The Bike, Blade & Board Coalition--regular update
February 4th, 2003
This article came out in the ASU Web Devil a good few months ago. The reporter, Joy Hepp, interviewed Jason Davies, Seth Mason, and myself for it. I think she didn't use anything I told her because the other guys pretty much covered it. Although this article ran a little while ago, it's still very pertinent today as bmx bike riders still have no legal, public place to ride bikes in Maricopa County.
BMX rider gaining fame
Britain pushing for bike parks in Tempe, surrounding cities
By Joy Hepp <main.cfm?include=displaystaffbio&authorid=400684>
The biography for Jason Davies on the EXPN extreme sports Web site states that his hometown is Tempe, Ariz.
This may come as a bit of a surprise when fans first meet him and he speaks with a British accent. Born and raised in Bristol, England, Davies moved to the United States in order to advance his career in freestyle BMX riding.
“It was mostly because of the weather,” he says. “Back in England we would drive for hours just to find somewhere to ride and we would get there and there would be pouring rain.”
Davies will be in Tempe this afternoon through Sunday on the last stop of the five-month Taz Atti-tour. The tour sets up mobile bike/skate parks in different cities, showcasing the skills of approximately 40 of the best bikers, skaters and skateboarders in the country.
“Not every town has skate parks, and if they do, a lot of them don’t allow bike riders.” he says. “So this traveling bike park enables the kids to have a place to go and to get some advice from the pros.”
“It kind of sucks for bike riders because there generally aren’t that many places for them to go,” he says. “For some reason cities are afraid of bikers, which doesn’t really make sense because not only has bike riding been around longer [than skateboarding], but statistically, they both have about the same chance of injury.”
Right now, Tempe is one of these cities. The idea of the city opening a park specifically for bikers is a half-pipe dream for skaters like Davies, and right now local bikers are working diligently just to be allowed shared use of the already crowded skate parks.
“There are at least 10 skate parks that do not allow bikes for one stupid reason or another,” says Seth Mason, a 17-year-old Tempe resident who is one of the hundreds of local bikers working to clear up the misconceptions about their sport.
“The No. 1 reason is, they say our pegs damage the coping, which is a metal bar that is used to grind on, like skaters do, or the concrete.”
There are a lot of factors involved in securing a place for bikers to go, Davies says, but most of the time it starts with the local government. Right now there are plans in the works for a new skate park in Tempe, but as of yet, the city council has agreed to keep the bikers out of the park.
“We are working with Phoenix, Mesa, Glendale, and Chandler to start other projects there but I doubt they will even be as receptive as Tempe has,” Mason says. “They have actually had meetings with us [whereas] most other cities just think we are just some punk kids.”
Without a designated place to practice their sport, many bikers resort to extreme measures in order to ride.
“The majority of people that live here ride ‘Street,’ which is where you grind on ledges, hand rails and other stuff, which is something we try to bring up when we meet with city government. We have to resort to riding in streets with many hazards and that’s not exactly safe for anybody,” Mason says.
Davies got his start in a generation and a land very far away from Mason and his friends in Tempe. Born in 1970 in Great Britain, he could argue that he had even less support from his community.
“When I was a kid I used to jump my bike off the curb all the time, trying to be like Evil Knievel,” he recalls. “Then I saw BMX on television and figured out that stunt bikes are a lot easier to jump with than a beach cruiser.”
Davies is known in the biking world for being smooth. While most riders add a lot of dead weight to their landings, Davies is known to make his landings like butter.
“Bike riders all do pretty much the same tricks, so style is the thing that ends up setting you apart,” he says. “It gets to the point where you can tell from a distance who a rider is, just by the way they’re going about it.”
Recently, Davies returned to his hometown in England for a high school reunion, and he was made aware of just how far the world of BMX biking has come.
“I used to be the little freak on the bicycle, and now everyone is asking me for my autograph,” he recalls. “It just proves that if you stick to your what you love everything works out in the end.”
