MESA

Mesa update-January 16th, 2007

Check this Mesa Republic article on Reed Wheels Court: http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/0109mr-bmx0110-ON.html

Mesa update-January 8th, 2007

You KNOW I'm psyched that Reed Park is open! Did you know that there are already some fools going around saying the ONLY reason bikes are allowed in there is because Mesa couldn't afford to enforce the "no bikes" policy? It doesn't get much more dooshy than that. Scottsdale rarely enforces their "no bikes" policy at the Wedge Skatepark, but you sure as hell don't see them changing the rule! Same with Coolidge and many other Arizona cities and towns with skateparks. If you've followed this site relatively well, you know the huge amount of effort that's been expended to get a legal place for bikes to ride in Mesa. If you haven't followed it well, check out an overview of the story on Vital BMX at http://www.vitalbmx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=986&Itemid=37

Mesa update-December 23rd, 2006

BIKES ARE NOW ALLOWED IN REED SKATEPARK!
I talked to Terri Palmberg, Mesa's Park Maintenance Supervisor yesterday and confirmed that Reed Park Skate Court has changed to Reed Park Wheels Court and now allows bikes. She said this has actually been in the works for about 5 months. I'll get more details on this later, but for now, get out to Reed, get on your bikes and ride! Everybody have a Merry Christmas, aiight?!

Mesa update-December 2nd, 2005

Television news has always done very little to help our bikes in skateparks effort, mainly because the segments are way too short to get any kind of point across. Why complain when I can just do it the right way myself? I had an assignment in film school to do a newsy segment including interviews and B-roll anywho, so what the hey... Check out the in-depth segment I just made comparing how well Prescott Skatepark meets the needs of BMX riders vs. Kleinman Wheels Court.

Click here to go to the video section and check it out.

Mesa update-September 30th, 2005

Here are a couple of recent articles about the new Kleinman Wheels Court. The first one is from the East Valley Tribune, the second from the Arizona Republic.

Kids give Mesa park mixed reviews

By Blake Herzog, Tribune

September 18, 2005

Four tennis courts at Mesa’s Kleinman Park have been transformed into a place where Jared Howe can fly through the air on his bike.
He isn’t very impressed. "They’ve got a lot of space but they’ve only got a little bit of ramps," said Howe, a 15-yearold Westwood High School student.

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Five wooden ramps and one low rail from which bikers, skateboarders and in-line skaters can launch themselves are in the middle of a sea of black asphalt within the park at Eighth Avenue and Extension Road.

This is the first Mesa parks facility open to the bike riders who are officially banned from Reed Skate Park, which was built for skateboarders and in-line skaters.

But Howe said it’s more of a hangout than anything else. "I only come here to communicate with these guys," he said, gesturing toward his friends.

One of them, Rhett Martin, was more enthusiastic about what’s now known as Kleinman Wheels Park, which is also open to the other two roller sports.

"It’s better than going all the way down to Reed to skate," he said.

The city’s plan to spend $20,000 to buy manufactured ramps for the park was criticized by the Bike, Blade and Board Coalition, a local advocacy group which said the city could have more challenging ramps built less expensively.

Terri Palmberg, assistant director of Mesa’s parks department, said the value of Kleinman’s ramps is actually closer to $30,000, because three of them were donated by playground equipment maker Dave Bang and Associates.

She said the city will continue pursuing grants to expand what the new wheels park has to offer, but "there is no timetable for expanding it, because there is no money, for anything."

Kleinman’s ramps are enough for some riders. Tanner Pihlman, 12, stopped by Thursday on his way home from Powell Junior High School and rode over the edges of the highest ramps.

Contact Blake Herzog by email, or phone (480) 898-6816

Mesa update-August 9th, 2005

Over the course of the last few weeks, I had an e-mail exchange with Terri Palmberg of Mesa Parks and Rec concerning the Kleinman Wheels Park. Here's how it went:

Hello Terri,

I have received word from a few riders that you will be opening Kleinman
Park in September. Are you going to have at least one community design
input meeting before the park layout is decided upon and constructed?

