Skateparks - Franklin Skatepark Story brentandrews - Oct 04, 2004 - 04:22 PM Post subject: Franklin Skatepark Story
This from Sunday's Williamson AM (The Tennessean):
Recent articles about the city of Franklin's plan to build a skate park compel me to offer some personal insight as a 20-year skater and a taxpayer who sees government spending as everyone's business.
While the current process seems to be moving rapidly, with a finished skate park likely by 2006, discussion of the facility has been ongoing for at least 15 years. I testified at a public hearing on skateboarding in Franklin in 1989, when the city considered and enacted a ban on skating sidewalks. At that time skaters were kicked off the streets and given no public place to practice their sport despite the pleas of the kids and concerned parents for a skate park to compensate for the new strictures.
After the ban I continued skating as usual, hitting shopping centers and church parking lots and backyard ramps and yes, even city streets. As a teenager I enjoyed the outlaw image. That image is part of what attracts so many kids to America's fastest-growing sport. A skatespot that must be hit in the dead of night and skated only a few minutes is all the sweeter for the challenge. Skaters who are pursued by the police and security guards learn to skate faster from the experience. Authoritarian aggression against these recreationists ultimately makes them more numerous and stronger.
Statistics bear out that argument. Despite long-standing laws and posted rules prohibiting skateboarding almost everywhere in our urban environment, The Site Design Group Inc., a skate park designer and builder that recently built Huntsville, Ala.'s private Insanity skate park, notes on its Website that ''the growth of skateboarding continues to increase at an exponential rate. According to data from the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, 11.6 million people between the ages of 6-18 were skateboarding in the year 2000; this number has grown 48.7 percent from 1999. Researchers further expect there to be 15 million skateboarders by 2005.''
Faced with growing complaints from citizens tired of competing with skaters for the same public sidewalks, cities across the country have responded at last with a surge of skate park construction. USA Today estimated in June 2002 that there were 1,000-1,200 city skate parks across the country.
It seems high time Franklin addressed this recreational need. The city owns soccer fields, baseball fields, football fields and even a horse farm. It may soon own a golf course. Perhaps as a result of wild spending elsewhere, Franklin is several years behind the times with its skate park project.
My gut reaction after all these years is to ask the city to stay out of skateboarding. Forget the park. Send the feds their (our) money back and spend the local cash on the horse farm the citizens may never be finished paying for. Skaters don't need coaches to tell them how to skate or governments to tell them where to skate. We can build backyard ramps with a couple thousand dollars and set our own rules. That's the beauty of skateboarding.
However, it seems city officials are excited about a skate park and that's what they're going to get. But after seeing last week' presentation by the Parks Department, I feel a few pitfalls need to be pointed out by a skater who's ''dropped in'' a few times.
The current design being considered for Franklin's skate park incorporates steps, ledges, rails and other obstacles typically found ''on the street.'' The idea, according to Parks Department officials, is to give skaters the kind of terrain they seem to want and keep them off the streets. But this design will only train skaters for street sessions. Once they get bored with the park, they'll be out practicing their new tricks on the doorsteps of city businesses.
While planning a street-skating park, the Parks Department is also planning a full-pads rule enforceable by fines. But helmets, kneepads and elbow pads get in the way of street skating. While ramp or transition skaters tend to wear pads, street skaters tend to shun them. Anyone visiting Nashville's skate park at Two Rivers Park can see this for themselves. Despite threats of fines and even expulsion from the park, street skaters simply won't wear pads.
The Franklin Parks Department should know its constituency better, and set rules that fit the type of skateboarding that will go on at the local park. Otherwise, there will be trouble between skaters and police and the youths will learn to avoid police and despise their government.
The street-plaza plan is also the most expensive way to build a skate park. While ramps and bowls may stand alone, plazas require large flat areas, sidewalks, planters and other amenities that create additional expense for the taxpayers. This information is widely available on the Internet.
Fine — the money's going to be spent anyway. But let's get something useful for our money.
Skate parks can be great places for youths to hang out. Energy spent skateboarding isn't wasted fighting or vandalizing. There are many benefits waiting for the person willing to endure the occasional ''gnarly slams'' and really learn how to skate hard and fast.
