Quote: Feldman said he would welcome a new park, but with some hesitation.

"Once they give you a place to skate, they will expect you to stay there, which is not how skateboarding works," Feldman said.


Why bother?

Union City's new skateboard park on 38th St. will open tomorrow

Friday, October 10, 2008
By CHARLES HACK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

UNION CITY - Fearless skateboarders will be able to perform aerial tricks and newbies will be able to try out their wheels in the safety of a new public skate park opening tomorrow.

Responding to complaints from local skaters that they had no place to skate without being hassled by cops or local residents, the city - using state Green Acres money - built the skate park at 630 38th St. near Kennedy Boulevard.

The skateboard park is designed for both street and ramp skaters and features such trickster apparatus as kinked rails and grind boxes skaters can glide on, said Christopher Irizarry, the commissioner for parks and public property.

"Skating in the street can be dangerous for pedestrians and kids' safety," he added.

Construction of the skate park and renovation of two nearby basketball courts cost roughly $226,000, officials said.

NYC and Hoboken both have skate parks.

NYC already has 8 Skate Parks:
* Forest Park Skate Park
* Millennium Skate Park
* Mullaly Skate Park
* Riverside Skate Park
* Rockaway Skate Park
* Ben Soto Skate Park
* Bruckner Skate Park
* Bronx Skate Park

Anyone who wants to use it must sign a liability waiver

Requirements for use:
* A signed liability waiver
* Helmet
* Knee pads
* Elbow pads

http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_things ... lities/af_skate_park.html

If you need more info call NYC at 212-NEW-YORK
(311 for outside of area code calls - good to ask the city other questions too)
NYC Skate meetup goes to Hoboken

And the first broken arm gets billed to WHOM?

great idea! i loved the skate and bike parks in bayonne when i drove a minivan and could throw the bike in the back of the van. this will also encourage kids who aren't into team sports to have something fun to do after school and on the weekends. as a kid i skated at pershing field ice rink daily in the winter, and rollerbladed and skateboarded outside of the rink in the summer. i met a lot of great skaters and overall good kids who practiced daily and always had a good time.

All for this plan!

Great idea! There should be a skate park in every city.

It would be a great addition to the area. Plenty of skaters around downtown to make it viable. Seeing how the skate parks have worked out elsewhere because of the of locals, it would be nice to see community hands on involvement in a potential park to make sure that things go right.

I agree!

Here are two related threads:

Skateparks & Shops 1

more

i think it's a good idea..the parks are currently bursting at the seems and a skate park would lessen the load at other parks and create a much needed skate area.`

Skateboarders ask city for skate park under the New Jersey Turnpike near Ferris High School
========================================================

Ready to roll -- Skateboarders ask city for place to practice moves

By Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter staff writer 09/27/2008

BEGINNER ? Downtown Jersey City resident Selina Vargas with her 6-year-old son Jayden Bell, who is learning to skateboard.

Bayonne and Hoboken have popular skate parks, and Union City is about to open one next month, but Jersey City - the second largest city in the state - has none.

Jason "Joshua" Wiggins, a Jersey City resident and co-owner (with his wife Gia) of the Nine Lives Skate Shop on Newark Avenue, says a permanent skate park would keep skateboarders from practicing their moves on the steps of public buildings such as the U.S. Post Office on Montgomery Street.

"We are getting sick of them kicking us out of the post office or other places where we skate," Wiggins said last week. "There needs to be a place where we can practice, especially for young kids who are learning for the first time."

The city has floated the idea for years, with a proposed location on land under the New Jersey Turnpike near Ferris High School in downtown Jersey City.

There are more than 1,000 active skate parks in the United States, full of ramps and curving "half pipes" that allow skaters to practice their kickflips and grinds.

City spokesperson Jennifer Morrill said that the city operated a skate park at the Pershing Field Ice Rink on Summit Avenue during the spring and summer months until this year. She said the city had hired a firm from Connecticut to lay out a skateboarding course, and a skateboarder was hired to oversee the park and teach the sport. But she said attendance dwindled, likely because of the safety rules.

"As the skate park was located in a city building, the city was required to staff it," she said. "Signage was also put in place requiring skateboarders to wear helmets, knee pads and elbow pads. The staff of the skate park strictly enforced these rules. When the park first opened, there would be 30 to 40 attendees on a given day. That quickly dwindled ... the skateboarders instead were skating on the railings in the park outside of the ice rink."

A spot to call their own

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Not long ago, Wiggins and other skateboarders were forced by NJ Transit officials to dismantle a "secret spot" they had built with the various ramps, rails and obstacles on land near light rail tracks by the Jersey City-Hoboken border.

He said the makeshift park had attracted professional skateboarders from the metropolitan area.

Wiggins complained that back in January, he and skater friends attended a council meeting to ask for a skate park, but nothing had been done.

"We told them we wanted a skate park, and they told us they would find a spot for us," Wiggins said. "But it has been almost a year and we have not heard from them."

Wiggins said if the city has delayed because of location, they can transform the roller hockey rink located at the Roberto Clemente Sports Complex on Ninth Street in downtown Jersey City into a skate park. He said he would offer to help design the park, and recommends that the details are made of concrete so that it will last longer.

Using the hockey rink

The city does have some plans - although not as "concrete" as Wiggins might like - to install such a park. In the city's Recreation and Open Space Master Plan, a long-range development plan that has still not been approved by the City Council, there is a recommendation to convert another area within that sports complex into a skate park.

Wiggins said he uses the roller hockey rink often to practice and to teach skateboarding to others, like his 6-year old son. He also meets with other skateboarders who also go there to practice every day except for Tuesday and Thursday evenings, when it is used by an amateur roller hockey team.

At the rink last Tuesday afternoon, 18-year-old Bilale Sakt, 18-year-old Vadim Filatov, and 19-year-old Dave Feldman was demonstrating their moves to each other.

Feldman said he would welcome a new park, but with some hesitation.

"Once they give you a place to skate, they will expect you to stay there, which is not how skateboarding works," Feldman said.

Selina Vargas was also at the rink with her 6-year-old son Jayden Bell, who's learning how to skate.

"This may not be a skate park, but at least they can have some place where they can learn, where they can be part of the culture," she said. "And the kids here are nice and helpful."

Comments on this story can be sent to rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com