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Jason Ryan
President
The Bike, Blade and Board Coalition

On Wed Jun 22 10:42 , Terri.Palmberg@cityofmesa.org sent:

The ramp manufacturers representatives will be formulating the layout on
two courts, two courts will remain for future development. After we have a
layout we could call a meeting. Can you get the word out to bikers if we
call one?

Is there any particular reason you are choosing to forego the standard
skatepark building process of holding a community input meeting first,
having the designer come up with a design, and then bringing it back to
the
riders to tweak to their liking? Every one of the 40 some-odd cities in
Arizona with skateparks (including Mesa) have followed this process, and
I'm trying to figure out why Kleinman Park should be any different.

Jason Ryan
President
The Bike, Blade and Board Coalition

On Fri Jun 24 11:32 , Terri.Palmberg@cityofmesa.org sent:

I shared with you we can have a meeting, however, this project is a bit
different. The design includes 7 ramp features and two rails, three of the
manufactured ramps are being donated, we have the rails, so with limited
money from a grant the additional four features have been ordered. We can
call a meeting, do you think a meeting at the park an evening in August
will work? The purpose would be for the riders to "tweak" the features
layout. Can you help get the word out on the meeting if we set one up? Is
there an evening in the bike community that works better than another?

I understand the part about you having what I think I can assume are "set
features" that were donated as is, and no one could pick what size or shape
they would be (the three manufactured ramps and the two rails). Question:
What bike park design expert determined what size and shape of the other
four ramps should be ordered with the grant money, and why were future
users of the bike park not consulted?

Jason Ryan
President
The Bike, Blade and Board Coalition

On Tue Jun 28 8:42 , Terri.Palmberg@cityofmesa.org sent:

We can continue this e-mail bantering if you so choose but the bottom line
is, do you want to have a meeting to review and have input on the layout?
If so let me know a time and day in early August that works for your group.

Thank you

Dear Terri,

I am very sorry to see that you have gone ahead and spent the entire $20,000 on pre-fabricated ramps that cannot possibly challenge or fulfill the needs of the great bulk of bmx riders in Mesa. I will admit that opening Kleinman Wheels Park is a step, albeit a very small one, towards equal provisions for bike riders along with skateboarders and inline skaters.

Probably the best part about the opening of Kleinman Wheels Park is the two tennis courts that will be empty. At first, those two courts will provide a safe, level, smooth, and lighted surface on which bmx riders who do tricks on flat ground can practice. Later on, it is my great hope that a design/build firm will be contracted by Mesa to build ramps or concrete bowls on those two courts, which will be much, much more suitable for bmx riders to ride than pre-fabricated playground equipment.

In answer to your question, I and the Bike, Blade and Board Coalition do not wish to participate in any sort of meeting to review and have input on the layout of the pre-fabricated playground equipment in Kleinman Wheels Park. As we told you and your staff many times before, we do not endorse pre-fab ramps except for use by young and beginning riders. Since most of the bmx riders currently residing in Mesa are more experienced, these ramps will be of very little use to them. It would be meaningless for us to tell you how to arrange the ramps, because no matter how they are arranged, they will still not provide the kinds of challenges that riders with any sort of experience are looking for. To provide an analogy, let’s say that you were planning a new park, and you aimed to shade it heavily with trees. Mesquite trees and Mesquite trees only were purchased with which to shade the park. No matter how you configure the layout of the Mesquite trees, they will still not provide adequate shade. An altogether different type of tree is needed in the first place.

We really appreciate your continued efforts towards finding substantial funding to build a well designed concrete grindpark. Ultimately, one phase at a time, your City can have a grindpark that you can be proud of and which will serve all members of Mesa's recreation community.

Sincerely,

Jason Ryan
President
The Bike, Blade and Board Coalition

Mesa update-May 2nd, 2005

This article appeared in the East Valley Tribune on April 8th.

Mesa gives bike-friendly park a spin

Grant helps buy ramps for unusable tennis courts

By BLAKE HERZOG TRIBUNE -- CONTACT WRITER: (480) 898-6816 or bherzog@aztrib.com

    Mesa’s parks department will put its first bike park on top of four abandoned tennis courts after winning a grant from a cable sports network.

