Sunday, June 12, 2011
Neighborhoods Tony Hawk helps unveil Historic Fourth Ward Skate Park along Beltline
Posted by Dustin Chambers @dustchambers on Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 9:22 PM
Located in the Old Fourth Ward in the shadows of Freedom Parkway, the 15,000 square-foot facility along the Beltline offers bowls, curbs, smooth-rolling concrete mounds — all the things a skateboarder could want.
"I'm shocked at how big it is," Hawk, whose philanthropic foundation awarded the project $25,000, told CL between skating and signing autographs. "It's so expansive and offers something for all skill levels. It's great."
The project's been a long time coming. Thomas Taylor, owner of Little Five Points' Stratosphere Skateboards, first broached the city with the idea of building a public skate park 15 years ago. In addition to questions about funding, officials wondered if it'd be feasible to build the skate park in an existing park. Nothing happened. Meanwhile, Taylor watched as other local governments built skate projects. (Gwinnett County has eight.)
Six years ago, the Atlanta skateboarding community started practicing tricks at an abandoned piece of property owned by Cox Communications at the end of Willoughby Way. While still pushing the city to build a skate park, it became a safe spot to ride. Bar-be-cues were held and vigilante concrete was occasionally poured.
Thankfully, Taylor said, Beltline officials and the Trust for Public Land worked with that skateboarding community to turn that same rough piece of property into the glimmering facility where skaters on Saturday watched Hawk — and more than 60 other skateboarders, at least — practice tricks. (Hawk said Taylor and Beltline officials' clear vision for the site, plus the preliminary groundwork already completed, played a role in his foundation's decision to award the cash.)
Skaters on Saturday were ecstatic that, after years of driving to other counties and paying entrance fees to skate at other public and private parks, Atlanta's vibrant skateboard community now had a safe, well-designed place to ride without fear of being hassled by police or security guards.
"It's kind of like a weird dream," Taylor told CL as skateboarders of all ages practiced on Saturday. "I'm stoked. The kids are stoked."
Comments (15)
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What happened to the skate park planned for Piedmont Park? Was that killed off because the Atlanta Botanical Garden thought the users would scare off patrons at the Garden?
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From what I understand, my dear friend QM, the Piedmont Park Conservancy is currently raising funds to build the park, which is part of a future expansion.
Hope this means the skateboarders who are in love with the interstate overpasses downtown will move on over to the skate park. I'm sure they don't mean any harm but it's just a matter of time before one of them gets hit by a car. I do wonder where some of the parents are when the obviously underage kids are out skating late into the night, especially when school is in session. The skate park won't help much with that issue though...
Couldn't Piedmont Park just pour some skateboarding ramps around the Botanical Gardens parking deck? Is anybody actually parking cars in it?
JoeinATL, I am not sure if yours was a real question or just a rhetorical one, but yes, the parking deck actually gets quite a bit of use, particularly on the weekends, during summer (the Piedmont Pool is usually packed), and during the many festivals.
As for the Piedmont Park Skate Park, my bet is that it will be one of the items that is forever shown on the renderings but in a *much* later phase of construction, like the Carousel that is supposed to inhabit the land just south of the Bocce courts.
Visited this on Sunday. Very cool park and it was full of skateboarders braving the heat. I was happy to find out how easy it is to access this from the Freedom Path and the little bridge over Freedom Parkway. This is going to be a really nice park of the Beltline when it's finished.
I was also happy to see the construction happening on the NE Beltline next to the skate park and to see the progress on the 2nd part of the O4W park. This whole area is shaping up to be a highlight of the city.
yet another insightfull comment by joe who obviously has never parked his car in the parking deck.....
Even if I had a car, I'd never park it in that ridiculous deck. If I were too lazy to take my bike, and too stupid to figure out how to use MARTA, then I'd still just park in Midtown or Virginia Highland or Ansley Park and save myself the $2.00/hour.
Scott: If the Atlanta Botanical Garden parking deck gets a lot of use, aren't all those cars driving through Piedmont Park? Isn't a main goal to get cars out of the Park, not to put even more into it? And if we're trying to get people to ride/walk/bike/use/etc. the BeltLine, why encourage all those cars to drive into the City and INTO Piedmont ParK?
As far as I know, there is only one entrance into the parking deck, and that is from Piedmont. Its a very short drive from Piedmont into the parking deck. its not like people are driving from one end of the park to the other in order to get to the parking deck. I think the main goal of the parking deck was to get more people to park in a centralized area instead of the surrounding neighborhoods. This accomplishes two things: 1. it gets more people to the park because they arent worried about having to park a long distance from the park and 2. it eliminates foot/car traffic in the surrounding neighborhoods (which usually brings with it noise/trash).
Yes, in an ideal world people wouldnt use cars. We're probably over 100 years from that occurring, so I believe building a parking deck was a good solution for the next 50-100 years.
@(get a clue): Your 100-year timeline completely arbitrary. We could get to that point within a decade if people would make a genuine commitment. It will take 1,000 years if people continue to be lazy.
It seems like we both agree that a society less dependent on cars would be better. But I make the argument that we should start moving ourselves in that direction immediately, thus building an infrastructure that will allow more and more people to shed their cars in the relatively short term. You make the argument that we should rely on temporary crutches (like the Piedmont Park deck) and postpone our efforts to get to a place that you, yourself, called "ideal".
I fail to understand why you are putting such value on procrastination. Do you perhaps think that all of our other problems (war, climate change, decreasing natural resources, obesity) are going to be solved in 50 years, so that in 2061 we can turn our attention to this car thing with a clear head?
fortunately or unfortunately, we live in a free society where people can pretty much do what they want as long as they follow the law. i would suggest instead of writing inane postings on here Joe, you might head to washington dc to start on your campaign to make driving a car illegal. Because its either that or gas to hit $10 a gallon (I'm not quite sure this would work) or petroleum can no longer be extracted economically from the ground. Those are pretty much the only 3 ways people will stop driving a car fueled by gasoline.
Yes you can build all the transportation infrastructure you want ( but that will NEVER EVER stop people from using gasoline powered automobiles unless one of the three criteria I mention above is met. If you think differently you are living in some type of fantasy world, which wouldnt surprise me since you think something like "war" could ever be solved. So in order to better serve the drivers of the world, I still believe a parking deck in piedmont park was a great idea.
Moving towards a carless world is great, and in fact I agree that we are not moving in the direction quickly enough. But you still have to accomodate cars while they are still being used. Not doing so is very short sighted. By your thought process we should immediately stop repairing and improving roads, but only repair sidewalks, mass transit systems, and bike paths, because this would discourage people from driving. how much sense does that make?
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