Skateparks For Cities

David Williams

English 3

10/18/16

Pahomov

Skateparks for Cities

For many years, skateboarding, scooting and BMX have been popular worldwide. However, skateparks have not always been around for all that glory. So, naturally, riders made the world their skatepark. As adventurous as that may sound to some, this wreaks havoc on city structures and concerns civilians. Somehow there's just something about a kid on a skateboard or a scooter that terrifies people and makes them want to call the police. It is clear that kids riding on city structures is not good for the city or the general public, but how can skateparks affect the city health and the reputation of skating? Maybe if kids have a designated place to skate, it will keep them out of other areas.

Every city needs a skatepark so riders have a place to enjoy themselves. However, many people associate skateparks with drugs and trouble. This may be true sometimes, but for the most part, this is not the case. Skateparks help riders form strong community and have a place to socialize with each other. It's  place where riders. can express themselves. They can forget about their problems and just ride. For example, the recently opened Paines skate park in Philadelphia… The paines park fund website even says that their goal is to make a skatepark available within a 10 minute walk of every skater. Their site shows how the parks can form strong communities and keep kids out of trouble and just what a positive influence it can have on everyone.

In Philadelphia, skaters loved Love park. It is considered by many individuals, “The skatepark of Philadelphia.” It hosted the 2001 and 2002 X-Games. Riders loved it so much that documentaries were made about Love park made by skaters and just people alike. To many skaters, these things became their culture but unfortunately for everyone, skating still remained a nightmare for the city. People started complaining about the drug use and destruction of property. This led to the banning of skateboards in Love Park. Police were  assigned to maintain the grounds clear at all times of the day. This hurt the city as a whole because the riders spread out and rode in even more places and some even retaliated against the police.

Obviously, riders found loopholes in this and somehow still proceeded to skate at Love Park. This also gave them motive to find more places in the city to ride at. However, something had to change, so the city began construction on Paine’s park. This was possibly Philly’s biggest breakthrough. When paine's first opened, there was a huge ceremony that just about every skater in the city attended. There were speeches about why philly really needed a skatepark in the center city area. They explained how Love Park was becoming unuseable by the public because of skaters and how paines was really needed. They even cut a golden ribbon, which showed how proud they were to have built paines park.

After paine's opened, skating at love Park began to die down. The park was so packed that skaters had to form lines to ride the park. It was a miracle for the city, because people could enjoy love park again and skaters had their place of recreation. This alone proves that something as simple as a skatepark can do so much for a city. Skaters are actually coming from other areas to ride at paines, so it has a ripple affect to areas near philadelphia. The number of skaters at love park and in similar areas had greatly decreased and paines has become a magnet for community. would see a beautiful community where almost everyone gets along and enjoys their time there. So what does a skatepark do for a city, it creates a city wide equilibrium, keeps the general public happy and keeps skaters out of trouble.

Works Cited

"About." Franklin's Paine Skatepark Fund. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2016. <http://franklinspaine.com/about>.

"History of Skating in LOVE Park." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2016. <http://www.ushistory.org/lovepark/history2.htm>.

"How Much Do Skateparks Cost?" Public Skatepark Development Guide. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2016. <http://publicskateparkguide.org/fundraising/how-much-do-skateparks-cost/>.