    The city will get $10,000 from FSN Arizona to put manufactured bike ramps at Kleinman Park, 710 S. Extension, in hopes of attracting "extreme" bikers who may now be riding the skateboardonly course at Mesa’s Reed Park or other alluring, offlimits places.

    FSN has set up a fund with the Arizona Parks and Recreation Association to help build skate parks and sport courts in low-income and underserved areas. The fund will also benefit six other Valley parks, including Scottsdale’s Mountain View Park.

    Assistant Mesa parks and recreation director Terri Palmberg said the city will match FSN’s grant with $10,000 from its general fund to buy ramps to put on top of the unused tennis courts, two of which are too cracked for those who play tennis.

    Palmberg said the city isn’t planning to do anything to patch up this surface before they bring the ramps in this summer. "Bikes go over cracks and go up and down curbs all the time," she said. Besides, she said, "We don’t have the money to do surface work." Four more tennis courts at Kleinman are still in use.

    Palmberg said she won’t know how many or what kind of ramps the city will be able to put in until they get bids from manufacturers. But at a time when the city doesn’t have much funding to develop new parks, "We’re very excited that we’re able to build a facility that will be very well-used for a very reasonable cost."

    Palmberg said Kleinman Wheels Park could be expanded in the future. It will also be open to skateboarders and inline skaters, though the ramps will be more suitable for biking.

    So far the plan hasn’t impressed Jason Ryan, president of the Bike, Board and Blade Coalition, a group of activists working with cities across the Valley to put bikefriendly parks in place.

    He said the city could get much more for its $20,000 by hiring a contractor to build ramps and quarter-pipes rather than getting them from a manufacturer, which will provide shipping, assembly and insurance.

    He said most riders probably won’t find $20,000 worth of manufactured ramps very challenging after one or two spins.

    "I think kids will end up going back to Reed (Park) anyway," he said.

    Palmberg said the city found, to the contrary, that having a contractor build the ramps, with the assistance of a structural engineer, would be more expensive.

After all the work that Dale, Rex, Gilbert, myself, and many other riders put into getting a bike-friendly park going in Mesa, I sure do hope parks and rec doesn't buy pre-fab crap and try to pass it off as a bike park. What a spiteful kick in the face that would be.

Mesa update-March 17th, 2005

The 3BC finally had to abandon our partnership with the city to develop Kleinman Grind Park due to many and constant differences with Mesa Parks and Rec officials concerning the project. The good news is that Mesa is going to develop the four empty tennis courts in Kleinman Park into a bike park anyways without the partnership, and they just received a grant for $10,000 from Fox Sports which the Mesa Parks and Rec Foundation will be matching. So they've got $20,000 total with which to buy ramps. To give you a better perspective of the whole Mesa situation, here's an e-mail Rex sent to Terri Palmberg, Mesa's Park Maintenance supervisor after they told us they got the grant.

Congratulations, Terri, and thanks for referring to the park as the Kleinman Wheels Court
(Tim's last e.mail said that the official name is the
Kleinman Bike Court - bikes only park?).

It appears that you will be looking at the option of
installing playground equipment - please keep in mind
that the retail cost of these type of ramps is approximately
6 to 10 times the cost of what you can build "in house"
of course going through the City of Mesa bid process.

I've been to two Skatepark Builder's Conventions and
have researched ramp builders for the past 4 years.
The only two companies that can build a ramp that will
have the specifications needed for bike pegs are:

http://www.spohnranch.com/
and
http://www.trueride.com/

other companies use a template that is not steep enough for the
bike pegs to lock in on and their quality and guarantee is not up to par.

As i told Andrea, my focus is on the West and North part of Maricopa County,
Jason is in charge of the East and South. Gilbert Leon (480 668-4948)
is our Mesa Captain, and we are looking forward to more public input
meetings
as you research the options for ramp building.

We started down the road for building a 16' wide spine ramp:
5' high 1/4 pipe, 5' high spine, 6' high return 1/4 pipe.
The only engineer that would take this project on was
Rick Fowlkes Engineering - 480 483-8121 or 480 839-5630.
No one else was willing to take the risk and learn about skate ramp
building.
We provided Rick with the 'Bible' for ramp building, and he studied the
specifications and worked with Jason on a plan for the spine portion of the
ramp.
We did not go further as our fundraising event had to be cancelled and
we have not cashed the checks from our Banner sponsors not knowing if
the park could be opened with so little funding.

