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Written by Rosemary Winters - The Salt Lake Tribune
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Tuesday, 24 April 2007 |
Fourteen-year-old skateboarder James Daniels, of Salt... (Danny Chan La/The Salt Lake Tribune)
TAYLORSVILLE - Even on a weekday, the skate park at 4800 S. Redwood Road is packed, reverberating with the sound of polyurethane wheels scraping against concrete.
Adolescent boys with shaggy hair and skinny jeans hanging from their hips show off kickflips, ollies and noseslides, heckling each other when they fall.
You would never guess that at least a handful of them are vigilantes - or maybe just the punk rock version of hall monitors.
They have to be to keep their park open.
Increasingly, at skate parks around Salt Lake County, skateboarders - whether they are age 14 or 40 - are asking municipalities to improve their opportunities to skate by opening new parks, installing lights or simply keeping existing parks open.
Far from just whining, many of the skaters also have offered to raise money or police the parks, which often are targets of vandalism and graffiti.
Take, for example, three Kennedy Junior High ninth-graders who in February slipped through a gap in the Taylorsville Skate Park's fence to help two other kids at work painting over graffiti that had caused the city to close the park, indefinitely, over Presidents Day weekend.
Austin Martin, an eighth-grade student at Taylorsville's Eisenhower Junior High, also helped.
"We were pissed," says 15-year-old Tyson Kirth. "This [park]
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is all we have."
Kirth and his schoolmates, Jake Adamson and Ryan Austin, bum rides from their parents to get to the park from their West Valley City homes. Their city, the second-biggest in the state, doesn't have a public skate park. Taylorsville, a 10-minute drive away, is their best option, but they wish their city would build a skate park.
"Everyone in West Valley would go to it," Adamson says, arguing his case. "It would save a lot of gas [and help slow] global warming."
That last point might be a bit of a stretch for city officials, but even they acknowledge the demand is there.
It's the money that's not.
"There's a need for [a skate park] in the community," says Kevin Astill, West Valley City's parks and recreation director. "But I'm not sure the city's ready to proceed with it."
Robyn Kirth, Tyson's mom, was surprised to learn the teens spent a Saturday on self-appointed cleanup duty. But then again, it made sense.
"Skateboarders have a really bad reputation, but they're good kids," Kirth says. "Tyson had the lead in the school play. He has a 3.9 GPA. I always feel like I have to tell people that when I say he's a skateboarder."
Ben Pellegrino, co-owner of Milo Sport in Orem, agrees skateboarders are still perceived by many to be troublemakers, even though the sport has become much more mainstream. He'd like to see lighting at more skate parks so kids can have safe places to ply their sport.
Pellegrino and others see some inequity when they drive by baseball diamonds, tennis courts and basketball hoops, often unused - their lights on tall towers shining through the night. No Utah County skate parks are lit, and only three of Salt Lake County's eight have lights.
But he's reluctant to complain - too much.
Farmington built the state's first skate park in 1996. Now there are as many as 50 statewide, according to skateboarding Web site www.concretedisciples.com.
"We are so grateful for what has happened," Pellegrino says. "Skateboarding is coming of age."
And more skate parks are on the way.
Salt Lake City is planning a $530,000 facility, expected to be built this year, at its Rosewood Park, 1200 West and 1200 North. Herriman wants to begin construction in May on its first skate park, a $500,000 project planned at 5800 West and 13400 South.
Salt Lake County government, which does not own any skate parks, has plans to build three at Oquirrh Park in Kearns, Copperview Recreation Center in Midvale and Magna Copper Park in Magna.
"Initially, [skate parks] looked like a flash in the pan, and you'd have an investment that got dusty over time. That's not the case," says Wayne Johnson, county director of park operations.
"Skate parks continue to grow. There's no sign that the need is going to subside."
Cyprus High School students petitioned Salt Lake County for the Magna skate park, which will be built inexpensively with modular equipment the county already owns. The students held fundraisers, including a bake sale, to raise $2,000 for the project, Johnson says.
That kind of activism is happening at Salt Lake City's Fairmont Skate Park, too. There, Andrew Mitchell, 36, has gathered more than 1,100 signatures of skaters who want the city to light the skate park at night. (The rest of Fairmont Park already has lights.)
A few months ago, Mitchell filed a formal request for $62,000 to light the park and presented the mayor and City Council with autographed, glow-in-the-dark skateboards that read, "Light the skate park."
He expects to have an answer by July 1, when the city begins its new fiscal year. If the city opts to only partially fund the request, Mitchell has volunteered to raise the remainder.
"We're going to get it done either way," he says. "The original purpose of building the skate park was to take the skaters off of dangerous streets and get them out of parking lots and malls and put them in a safe environment.
"The park does that until the sun goes down, . . . and then they return to the other spots."
Mitchell, who owns a filming company, enjoys skateboarding at least once a week at Fairmont with a group of men, who range in age from 30 to 50. It's his "medication" and "relaxation," he says.
A father of 6- and 9-year-old boys, Mitchell sees himself as a de facto "soccer mom" for skateboarders at Fairmont.
"I feel like the city would build a soccer field faster than anything, [because skateboarders] don't go to community meetings. Soccer moms go to community meetings," Mitchell says. "There's nobody to represent [skateboarders] in the adult world. That's what I'm doing. I'm trying to be a skateboard coach."
He hopes cities will start to recognize how much skaters value their parks.
"We go out and shovel it in the winter. That's how dedicated - or crazy - we are," Mitchell says. "If you look at bang-for-your-buck, a skate park is definitely on the high-efficiency side. There are skaters there all the time. There are more skaters in [Fairmont] Park per square foot [than other users] by far."
That kind of dedication has helped Taylorsville Mayor Russ Wall see his city's park in a better light. Last year, he considered asking the City Council to shut down the park permanently.
The park has experienced vandalism, litter and even an impromptu fire pit that some skaters lit to do "extreme" jumps over.
"But I've been really impressed with how well the kids have stepped up and taken care of the problem themselves," Wall says, referring to the junior high students and 27-year-old Erik Plummer, who volunteered to remove graffiti last fall.
"This group of skaters has actually kind of patrolled [the skate park], and it's been a really positive thing."
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 24 April 2007 )
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