These words of wisdom from a veteran to the new recruits may sound a little too good to be true when it seems like they keep running into the brick wall of authority. But people such as Mason still remain optimistic about moving forward in the quest to ride.
“Something that I always try to bring up when we’re meeting with the city officials is that skate parks are the baseball fields of our generation. So, you know, if you build it they will come, and that goes for bikers too,” he says.
Reach the reporter at joy.hepp@asu.edu <mailto:joy.hepp@asu.edu>.
February 20th, 2003
I just got this e-mail from Brett Horner with the City of Santa Monica, California's Parks and Community Facility Planning Department concerning his city's plans to accommodate bikes in their first public, concrete skatepark. This shows a lot of foresight on their part, and I hope more cities can follow their excellent example and educate themselves in this aspect of skatepark planning. He is also sending a printed letter on city letterhead that the 3BC can use also in our efforts. Many thanks to Mr. Horner for his help.
To whom it may concern:
This is to advise other municipalities of our City’s decision to accommodate BMX riders in the planning of our skatepark in Santa Monica, CA. While final decisions have not been made (we have not yet embarked on our public input process and workshops), and we have not obtained detailed input from either bikers or skaters in Santa Monica, the City decided early on to plan on building a park that can accommodate both skaters and bikers for the following reasons:
We identified two important construction factors to consider in accommodating BMX. One is proper design of the coping (the steel edge at the top edges of skate surfaces) and the other is the concrete construction itself. We have been advised that the coping should be at least 5mm thick to stop denting and the angle should be 125 x 50 x 5 so that pegs on BMX bikes don't scratch the concrete next to the angle. Also, the concrete must have a minimum strength of 4000 pounds per square inch and must also be properly cured over a month or so, if not longer. There are also spatial and design considerations when planning a dual use facility due to the fact that skaters like certain elements, bikers others. These factors add cost and complexity to the project, but give us flexibility in programming and serving BMX riders.
Obviously, community needs and requirements vary. What works in one City may be inappropriate in a neighboring one. In our research we found communities are tackling the BMX question in a variety of ways. While some are denying bikers altogether, others are separating areas or hours out for BMX use only, and some are planning entire separate parks for bikers. The BMX issue is an emerging one that nearly every community will have to deal with sooner or later. By building for BMX at the start, we hope to avoid not being able to accommodate them in the future, particularly since we have so little land area available in our City.
I wish you success in your planning efforts and hope that you can find solutions that best address your community’s specific recreational needs in light of limited budgets and what at times may seem like competing demands of bikers and skaters. Please call if you have any questions about our skatepark plans.
Regards,
Brett Horner
Senior Analyst – Parks & Community Facility Planning
City of Santa Monica
While Santa Monica is ahead of most cities as far as the issue of bikes in skateparks is concerned, and light years ahead of all the Southern California cities with the exceptions of Santa Clarita and Long Beach, they are doing a couple of things wrong. They plan to have a monitored park, which does not decrease, but actually increases their liability. Santa Monica also plans on having separate sessions, when we know that co-mingling of users can and does work as long as the park is not overcrowded. Overcrowding will cause collisions between any kind of user, such as skater colliding with skater, blader with skater, blader with bike rider, etc... The 3BC advocates for parks not to be separated by user, but by skill level. Every park needs some sort of beginner's area where the smaller and more inexperienced users can practice and develop proficiency while not being in the way of the big boys.
If anyone wishes to contact Mr. Horner, he can be reached at 310-458-8310.
February 12th, 2003
I got this e-mail from Mesa Parks and Rec two days ago:
Subject: Mesa Bike Park working Committee
Meeting Notice
If you agreed to be on one of the committees to work on researching and
possibly bringing a bike park to Mesa, we are having our first meeting:
This Wednesday, February 12th
at 6:30 pm
at the Parks and Recreation Hobson Office
125 N. Hobson
That is directly east of Pioneer Park.