But skate parks can also be boondoggles: Witness poor Clarksville, which built a skate park so dangerous it had to be shut down and redesigned. The first and last time I skated Clarksville's park, I arrived to find a large pool of blood in the shallow bowl and skated with a knot in my stomach the whole time. I never went back.
The Nashville skate park, on the other hand, is much larger and less dangerous. It's keeping the interest of skaters and eating fewer of them, too. The difference between the bad and the good is planning and having real skaters on the planning committees, and real skate park builders pouring the concrete. There is no substitute for professional skate park designers and builders for these very expensive projects.
I hope City Hall is listening. Many of my fellow skaters are writing and e-mailing officials with some of the same thoughts. Local skaters should be assembled on a committee and allowed to help plan a safe and varied park that will keep Franklin's skaters interested for the long haul. If not, the skate park could be a large waste of local and federal money and one more wedge between skaters who thrive on the fringes of all of our neighborhoods and the government that should be looking out for them.
DaddyYo - Oct 05, 2004 - 03:13 AM Post subject:
Wow, this really did get printed! Here's the link:
http://www.tennessean.com/williamsonam/opinion/columns/archives/04/09/58860516.shtml?Element_ID=58860516
When I first read the article I thought it was something Brent was thinking about writting. I could never imagine a newspapaer allowing a "reporter" to call enforcement of the laws of a city as "Authoritarian aggression". But then I remembered it was the Tennessean. Not your most objective newspaper.
I agree with the main point, that the city should build a skatepark with skater input and design/build professionals.
It is unfortunate that Brent uses the "screw the Government/Government should take care of me" philosophy of the left to justify a skate park. The reasoning of a city spinsored facility to respond to the needs of the citizens is cause enough.
I'm afraid Brent summed up why Franklin has been so slow to build a skatepark in his closing statement:
"one more wedge between skaters who thrive on the fringes of all of our neighborhoods and the government that should be looking out for them. "
Why in the world should government look out for any one who thrives on the fringes of society? Those are just the kind of people that Franklin is concerned about attracting to a skatepark.
It would have been better to portray a skatepark full of happy, shining people. The sons and daughters of the wealthy people of Franklin and Williamson County. Most people move to Williamson County to escape the kind of people who are on the fringes of society.
Now you expect them to build a facility to attract them?
Guess that put another nail in that coffin.
ur1snazzykid1 - Oct 05, 2004 - 08:36 PM Post subject:
Hm, the article makes sense, somewhat.. but I think we need a skatepark in Franklin. It's too far away from me, but some people drive too far to skateparks.
But skating is gettin really popular lately. When I got my first board I was eight, that was almost six years ago. Not many people skated back then. I gave up on it cause I had knee problems.. Anyway, I just picked it back up about three months ago. Now half of the people I know skate.. I think the movie Grind influenced a lot of kids..
Thats off-topic.. but I'm just saying that right now a skatepark in Franklin is a good idea. Yet, what happens in a couple years when about 3/4s of the people skating right now give up?
brentandrews - Oct 05, 2004 - 10:50 PM Post subject:
This was an opinion piece, written as an observer and commentator and not as a reporter. Its placement in Sunday's paper and its style make that pretty clear. It's my opinion that we live under a tyrannical and oppressive government. It is documented fact that the government's initial reaction to skateboarding, at least locally, was to outlaw it and forget it as if that would stamp it out. That's what I'd call authoritarian aggression. Fortunately it didn't work. I personally think it backfired. When the government failed to build skateparks, skaters took to the streets. When the government made skateboarders outlaws it also made them heroes.
As for government protecting and providing for fringe elements: It's widely accepted that First Amendment protections are meant most specifically for "unpopular" sentiment -- that which might come from, say, a fringe element. Other "fringe" elements that have long been specific targets of special government protections include women, religious and ethnic minorities, and the persecuted sons and daughters of foreign nations. Yes, DaddyYo, whether you like it or not, this government has a longstanding obligation to fringe elements.
That said, you're welcome to paint whatever picture you want in your own commentary. The press is still free, anyway.
