Nathaniel and Jeff’s Handouts to the Park Board Councillors
Here’s what we gave to each of the Park Board Councillors last night:
JEFF’S HANDOUT:
The Park Board’s Skateboard Strategy for Vancouver: Progress and Concerns
(View the Strategy here).
Background:
The Vancouver Park Board approved the Skateboard Strategy for Vancouver on October 31, 2005, just after completion of Quilchena (the city’s sixth and newest skatepark). Eight Strategic Actions were identified to better serve Vancouver’s 24,000 skateboarders on a long-term basis. These included:
– Provide additional skateparks in Vancouver.
– Provide a better geographic distribution of skateparks in Vancouver.
– Provide variety in the skateboarding system.
– Explore options to provide an indoor skateboarding facility in Vancouver.
Also in the strategy:
From page 5: “On October 3rd, 2005, the Park Board approved an allocation of $375,000 for ‘youth parks’ (which includes skateparks)”.
From page 6: “The popularity of the new skateparks indicates that we are not at a point where supply has fully caught up with demand.”
On March 1st, 2007, Vancouver City Council unanimously supported a motion to approve The Downtown Skateboard Plaza as a permanent facility and perform the much-needed repairs to the deteriorating surface.
Progress since approval of the Skateboard Strategy:
– No new skateparks built.
– No repairs made to the Downtown Skateboard Plaza.
– Reduction in city’s total skateboarding area (China Creek upgrades will keep bowls, but reduce surrounding paved area and remove several obstacles).
– Closure of Lower Mainland’s only comprehensive indoor skateboard facility (RDS Skatepark in Richmond).
Concerns:
In the fall of 2006, Vancouver’s parks planners proposed demolition of the historic bowls at China Creek to make way for a park upgrade. Skateboarders were assured that the Skateboard Strategy would guarantee a replacement skatepark in a nearby park; ideally with no “service gap”. The China Creek bowls were saved by overwhelming public support, but what if skateboarders had accepted this exchange in good faith?
If the current version of the 2009 – 2011 Capital Plan is approved, it will be at least six years before a new skateboard facility could open in the city (three years until the next capital plan plus three years for development of a new park)… nine years from the time that the Skateboard Strategy was approved.
Vancouver recognized the value of skateboarding long before most and our progressive approach (building two internationally-acclaimed skateparks and approving the Skateboard Strategy) made us a world leader in the sport. But now we’re poised to take a huge step backwards with this draft of the Capital Plan. Adhering to the Skateboard Strategy and expanding Vancouver’s skateboard facilities would benefit the whole city and could put us back among the world’s top skateboard destinations.
NATHANIEL’S HANDOUT (there were also some example photos, but our website isn’t uploading files right now):
Who am I?
I am a skateboarder and concerned citizen of Vancouver and a member of
skatersforpublicskateparks.org.
In the past 10 years have been involved in the advocacy, design and construction of over 30 skateparks from around the country. I want to share my knowledge to create more great skateparks in Vancouver.
Why?
–The results of usage at the Downtown Skatepark show a high demand of 150 users a day.
–The south and west sides of the city do not yet have skatepark facilities
–According to the City of Vancouver website there are 600,000 residents of Vancouver and 2.1 million in the GVRD.
–Using the Skatepark Adoption Model developed by the Skaters for Public Skateparks we can say that:
There are 24,000 skateboarders in the City of Vancouver.
84,000 in the GVRD.
Ref:
25% of the residents are between 5-24years of age,
16% of these are own or use a skateboard once a week or more.
600,000 * .25 = 150,000 (residents between 5 – 24) * .16 = 24,000 skateboarders.
This final number is the closest approximation of the skateboarding population possible without doing a specific study.
What other cities are doing?
– City of Burnaby has a skatepark plan that included the building of the huge Metro Skatepark at Bonsor Park near Metrotown, The updating and renovation of Confederation skatepark, and other new park projects.
–Seattle is spending 3.9 million on a sculptural skatepark Pavilion near the Space Needle
–In 2006 Portland designated 19 sites for skateparks and has been building them ever since.
Where can we put the skateparks?
In April 2007 I analyzed 210 of Vancouver’s public parks by things like:
Accessibility bus car or transit,
How close to residential zones,
How visible the park is for ease of monitoring,
Available Area for a skatepark ,
Social Impact a skatepark would have on the existing facilities,
Existing amenities like washrooms concessions and a few others.
I presented my ten 20 to the Skateboard Coalition with Mark Villamy(spelling???) in attendance. We identified several prime locations for facilities in the south and west sides of Vancouver:
Locarno Park,
Near the QEP (Mark V),
Under bridges,
– Arthur Lang Bridge, several unused lots
– Granville Loop Park, under south side of the Granville St Bridge
– Under the south side of the Burrard Bridge
The 27 wading pools across the city.
There are many more areas perfect for this type of facility.
What might it cost?
The outline in the 10 year skatepark strategy shows $375,000. If we divide this by by $35per sqft which is an estimate based on my experience and that which SPS uses based on thousands of skateparks across the continent. We can supply 10,100 sqft of new construction. That is about the size of two basketball courts.
There is better news, we can stretch that to almost double by using existing hardscapes in the city.
A great example would be converting some of the 27 wading pools into new skateparks.
If we upgraded three of these pools that could mean three completely new 5,000 sqft skateparks.
Ex. that’s more than the area of three basket ball courts combined.
What it will it look like?
The most exciting thing is that we can design these new parks to fit in seamlessly with the surroundings. They will be designed sustainably by reusing existing hardscapes. They can take the shape of paths that wind between trees, pavilions and public art…
Great examples of spots around the city that look public art are shown on the accompanying handouts.
We are really only limited by our imagination.
What do we want to do to move forward on this vision?