Park on the east side of Pioneer Park
526 E. Main Street and walk across the street to the Parks and Recreation
Hobson Office
If you have any questions, please call or email Tim Barnard at 480-644-3304
or tim.barnard@cityofmesa.org
I'll tell you how the meeting went in my next post.
February 8th, 2003
IT IS NOW OFFICIAL: REX GOLOS AND MYSELF HAVE DECIDED TO DISSOLVE THE CONCRETE BIKEPARK ALLIANCE AND REPLACE IT WITH A NEW ORGANIZATION--
THE BIKE, BLADE, AND BOARD COALITION
After 1 year of dealing with parks and rec officials in almost 30 cities and towns across Arizona, some great inroads have been made by the CBA, but Rex and I determined that it was time to change the whole thrust of our group. One concrete bikepark is definitely slated for construction in Glendale in three years. Peoria has designated their second skatepark as a possible bikepark. These are real victories, but they're too far off. Rex and I listened at the skatepark builder's convention to riders, former councilmen, and parks and rec officials from various cities, and it seemed to us that taking our group in a political direction instead of a beaurocratic direction would bring much quicker results. What you read below in the Feb 3rd post was an example of the first steps we will be taking in every city and town with a skatepark, leading up to presenting our case to the city council of each city and town.
Our first targets are Scottsdale, Glendale, Mesa, and Phoenix. We are getting residents of each city to write letters to a councilman in their city who we think will be sympathetic to our cause. The BBBC will then meet with that official, give him/her the letters from citizens, then ask him/her to help us get on the city council's agenda. At the city council meeting, we will present a short but powerful powerpoint or slide presentation and call out as many riders as possible to attend. In many cities, especially cities in Oregon, this has worked well. In fact, in Oregon, there has NEVER been a time that the riders have brought their case before a city council and the "no bikes in skatepark" policy has not been overturned. In Oregon, 20 cities have decided to let bikes in their parks, but not without a good fight. I was under the presumption that the towns and cities in Oregon were opening their parks and allowing bikes from the get-go, but that is not the case. The riders got themselves into the parks by a lot of hard work, and they've got their work cut out for them because there are still 80 Oregon parks that do not allow bikes.
The Bike, Blade and Board Coalition has a much bigger scope than the CBA. While the CBA only pushed for cities to build concrete bikeparks that skaters and inliners would want to ride in but wouldn't be alllowed, the BBBC is encouraging unity among riders, skaters, and bladers. We want the cities to allow bikes into their concrete parks. We want cities to build more skateparks. We want cities to build bigger parks. We want cities to build better designed parks using a quality skatepark construction company. We will also work with other organizations, such as churches and YMCAs, to help them build quality skateparks that help them meet their objectives while encouraging unity among skaters, bike riders, and bladers. Some skaters are against bikes in the park, but when we tell them our goals, many change their tune quickly. Only about 1 in 5 stay adamant against letting bikes in the skateparks, despite the obvious advantages they'll get if they help us.
YOU CAN HELP!
I have gotten e-mails from kids whining that bikes aren't allowed in the public skatepark in their city. That's not what I need. I need e-mails asking what you can do to help us.
One of the most important things we need in every city and town is a resident of that city that can help find a councilman that will hear us out, and arrange a meeting with him/her to ask them to get us on the council agenda.
We also need artists.
We also need people who can help organize fundraisers because flyers, business cards, paper, pens, slides, video presentations, and powerpoint presentations aren't cheap to come by.
If you really want to see bikes allowed in Arizona skateparks, you'll e-mail me at beardedlady@psychicflyingmonkey.com
If we can get bikes allowed in even half of the Arizona parks, it will do amazing things for our scene.
