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

If You Build It , Will They Come?

Lobbying and organizing by Robert Shields, left, Allen Shields and Ben Wenet, right, and several other skateboard enthusiasts and their families has led to a plan for a pilot skateboard area in the upper parking lot of Golden Gardens Park.

Sep 06, 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, and lobbied the Parks Department, the Ballard Neighborhood Council and the Northwest District Council.
As a result of the boys’ 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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sarah macleod	Oct 09, 2003	louisbourg nova scotia	student in middle school
hey all u skateboarders i no how it feels not to be able to skate n e wheres cuz i am a 13 year old female skater and it sucks not being able to go n e wheres sooo i hope that they will buil u guys a park !!


dilwyn jones	Mar 19, 2004	llanwrtyd wells	woolen mill
i would like to help because i am a very good skateboarder and i want to come and see what it will be like and i will see how good you are i will show all of you how to do some triks and i will come on my bmx asswell i live in wales we done the same type of thing in llanwrtyd wells plz reply to dilwynj@builth-hs.powys.sch.uk thanks from dilwyn jones