The City of Mesa can build much more for much less than these ramp retailers
can sell you, and after you research what $20,000 can purchase you may want
to explore the process that we were going through. Mr. Fowlkes could easily
design the 1/4 pipes and grind bars for an engineering fee of about $1,200
and the materials would cost between $2,500 & $3,000 and i'm not sure what
a Contractor would charge to assemble the ramps.
Comparable playground equipment will cost $24,000 (low estimate shipped from
California). These companies have to charge high prices because they pay
huge
engineering fees, insurance fees, and the shipping and setup.

Again, congratulations for securing the funding for this project.
Reed Skate Court cost almost a million dollars ($1.75 million at today's
prices)
so don't be disappointed that $20,000 will only buy a few props without
any of the higher transition walls that Bikes require.
I'm sure Andrea is searching for a funding option that would work for
building
the park in phases in the upcoming years.

Sincerely,
rex

Mesa update-January 11th, 2005

We had too many problems trying to get our whole fundraising/awareness raising event going in Kleinman Park for January 22nd, so we had to abandon it. Instead we are doing this:

On Saturday, January 22^nd, help us build ramps in Mesa’s Kleinman Park by buying tickets for our first…

KLEINMAN GRINDPARK FUNDRAISING RAFFLE

The Community Grindpark Partnership will be holding a huge raffle during Mesa’s Annual Skatefest at Reed Skatepark, located at 1601 E. Broadway Road in Mesa, on Saturday, January 22^nd, 2005. The more tickets you buy, the more chances you’ll have to win sick prizes, and the more money we’ll have to build ramps in the Kleinman Grindpark. Skatefest and ticket sales begin at 11 AM, raffle winners announced at 5 PM. All money raised by February 1^st, 2005 will be matched dollar-for dollar by the Mesa Parks and Recreation Foundation up to $10,000.

Mesa update-December 28th, 2004

Riders, Parents, Shops:

The clock is ticking…

Time is of the essence…

URGENT! We have only until Feb 1st to raise the first $10,000 for our BMXskatepark at Kleinman Park which will be matched by the city of Mesa.

Support our first BMXskatepark with your donation. Advertising opportunities available for your company banner:

Gold Sponsor = $500 donation (2 large banners)

Silver Sponsor = $250 donation (1 large banner)

We’ve worked very hard for three years to secure this location only to have the City Engineer tell us we couldn’t use the wood we collected or the CAD design that took several months to create. Then the $110,000 grant for ramps which seemed like a sure thing, wasn’t.

The city of Mesa will use the $10,000 portion of the grant to match whatever we raise by February 1st, so please contribute and help us build phase one of the very first public, free BMXskatepark in the Valley. If you've got any extra Christmas money, send it. If you're a parent of a kid in the East Valley and you're tired of driving them all the way to Metrocenter to ride, this is your chance to get a closer bike-friendly park. This is really happening, and we need your help.

Please send your checks to:

Mesa Parks & Recreation Foundation

c/o The Community Grindpark Partnership

2702 E. Kelton LN Phx, AZ 85032

Jason Ryan 480-593-1042 www.BMXskatepark.org

Mesa update-August 31st, 2004

Good news! John's ramp has been sold! That gives us a good little start in our fundraising efforts for Kleinman Park. We have also placed donation jars at Kore Bike and Adventure, so if you're at either of those shops and you have a couple spare bucks, go ahead and drop them in the jar instead of wasting it on a Big and Nasty at McDonalds. The bmx scene and your stomach will thank you. We know that we won't be able to build a whole street course with the scrilla gleaned from those jugs, but every little bit does indeed help.

Also, Rex has been working hard on planning an event on Kleinman Tennis Courts that will happen in January. We hope to have the park open by then with at least a couple of ramps, but even if we don't, we'll still have the AZ X-treme team ramps there, along with skate demos and a demo from the Arizona Roller Derby Girls. The main goal will be to raise community awareness about the park, so we can start getting some serious donations coming in.

Mesa update-August 12th, 2004

FIRE SALE!