January 31st, 2003
BIG NEWS! ALL THE PHOENIX AND WEST SIDE RIDERS NEED TO SHOW UP AT THE DESERT WEST COMMUNITY PARK CENTER RIGHT NEXT TO THE DESERT WEST SKATEPARK AT 67th AVENUE AND ENCANTO AT 12:00 PM THIS SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2nd. A PARKS AND REC MEETING IS BEING HELD REGARDING CHANGES AND ADDITIONS TO THE SKATEPARK AND NOW IS THE TIME TO MAKE OUR VOICE HEARD. OUR MAIN OBJECTIVE WILL BE TO CONVINCE PHOENIX PARKS AND REC THAT NOW IS THE TIME TO LOOK AT THE NEEDS OF BIKE RIDERS. THERE ARE TWO PHOENIX SKATEPARKS NOW, THE PECOS PARK WILL BE OPENING IN SEPTEMBER AND ENCANTO WILL BE EXPANDING, AND STILL NOTHING IS LEGAL FOR BIKES. LAURA FROM COWTOWN SKATE SHOP WILL BE THERE, AND SHE IS RABID WITH HER ANTI-BIKE RHETORIC. BASICALLY SHE HAS ORGANISED SKATERS TO RAISE A LOT OF MONEY TO GO TOWARDS SKATEPARKS BEING BUILT, BUT THE CITIES, USING OUR TAX MONEY, ALWAYS END UP PAYING THE BULK OF THE SKATEPARK COST. HER EFFORTS ARE COMMENDABLE, BUT IF SHE WANTS AN EXCLUSIVE PARK FOR SKATEBOARDS, SHE NEEDS TO START A PRIVATE PARK, INSTEAD OF OBTAINING OUR TAX DOLLARS TO FUND HER OWN SELFISH AMBITIONS. WE NEED TO PUT HER ON NOTICE AT THIS MEETING THAT WE'RE NOT GOING TO STAND BY AND TAKE IT ANYMORE!
MAKE SURE AND TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS TO COME. AND KIDS, BRING YOUR PARENTS! CITY
OFFICIALS LISTEN WAY BETTER TO PARENTS THAN THEY DO TO KIDS.
Rex Golos and myself attended a skatepark builder's convention held by Skatepark Magazine in San Diego this week, and we learned unbelievable amounts of good information to help us get bikes in skateparks and to help us get cities to build concrete bikeparks. A couple of the best things I found out were that both the cities of Long Beach and Santa Monica are building new parks that will be allowing bikes. Most of the time when a park is about to open anywhere the parks and rec officials will say bikes will be allowed to appease local riders, but as we've seen over and over, they are banned from the park when the rules go up. This is definitely not the case with these two cities, because officials from both cities sat on the panel in the meeting centered around bikes in public skateparks, along with Mark Losey from Ride Magazine and Ben Ward from Oregon, who was largely responsible for organizing riders to get bikes allowed in about 20 Oregon parks. Currently the only city in Southern California that allows bikes is Santa Clarita, but change is on the way. I have already obtained letters from a former Long Beach City Councilman advocating bikes in public skateparks, and I will be obtaining letters from parks and rec officials in Santa Clarita and Santa Monica.
I also have been talking to Joe Wichert, director of the Extreme Sports Department for the City of Las Vegas Parks and Rec, and he told me that bikes are allowed in all twelve (12) parks in the Las Vegas area! Bikes are co-mingled with skateboards and rollerblades, meaning they all ride at the same time. They have an outstanding safety record, as there have been absolutely no liability claims involving bikes in the 2 plus years that the skateparks have been there. They are holding contests for bikes, boards, and blades, they are holding beginner's classes for skateboards and bikes, and they are organizing huge events at the skateparks with bands and fun for everyone. Basically, they are light years ahead of every single park in Arizona. I'm sure they're winning national awards up in Las Vegas, while Mesa is stuck in the dark ages spending the insane amount of $250, 000 since Reed Park opened just to enforce the no bikes rule! I have a letter on the way from Joe Wichert advocating bikes co-mingled with boards and blades in all public skateparks.
