Skaters Incorporated
is all about making sure your town has a skatepark.
Five years ago nobody did, but now many towns now have a municipally funded skateboarding
facility. If your town doesn't, someone's slacking - and there IS likely something
you could do about it.
Most parks have a story. Most parks almost didn't get built for some reason or
other. All parks demonstrate what young community members can accomplish when
they get organized, and become actively involved in their town's political system.
No town ever just offered to build a park, none that we know of anyways. It's
been an independent battle in every town, with key players in each one. The problem
is, that there is no specific formula for getting support and funding for a skatepark.
Every town has a different agenda, different obstacles to overcome, and different
issues to resolve in the construction of a park. If your town doesn't have a park,
it's probably about either funding or politics... If politics are what's got you
down, you should see Skatepark.org.
It's a site that offers advice and assistance to those in need of a park.
On the funding side, there's Calgary's new park. Toronto could learn a thing or
two from the construction of the world's largest skatepark, which recently opened
at Shaw Millennium Park in Calgary.
The $1.8 million concrete skatepark takes public skate facilities to a new level.
This park is in a high profile, central location, it's open 24 hours a day with
lights and -oh hey, it's always free. Shaw Millennium Park includes a family park,
with a fountain and waterfall, playing fields, stage, clock tower and a large
building that will shoot a tower of lasers into the sky for special events. Ellis-Don
Construction and Concreate built the park under the supervision of Jay Balmer
with the support of Jim Barnum's extensive experience. Maybe these guys can offer
some insight into how they got funding… http://members.home.net/j.balmer/index.html
Of course the easiest thing to do is just build your own..>>>
Adam Barker