BRENT
Gilligan - Oct 05, 2004 - 11:08 PM Post subject:
ur1snazzykid1 wrote:
Yet, what happens in a couple years when about 3/4s of the people skating right now give up?
3/4's of the current crop will quit, but the crop is so big now, it is in a period of uncommon growth. Skateboarding will never die out to the extent it did in previous decades. Now that there is a growing base of permanent public skateparks, with a diverse group of STOKED skaters... skateboarding is only going to get bigger.
The majority of older guys I have met who were once street skaters are more stoked on transition skating, now that there are proper parks across the country. Not many guys who are over 30 are really into giant drops, rails, and techy flip tricks. 35 year old joints just can't take the beating.
Sk8Geezer - Oct 05, 2004 - 11:11 PM Post subject:
..and as we all know every basketball court and tennis court is always packed to capacity, getting the FULL use by the public... not to mention all those people waiting in line to frisbee golf.
that's my poor explanation of my thoughts that Yes, we will still be using these skateparks long after the boom is over. Kona is still surviving after all these years. (The government man didn't build that park)
Zato_Ichi - Oct 06, 2004 - 06:26 AM Post subject:
Right on Brent!
Franklin and other cities everywhere need to recognize the fact that Skateboarding is not a passing fad, the whole idea that a skate plaza could one day be turned into a picnic area for families is absurd! A skatepark is an area for Families as is, and the city needs to understand that. I know that i am not the only guy bringing their kids to the CWC and skates with them, and there are Moms who skate too. As far as a skatepark intentionaly designed for skating, be it ledges or tranny losing popularity goes, I say not in this lifetime. There will always be Groms coming up and needing a place to grind and old schoolers looking for a laid back session.
Cities rarely ever build recreational facilities for teens either, you have your playgrounds for the little kids and your tennis courts and golf course for the adults. Sure they build basketball, baseball and soccer facilities but those are for the jock kids, what about the rest of the so-called "at risk" youth? The government doesn't build facilities for them to occupy their time then shake their heads in disbelief whenever they get involved in something they shouldn't have.
Were I a politician I would rather have to replace ledges, handrails and bus benches every day if kids were Skating instead of doing drugs or commiting crimes. I would rather face a budget comitee with a balance sheet full of red ink then have to face a mother and tell her that her kid died in a crack house down the street because the jocks wouldn't let him play basketball and the cops wouldn't let him skate.
Admin - Oct 06, 2004 - 07:08 AM Post subject:
I think Franklin Park Officials have lost there damn minds. It sounds to me like they don''t really care about skateboarders, they just want them off the public hand rails, ledges or whatever is supposedly getting destroyed in Franklin. If they cared about skateboarders, don''t you think they would consider building a bowl. The fact of the matter is that the City Of Franklin does not have a bowl that is getting destroyed by the skaters. Therefore they don''t need to build one. Its not in the cities interest to give all skaters a park. Only the ones that have become a thorn in the cities side.
rwadley - Oct 06, 2004 - 05:21 PM Post subject:
you know my opinion. convert the street skaters. they like to skate tranny, they just don't know it yet.
JJ - Oct 06, 2004 - 05:53 PM Post subject:
Honestly I think almost every street skater will enjoy transition skating if given the opportunity to do it for a while. I dissagree that everyone will eventually stop street skating when they get older though. Old joints can take "flippy tricks" and rails ect.......its just most of the older guys were never proficient at those tricks when they started. Rather than look like complete rookies again practicing ollies in their driveway and hitting manual pads the OS guys would rather skate tranny. Which I can see cause it is more fun for them than jumping around in the driveway trying to learn a kickflip. I think the newest crop of street skaters will like skating both if given the opportunity to hit some transition, but I don't think they will ever get the street tricks completely out of their blood.
Gilligan - Oct 06, 2004 - 06:06 PM Post subject:
I practice ollies in my driveway. I still can't bust a decent one, but it's a good board handling skill to have.
You're right about lack of proficiency, though... I never have and never will slide a rail... I need my handicap ramp (tranny) to get me up to the rail (coping).
misfits_sk8_138 - Oct 07, 2004 - 05:07 AM Post subject:
Heres the bottom line they need to put tranny in the park not just street shit. make it avalible to ALL skaters.