Speaking of Mesa, the first bike steering committee meeting will be held sometime in the first couple weeks in February, according to Tim Barnard. Mesa Parks and Rec will be contacting everyone who signed up for it as to the exact date very soon.
Also on my California trip, I encountered something quite original at the Fontana Skatepark--a concrete, public skateboard fingerpark. I was very excited to ride it because even though I can't ride my bike now due to the brokenness of my leg, I can blow minds on a fingerbike! I was very excited, that is, until I saw the "No Fingerbikes Allowed" sign. Pictures with captions are forthcoming.
January 16, 2003
I contacted Tim Barnard of Mesa Parks and Rec a few days ago to find out when the first meeting of the rider's access committee would be, and he said they're shooting for the end of this month. Stay tuned for exact date and time.
Rex Golos and myself will be attending Skatepark Magazine's Skatepark Expo in San Diego on Jan. 28th and 29th. It is basically a convention for skatepark designers, private park owners, parks and rec officials, city officials, and skatepark builders. The main goal is to help build skateparks, public and private, that all parties involved will be happy with. The topics covered will range from dealing with city councils to planning for amenities in public parks to allowing bikes in skateparks. Actually, Mat Hoffman will be giving a presentation on the latter topic, and as you can imagine, I am looking forward to hearing that one the most.
December 19, 2002
Arizona Republic Article-Adam Klowonn
December 13, 2002
The meeting with Mesa Parks and Rec last night went excellently. At first it didn't look so good when Tim Barnard started out by saying that this meeting was not about getting bikes into Reed Park and he said bikes would never be allowed in Reed Park. The riders countered by pointing out the multitudes of routes that Mesa could take so that bikes could ride Reed Park, such as design re-certification, design rehabilitation and modification, separated days or times for bikes to ride, etc... Tim and his staff seemed to empathize with us and seemed to see where we were coming from. He said that he would help us with the process of taking the steps necessary to get the rules changed, which mostly include approaching the lawyers in risk management and convincing them that bikes in Reed can be done. Tim and his staff asked for all riders interested in being on a working committee to help Parks and Rec accomplish these goals to highlight their names on the sign-in sheet. The committee will meet regularly, probably every month, starting in January. When the committee (which I also signed up to be on) meets we will work towards meeting these goals. We will also work on making sure that either a concrete bikepark is built or the next concrete parks built will allow bikes. Then when the time comes that a big public meeting is needed for input from the BMX community and the rest of the community, myself and others will get the word out everywhere. About 80 riders and supporters showed up last night, which is pretty good and showed a good amount of interest. About 30 or so of those were from Mesa. Unfortunately, I estimate that over 400 riders knew about the meeting and the majority didn't go. Approximately 350 of those signed a Concrete Bikepark Alliance contact sheet saying they would go to meetings with cities about this issue. If you didn't show up and you didn't have rock solid plans before you found out about it, you don't deserve access to a skatepark. What was really pathetic was hardly anyone showed up from the west side. So many riders just can't get it through their thick skulls that we have to start somewhere. If one city lets us in, more will follow suit. So what if Mesa is an hour drive away? If going to a meeting in Mesa will help get bikes allowed in Encanto Park, it's worth it. Riders in the west side need to stop being such lazy assholes.
December 10, 2002
MESA PARKS AND REC MEETING WILL BE HELD ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12th, AT LONGFELLOW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CAFETERIA AT 6 PM. DIRECTIONS ARE: HEAD EAST ON BROADWAY PAST REED PARK (which is located on Broadway between Gilbert Rd. and Stapley Rd.) TAKE FIRST LEFT PAST REED PARK, WHICH IS HALL. THE SCHOOL WILL BE ON YOUR IMMEDIATE RIGHT ON HALL, JUST NORTH OF BROADWAY. THE SCHOOL'S ADDRESS IS 345 S. HALL. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS CONCERNING THE MEETING, YOU CAN CALL TIM BARNARD OF MESA PARKS AND REC AT 480-644-3304.
