts.
Many of the skateboarders in the Saratoga Springs area saw the bowl as their holy grail. It was the most fun, exciting way for these kids (and adults) to get exercise. Some skaters would even drive 100+ miles to come to Saratoga to skate the bowl, and undoubtedly spend some money before they left. After the half-pipe was removed in 2003 over safety concerns, the bowl offered skaters a little bit of vert without the possibility of falling off the ramp.
According to Charlie Samuels, one of the skaters trying to save the park, the bowl isn’t as dangerous as it appears. The bowl offers vertical walls to skate, while always having a surface to break your fall. You cannot fall out of the bowl.
The skate park is currently opened from dawn to dusk, and without supervision a skate at your own risk policy is in effect. Mayor Scott Johnson says that the skate at your own risk policy will only work if the bowl is filled with dirt. Volunteering arrangements were being looked at in order to provide supervision for the skate park, but most are skeptical that volunteer staff can be unreliable. So for now skateboarders can just look and dream of skating the famous bowl.
Samuels has written several letters and started a facebook page that has almost 3000 fans.The most recent letter states that the $30,000 loan taken to build the bowl is still being paid off, even though nobody is using it. The letter also states that the last time Samuels was at the park (Sept. 11 at 4pm) there were 22 people using the skate park, and zero people using East Side Rec for any other sport. The skateboarding community has even vowed to dig the bowl out themselves if given permission, meaning no additional money will need to be spent to remove the dirt.
How do you feel about the skate bowl at East Side Rec? Would you be willing to volunteer to supervise the park so skaters can enjoy the bowl? What if each skater was charged a dollar or two admission fee to help pay park attendants?
Photos from facebook.com/pages/save-the-skatepark/108318545861278
First of all, I did not start the ‘save the skatepark’ page. Second of all we have since heard conflicting information about the bowl loan – we are pretty sure that the $30,000.00 “bowl” is paid off but not the steel ramps at the Skatepark. But the bottom line is that despite many correspondences with City Hall and the Mayor they have not given us ANY information or responded in any way to our requests.
The crux of this issue is that skateparks are looked at differently than other forms of recreation. There are no gates or monitors at playgrounds or football fields and anyone can use a public tennis or basketball court at any time without having someone to tell them they have to wear a helmet or the hours of operation. Are playgrounds and jungle jims safe for a three year old? Hell no. Are they open for a child to play on 6′ up in the air without a government agent standing guard over them? Hell yea…
The perceived danger that skating poses to our youth seems to be the biggest dark cloud over our sport and until someone at the government level takes a real look at the legality of treating one public recreation use differently than another this problem will continue.
Open the bowl and stop with the “big brother” mentality that we are all better off with government supervision… we’re not.
Good points Tom. I take my kids to playgrounds every week and I watch them closely. My 2-year-old has climbed up on platforms that have 6-foot drops on three sides. My 4-year-old has slid down playground fire poles that are 12 feet off the ground. Have there been falls? Yeah. Maybe even some cuts and bruises. It’s all part of play; But I would never want a municipality to lock up or staff a playground. We play there at our own risk, just as we skateboard at our own risk.
We are willing to excuse the City’s use of public funds without public input to fill the bowl. We aren’t even asking them to undo what they did. All we want is a simple green light to fix things ourselves so that we can dig the bowl out and have it be skateable again.
Just got an email from Charlie Samuels with this plea:
“Dear Everyone I know in Saratoga Springs,
If there is ever I time to help me in reversing the City’s inane decision to fill the Skateboard Park “bowl” with dirt and it’s subsequent lack of communication with me — THIS IS IT!
So if I could have 15 minutes of your time at 7pm tonight please to show your support by showing up at the City Hall Budget Council meeting and watch my speech on how it would cost ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM I would be psyched! PARENTS WITH KIDS ESPECIALLY!”