Council asked to preserve skateboarding’s heritage
After years of painstaking plan-ning, Santa Monica may finally get a skate park tonight.
But even if the city council approves the $572,000 proposal, it is unlikely to quiet the vocal criticism leveled at the park by the founders of modern skateboarding, which essentially evolved along the Santa Monica-Venice border.
“Basically, the beach is where it all started — the roots of skate-boarding comes from that area,” said Santa Monica native Tony Alva, a professional skateboarder who helped found the sport.
“It comes from the beach scene in Santa Monica and Venice, where people gathered to go surfing and hang out at the beach and that’s where any skate park should be built,” he said.
Alva and other local skateboard-ing enthusiasts want the city to build the new facility in Crescent Park, which is adjacent to the beach between Bay and Bicknell Streets.
City officials want to build the skating facility in Memorial Park, directly where newly acquired playground equipment is now located. Under the city’s proposal, the playground equipment would be squeezed between the little league baseball fields and the parking lot.
Memorial Park is located at the corner of Olympic Boulevard and 16th Street.
“The biggest factor is that the money is there,” said Neil Carrey, a recreation and parks commissioner. “It’s questionable that if we don’t build it there now, that we would ever get a skate park.”
Critics of the Memorial Park location say those playing organized sports and those skateboarding won’t mix well at the park. Supporters, however, believe everyone will get along just fine.
“It’s not like we’re putting a gang center next to baseball fields,” Carrey said. “My concern with the location is the parking situation — it’s already awful and the skate park would only make it worse.”
Officials believe the city would face a lengthy approval process and difficulty in obtaining state and regional permission to build the park on the beach because California closely regulates any coastline uses.
For instance, in Santa Barbara it took 10 years to get all the necessary approvals before it could build its beach-side skate park.
Also, officials worry that because Santa Monica’s beaches draw a regional crowd, locals who want to use the skate park could be crowded out.
“There seems to be a belief that the more something is inside the city, the less people come from elsewhere come to use it,” Carrey said. “But when you are at the beach, it becomes an attraction for people outside the city.”
To Alva, the draw should be considered a positive aspect. Skateboarders world-wide know Santa Monica as the birthplace of the sport and a skate park on the beach would bring them to the city.
“Santa Monica revolves around the tourist industry,” he said. “Something like this would only attract more people to the area and bring the city more business.”
“It would be another attraction for those who want to enjoy another piece of the California lifestyle.”
But more than helping the city with its slumping tourist business, Alva said the city owes it to its skateboarding heritage to not only build the park, but to build it in the right place.
“The city has the money, the energy, and the youth on their side,” he said. “But they’ve done nothing but take from the skaters and surfers and used that image to make money off our lifestyle.”
“...They’ve done nothing but take from the skaters and surfers and used that image to make money off our lifestyle.” — — TONY ALVA Professional skateboarder
“It’s time for the city to step-up and do something right by us now.”
A petition is being circulated asking the city council not to approve the current proposal and move the skate park to the beach, where they say there are more mass-transit bus lines and adequate parking.
“We strongly encourage the city council of Santa Monica to stop playing politics with our future and approve the beach location,” the petition states, “so we can preserve Santa Monica’s reputation as the skate/surf capital USA and the birthplace of modern skateboarding.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 9, 2002. Read the original PDF.