I apologize for getting this news out so late. I just found out the date of this meeting myself today. There was a big breakdown in communication between Rex Golos and myself, so I was never informed of this meeting date until just now. Rex had been in contact with Tim Barnard of Mesa Parks and Rec, who was the person organizing this meeting. I also found out today from Rex that this meeting date had been set for a good six weeks, so it turns out that Mr. Barnard was not blowing us off after all. SHOW UP, BRING YOUR PARENTS, SIBLINGS, FRIENDS, AND ANYONE ELSE WHO SUPPORTS POSITIVE ACTIVITIES FOR YOUTH AND LET'S MAKE IT CLEAR THAT THERE IS A DEMAND FOR A PLACE TO LEGALLY RIDE BMX FREESTYLE IN THE CITY OF MESA!!!
November 11, 2002
Tim Barnard of Mesa Parks and Rec department still has not given us a set date for a meeting concerning the possibility of bikes getting allowed in Reed Park or/and Mesa building a concrete BMX park. Is he dragging his feet? You decide. At first he told Rex of the CBA that he would try for a meeting in mid-October, then changed it to late October, then changed it to mid-November. And still no finalized date is set. The Mesa police, park rangers and judges tell us to talk to city officials, and this is the kind of bullshit we have to put up with!
October 2, 2002
Rex has been talking to the Mesa Parks and Rec officials about a meeting between them, the CBA, and all the riders that want to see either a concrete bike park built in Mesa or bike access to Reed Skatepark. We are proposing a meeting around mid-October at Adventure Bike Co. after hours. Stay tuned for a solid date and time.
September 26, 2002
Byron Wells wrote a good story for the Sunday Tribune about the Mesa Park Protest that went down on Saturday. Thanks, Byron. Also thanks to ABC News 15 for covering the protest and for airing some of my footage from when the cops arrived.
September 18, 2002
Tamara Dietrich's column in today's Tribune was very supportive of our cause and pretty much told the cities what's up. I want to thank Tamara, Jason Emerson, and ABC News 15 for the helpful exposure they've given to our fight with the Valley cities.
September17, 2002
If you didn't catch the news story last night, it was pretty good. Of course Jason Emerson's Tribune story was much more in depth and therefore better viewing. A different reporter, Tamara Dietrich, called me today for another interview. She's doing a follow-up on today's story which, I believe, will be in tomorrow's paper. Check it out.
September16, 2002
WATCH ABC NEWS CHANNEL 15 TONIGHT AT 10:00!!! I was just interviewed today (Monday) by News 15 about the problem of public skateparks not allowing bikes. Check it out tonight on the idiot box at 10 in the PM. Also, a reporter from the Tribune was there, so look for his article about the same subject in tomorrow's Scottsdale Tribune. The crazy thing is, we didn't contact them, they contacted us. The reporters caught onto this story when they starting interviewing BMXer's about a new BMX track that might be starting in East Mesa. They talked to Matt Long at Adventure Bicycle and he gave them Rex Golos's and my phone #'s, and the interviews were set up from there.
September 7, 2002
In Ray Putnam's continuing effort to meet with Tempe city council members and the mayor, he was able to get us a meeting with Mayor Neil Giulliano last Thursday. At first the mayor sat stone-faced as we explained our situation. He said he had reviewed the video from the Parks and Rec meeting where we were voted down, and he had received Ray's e-mails. He stated that he felt the process had done its job and there was nothing else to be done. As the meeting progressed, we gave him new information and statistics. We mentioned the groundbreaking Louisville Park, and the problems Mesa was having with enforcement at Reed Park. He seemed to be a little more sympathetic towards the end of the meeting, so hopefully that will show in his vote. Thanks to Roy Kleinert, Matt Mueller, and Ray Putnam for coming to the meeting to present our side. Ray found out that the Tempe City Council meeting that will approve funding for the skatepark (which is the one we need to be at) has been delayed and will happen sometime this month or in October. Stay tuned to this page for the exact date so you can come out and show support. If they allow us in the Tempe park, that will be our key to getting in all of the valley parks one way or another.