Parker's Ramp

$300

16' wide, 6' tall mini spine with 4' sub box. Attached is an 8' wide, 8' tall extension that connects via flatbottom to a box jump. The ramp is approximately 60' long with the decks. The ramp is excellent for churches and large backyards, and could be pieced into smaller ramps. We are asking for a $300 tax-deductible donation. Relocation is the buyer's responsibility. Call 480-593-1042 or e-mail me through the website if interested.

Mesa update-July 5th, 2004

ANNOUNCEMENT

We have changed the name of The Kleinman Ramp Park Fund, the non-profit organization we founded to partner with Mesa to build a grindpark on Kleinman Tennis Courts, to Community Grindpark Partnership. Also, we had a meeting with Mesa Parks and Rec recently and got a clearer picture of what needs to happen to get some ramps on those courts. We are going to need full architechtural drawings, signed and sealed by an architect, for each ramp that is to be built on the courts. Fortunately, we found out that we can get these drawings made up and submitted one ramp at a time if needed. The drawings go through a review process by Mesa Building Safety and we should have a building permit 30-45 days from the time the architectural drawings were originally submitted. Now it's quite expensive to get an architect to draw these things up, so we're looking for donations of an architect's time while we are also planning fundraisers. If any of you have any relatives, family friends or whoever that are architects, e-mail me through the website. We are looking for an architect to draw up all the specs on the ramps we designed--for free or very cheaply. Their donation will be tax-deductible.

You know how I mentioned fundraising above? We are selling John Parker's mini-spine ramp that he donated to the Community Grindpark Partnership. We won't be able to use it in Kleinman, so we hope to get some cash out of it we can use to get new wood. It is a 16' wide, 6' tall mini spine with 4' sub box. Attached is an 8' wide, 8' tall extension that connects via flatbottom to a box jump. The ramp is approximately 60' long with the decks. The ramp is excellent for churches and large backyards, and could be pieced into smaller ramps. We are asking for a $500 tax-deductible donation. Relocation is the buyer's responsibility. Call 480-593-1042 or e-mail me through the website if interested.

Mesa update-June 28th, 2004

Well, the ASA comp is not going to take place in Phoenix this November. They were considering it heavily, but finally decided to hold it in California instead. That means we won't get that street course for Kleinman, but John Parker's ramp donation has put us well on our way to getting phase one up anywho.

Mesa update-June 8th, 2004

John Parker will be moving to State College, PA, pretty quick here to become a part-time resident pro at Woodward Camp. He has very graciously donated all of his ramps to the Kleinman Ramp Park Fund, probably about $15,000-$16,000 worth of wood and Skatelite. The 3BC wants to thank John for keeping us in mind in his transition, and for helping so much to create a public, free place to ride in Mesa. Of course, this means we've got to get all his ramps torn down and moved out of his backyard. We will be having a ramp destruction get-together at John's this Saturday, June 12th. We're going to need some help, and we're really going to need some big trailers like 8X20's and 8X10's and trucks to tow them with. If you can help at all, please e-mail me through the site.

Mesa update-April 27th, 2004

Peep this, it made front page of the East Valley Tribune today:

Jason Ryan, left, of Tempe and Robert Terrell of Mesa want to turn unused tennis courts at Kleinman Park in Mesa into areas for ramps for trick bike riding.

Paul O'Neill For the Tribune

Mesa exploring bike parks for stunt riding

By Jason Emerson, Tribune

Cities in the East Valley and elsewhere in Arizona are exploring ways to build places where owners of popular BMX-style bikes can do trick and stunt riding.

The latest is Mesa, which is considering a plan to convert several tennis courts at a city park into a place for trick riders.

Since the 1990s, cities have spent millions in tax dollars building sunken concrete parks for skateboards and in-line skates. They also are ideal places for bike tricks.

Most cities prohibit bikes in their parks because officials are worried about BMX riders crashing into skateboarders. They also say metal pegs on the bikes used for "grinding" on concrete or steel ledges can damage skate parks. Some BMX riders strongly disagree. "We're having to become outlaws to ride our bikes," said Jason Ryan, who has lobbied cities throughout Arizona to build places for bike tricks. His group, the Bike, Blade and Board Coalition, came up with the bike park design that Mesa is considering.

