Seattle Press on Line - If You Build It, Will They Come?

If You Build It, Will They Come?

Robert Shields at a skateboard park in Scottsdale, Arizona. As part of their research for a local skateboard park, the Shields family visited several skateboard parks in California and the Southwest.

Aug 23, 2000 -- A group of avid young Ballard skateboarders has won broad public and government support for a pilot skateboard park in the little-used upper parking lot at Golden Gardens.

The boys, including Robert and Allan Shields and Jason and Drew Dickens, testified at City Council, lobbied the Parks Department, the Ballard Neighborhood Council and the Northwest District Council.

As a result of their activism, the Seattle Department of neighborhoods has awarded $9,475 from the small and simple projects fund which it will match with $25,570 in community contributions to build a temporary skateboard park. A landscape architect will be hired to develop the site plan and criteria for the park. Skateboarders and their parents will provide much of the labor for construction.

The project is expected to take from one to two years until completion.

"It's sort of an experiment," said Todd Dickens, father of Jason and Drew. "There's only one skateboard park in the city, down at Seattle Center, but we think there's enormous demand. The Golden Gardens project will help us evaluate how much demand there is. We eventually hope to build a permanent facility, though it may not be at Golden Gardens."

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