In CBA news, Rex has been talking to the director of Desert West Park in Phoenix, and he says he wants to do something for bikes there. Rex is pushing for a concrete bike park right next to the skatepark. Keep your fingers and toes crossed. Have your sister cross her fingers and toes, too. Every little bit helps.
July 27, 2002
I want to start off by personally thanking the Tempe residents that make time to come talk to Tempe City Councilwoman Pam Goronkin last Friday. All of you, along with Ray Putnam, presented our case to her very well and hopefully she will vote to allow bikes into the Tempe Skatepark at the meeting in August.
I just got this open letter from Jeff Hutchins, owner of California Skateparks, that provides some incredible insight on the subject of bikes in concrete public skateparks. Rex has been talking to him ever since he was blown away by how awesome the Fontana, CA skatepark (designed AND built by Jeff's company) was to skate.
|
C A L I F O R N I A s k a t e p a r k s 273 N. Benson Ave. Upland, Ca. 91786 (909) 949-1601 Fax: (909) 981-9368 |
July 27, 2002
To Whom It May Concern:
Many times I am asked about the compatibility of skateparks with BMX use. As a landscape architect with 4 years experience designing and building more than 20 skateparks, and attendance to even more, I have seen the successes and failures of combining the two. Fortunately, the successes outweigh the failures and even the failures can be mitigated.
The most common fear I hear about allowing BMX use on concrete skateparks is the potential abuse and damage the skatepark will suffer. There are a few safeguards a designer can include in his design to better equip the park to sustain the added use.
The first is to make sure a qualified builder constructs the skatepark. Many skateparks have been built by pool contractors or general contractors that have no experience or knowledge of skateparks. Good designs have suffered because of premature deterioration from bikes and boards, especially in colder climates. The designer must be on site during key components of the construction to ensure quality and longevity.
Other components include:
4000-5000 psi concrete
every exposed square corner of concrete protected by steel grind edge including vertical edges
thicker guage steel coping and grind edge
Some programming options the city may choose to include are the use of “skatepark friendly” pegs, or PVC covered pegs.
The measures listed above may increase the cost of a skatepark slightly but that is certainly offset by the additional number of users that can enjoy the facility bringing with them funds for soft drink and vending machines.
The number of parks allowing BMX use is growing because of better building techniques and the successes of test cases around the world. We hope your new skatepark can be added to that list.
Sincerely,
Jeff Hutchins
Principal Landscape Architect
California Skateparks
Okay, so I know Jeff said a higher psi rated concrete is needed, but he's probably right. Jeff mentioned that these necessary components in construction to prevent damage (from bikes and boards) would only SLIGHTLY increase the overall price. There is no reason these improvements should raise the build cost significantly, like Mike McIntyre said they would. But then we also know he's biased against having bikes in these public concrete skateparks and he only gave an extravagant price quote to the Parks and Rec board to scare them into voting against letting us in. I can tell you for sure that had the Phoenix area parks been built with EVERY exposed square corner of concrete protected by thicker guage steel grind edge and coping, much less damage would have been incurred on them. We don't need chromoly coping or grind edge like Mike McIntyre said we would, but it does need to be thicker than, say, Casa Grande park's, because theirs is getting thrashed.
July 13, 2002
Ray Putnam and I are going to be meeting with Tempe city council members, two at a time, starting next week. We will be needing two or three Tempe residents to meet with us each time, so if you are a Tempe resident and you want to get into this skatepark, e-mail me at beardedlady@psychicflyingmonkey.com.
Rex Golos has been hanging out in Tucson for the last few weeks, healing up from his knee injury. He has, however, been keeping in contact with all the communities he's been talking to about building concrete bike parks and giving them more information and encouragement to start ASAP. Unfortunately, Glendale has been dragging their feet at every opportunity. It will be Glendale's loss when some other community builds a groundbreaking concrete bike park and everyone else wants to copy them.