With a few exceptions, cities have not offered to build spots for trick-bike riders.

"Ultimately, it's unfair," said Brad DeBusk, owner of BMX Media in Chandler, a bicycle promotion company. He pointed out that skateboarders outnumber bike riders 10-to-1 because skateboards are cheaper. Skateboard riders have traditionally been more organized and vocal, he added.

"It's hard to see the BMXers through the forest," DeBusk said.

Tim Barnard of Mesa's parks division said cities don't have the money they did several years ago when they built skate parks. But the surging popularity of freestyle BMX bikes is forcing cities to confront the issue. Under Mesa's plan, bike ramps would be built on four closed tennis courts at Mesa's Kleinman Park,
710 S. Extension Road.

City engineers are looking over the design. The plan requires approval of the City Attorney's Office and the parks board. The city would move ahead with the plan only if private money were used to buy the ramps. Ryan, who has formed a nonprofit company to gather donations, estimates the ramps will cost about $50,000.

Barnard said the cost would be more like $250,000 to $300,000.

In addition to Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Tempe, Glendale, Flagstaff and Tucson are also trying to find places or money to build spots for trick-bike riders. In the meantime, riders search for places to ride.

"There's just no where for these kids to go," said Chandler resident Leslie Saturday. "They're getting in big trouble."

Saturday's son, Noah, 8, and his friends used to ride BMX bikes in a drainage channel near Saturday's subdivision.

Recently, the homeowners association said the children could no longer ride in the channel because there had been several complaints, Saturday said.

"It's just heartbreaking. They have nowhere to go." she said.

Contact Jason Emerson by email, or phone (480) 898-6568

I've got a couple corrections to some of the information given in this article. The ratio of bike riders to skaters IS NOT 1 for every 10. It's about 1 bike rider to every 4 or 5 skaters. You can find the statistics that back this up by paging down to my April 10th update. Also, the construction costs for fully building out Kleinman Ramp Park, including labor and materials, will be NOWHERE NEAR $250,000. Now if we were planning on buying pre-fab shit ramps, it's possible, but we aren't. We will be using a liscensed contractor with a lot of ramp building experience, and that will save us a lot of cash. My estimate of $50,000 might have been a little low, but I highly doubt we'll need to spend over $80,000.

Nick Ligman recently completed the CAD work for Kleinman Ramp Park, and I've got a diagram for you.

I'm stoked. Thanks to Nick for all his help.

Mesa update-March 5th, 2004

Our Mesa 3BC Captain Dale Terrell has just informed me of a candidate for Mesa City Council that is friendly to our cause. His name is Charlie Powell, and you can find out more about him by going to http://www.voteforpowell.com. The Bike, Blade and Board Coalition is happy to endorse

Charlie Powell for Mesa City Council

so all you Mesa riders, parents and supporters make sure you vote for him on March 9th.

As far as Kleinman Ramp Park goes, Nick Ligman has been doing an outstanding job of doing all the CAD work on the ramps as required by the city engineers. As soon as he's done, we'll be turning them in to the city and we'll be that much closer to starting construction. Also, John Parker has informed us that one of the big ASA contests will be going down here in the valley in November, and he said it should be no problem for him to convince the ASA to donate the street course to go in Kleinman Park. Rad.

Mesa update-January 19th, 2004

It's election time in Mesa, and the Mayor and Council are nervous they'll lose their jobs. Now is the best time ever to e-mail them, telling them you will vote against them if they do not support the Kleinman Ramp Park. Seriously, election time is when they'll listen to citizens the closest, because their careers are on the line. Tell them that the city should help kick down some money for ramps, because they spent $750,000 on a huge piece of shit skatepark that bikes aren't allowed in and they need to put some money towards us. The mayor and council addresses can be obtained at: http://www.ci.mesa.az.us/citymgt/markcomm/contact_us.asp

Mesa update-December 10th, 2003

I wanted to remind everyone about the Jolly Roger Jam coming up this Saturday. For details on time and location, check the news, fool!. The 3BC will be raffling off bike parts, gift certificates, and a Hoffman complete bike, and all the proceeds will go towards ramps for the Kleinman Ramp Park.

Oh yeah, the design of the whole Kleinman Ramp Park is finally finished. It turns out that all we needed to get to the city engineers in CAD to start the whole process of getting the park built was a footprint. Dale has delivered it to the city engineers, and now it's in their hands. Hopefully we'll be moving on to the next step soon.

Mesa update-October 8th, 2003

Dale and I are currently working on the design for Kleinman Park. So far we've got the entrance area, a 6' mini spine with a wallride and sub box, and the grommie section. We are getting this put into CAD by a guy that's helping out, and when the park is fully designed in CAD, it will go to the city engineer.

Mesa update-July 27th, 2003

Good news for once in the 3BC's dealings with valley cities regarding a legal place for bikes!!! The meeting with the Kleinman Park neighborhood residents on Thursday probably could not have gone any better than it did. After the initial presentations by Mesa Parks and Rec officials, Rex Golos, and myself, the residents seemed trepidacious, but after all their questions were answered, all the residents wanted this grind park to happen. One neighbor even brought in the Arizona Republic article, so it was good to see the coverage was helping us already. Carl Kleinman, whose father the park was named after, was present at the meeting and expressed his full support of the proposal at the end of the meeting.

We are advocating that this park be open to all reasonable users, just as it should be. We're going to show all the valley cities that bike riders, skaters, inliners, and scooterers can co-exist with no problems.

I want to thank Mesa Parks and Rec for showing such strong support for this grindpark, and for helping us present the idea to the neighbors. Now it's on to fundraising and procuring donations. We will be building ramps, so we can use donations of wood, metal (for the structures), screws, coping, etc... If you have any connections or means to get these materials donated, please contact me at beardedlady@psychicflyingmonkey.com It is very reasonable that we can have this park finished and ready to ride in 3 to 5 months, so the more help we get, the better the park will be and the sooner we'll be able to ride.

Mesa update-June 27th, 2003

Things were looking pretty sketchy with Mesa for a while there. We had held up our end of working to get a bike park, but they had not held up their ends. They started to shade out on the Kleinman Park proposal, and we were not happy, because it was looking so good. Kleinman Park, in the area of Broadway and Extension, has a multiple tennis court area that is not even open. It has just been sitting there, contributing nothing to the community. We on the Mesa Bike Input Committee identified this as a perfect place for a bikepark, and as long as we can raise the funds or get ramps donated, it will be awesome. I am glad to say that Mesa finally has committed to hold up their end of the deal by holding a meeting with the Kleinman Park area neighbors. Basically we will present what we want to do with the tennis courts, and if the neighbors are cool with it, then we've got the go-ahead to fundraise and accept ramp donations.

Here is the info on the meeting:

Kleinman Park Neighborhood Meeting

This neighborhood meeting is to hear about and have input on the bike park
that is being proposed to be built on part of the tennis courts at Kleinman
park.

Date: July 24, 2003

Time: 7:00 - 8:00 pm

Location: Mesa Park Apts - 604 W. 8th Ave.

In the Office

Come and see the design and give your input about the project!
If you have any questions, please call Tim Barnard, Mesa Parks and
Recreation, 644 -3304

The Original Mesa Situation

Mesa decided to pay attention to the needs of bmx bike riders after the Reed Park protest. Tim Barnard, who is in charge of developing new parks in Mesa, worked with us to organize a meeting between Mesa Parks and Rec and bmx bike riders last December. At that meeting, a committee was formed consisting of Mesa Parks and Rec officials and any bmx bike riders who wanted to be in on it.

The Mesa bmx exploratory committee first met on February 12th at the Mesa Parks and Rec Hobson Office. At this meeting, the committee members were divided into 3 sub-committees, each looking at different aspects of getting a public, legal place for bmx riders to ride in Mesa. One to look at funding for a new bike-friendly park and for remodeling of Reed Park, one to look at design issues for a new bike-friendly park, and one to look at the feasibility of getting bikes allowed in Reed Park.

The next committee meeting will be held on Monday, March 10th at the Mesa Parks and Rec Hobson Office. If you want to be on this committee, call Tim Barnard at 480-644-3304. I will be updating this page with the outcome of the March 10th meeting.