June 2, 2002
Ray Putnam found out that the Tempe City Council meeting that will approve funding for the skatepark (which is the one we need to be at) will be sometime in August. Ray is arranging meetings with all the individual city council members to explain our side to them.
In Concrete Bikepark News, Matt Long, who works at Adventure Bicycle
Company in Mesa, will be the anchor for the CBA in Mesa. Also Robert
Dietrich will be the anchor for the CBA in Phoenix. If you see these guys,
thank them for stepping up and volunteering their time to get a public concrete
bikepark you can ride in. We still need anchors in Chandler, Gilbert,
Apache Junction, Fountain Hills, and many other Valley communities.
Contact Rex at BMXskatepark@hotmail.com
or e-mail me at
beardedlady@psychicflyingmonkey.com if you want to stop whining and help get
a great free place to ride in your community.
May 23, 2002
The bond issue in Tempe did indeed pass on Tuesday, so in an upcoming city
council meeting, they will vote on starting construction of the skatepark.
I will inform everyone by posting on here when the meeting will be. Ray Putnam
is checking out the date of that meeting, and will let me know as soon as he
finds out. We will try to get as many bike riders there as possible to put
pressure on the council to let us in. Everyone NEEDS to show up, so that
even if they don't let us in, they will see how much demand there is for a
facility bikes can ride in Tempe. That will increase the amount of money
and cooperation we get from Tempe if we need to go the route of getting a
public cement bike park going.
In Concrete Bikepark Alliance news, Glendale has agreed to find land for a 10,000 square foot site for a concrete bikepark, and have pretty much settled on a pre-existing community park near Build-A-Bike. This park should be done in about a year and a half. They have also agreed to build a 40,000 square foot concrete bike park in their bike-centric park that will be located at 63rd Ave. and Northern. This park should be done in about three years. Peoria is also fully cooperating with us, as they have agreed to set aside one of their three planned skatepark sites for a bikepark. Rex and I are stoked.
May 19, 2002
SHOCKING NEW DEVELOPMENT!!!
Ray Putnam contacted Seth Scott of The Arizona Republic about the Tempe Parks and Rec department disallowing bikes in the forthcoming skatepark. Seth wrote an article in today's Sunday paper about it.
Seth Scott said he already told the mayor's office the story was coming out and it created a ruckus with everyone saying it's all Parks & Recs. doing. Finally we may bring some real pressure to bear.
Huge props go out to Ray Putnam, who, instead of sitting on his ass and pissing and moaning because bikes aren't allowed in any of the nine Valley city parks, is putting the smack down on all those small minded officials trying to keep us down. Also, special thanks to Seth Scott for this story. You can reach him at seth.scott@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-7972.
April 22, 2002
Check this out, Rex Golos, who just moved up here from Tucson after
unsuccessfully trying to get bikes allowed into the YMCA park for 4 years, has
started an organization called the Concrete Bikepark Alliance. He has been
talking to Glendale and is already making headway on getting a concrete bikepark
there. I am helping out the effort as well. We will need one rider
from EVERY one of the Phoenix suburbs to step up and be an anchor in dealing
with the parks and rec director and board in their respective city. Rex is
the anchor for Peoria, Nancy from Build-A-Bike and Andy Leland are
anchoring Glendale, Ray Putnam is anchoring Tempe, and I am anchoring
Scottsdale. If you
want to stop whining and start seeing some shit happen in YOUR city, e-mail Rex
at BMXskatepark@hotmail.com
or e-mail me at
beardedlady@psychicflyingmonkey.com. Also, we're putting together a
database of all riders that want to have free bikeparks to ride in. Go to
the discussion board and type in your name, e-mail address, and phone #, and
I'll let you know about upcoming city meetings. You can also e-mail me
with your info at the bearded lady address above.
