Guest columnist
Chamber's big wheels shouldn't roll over Ballard's skateboarders

By Kelly O'Neill
Special to The Times

	BETTY UDESEN / THE SEATTLE TIMES Skateboarders and the tools of their play.
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There's a centrifugal force in Ballard that has the old guard upset — specifically, the Ballard Chamber of Commerce. With a new $2.4 million park slated to be built in Ballard's urban core at 22nd Avenue Northwest and Northwest 57th Street, various visionaries are battling it out. And the visions are radically different.

At the center of controversy is the Ballard Skate Park, a 3,600-square-foot area containing a smooth, swooping bowl of curving cement. For those who like their pavement flat, an open street course lies next to the bowl.

The 2-year-old skate park serves as a gathering spot for anyone who loves wheels. Kids, their parents and adults congregate on the concrete utopia whenever the weather is dry. On sunny weekends and after school, numerous people of all ages defy gravity and surf the cement. You need only spend a few minutes in the park to appreciate the creativity and athleticism of the skaters in their urban environment.

However, the Ballard Chamber of Commerce doesn't see it that way. The chamber is asking Seattle Parks and Recreation and Mayor Greg Nickels to reject plans to integrate the existing skate park into the proposed new Ballard Civic Center Park. Instead, the chamber envisions what it calls a "multifunctional" park for Frisbee tossing, picnicking, sunbathing and community festivals.

Why can't we all just get along?

The chamber claims that a skate park would have negative visual, audible and experiential impacts and cause on-street parking issues. However, its arguments lack weight.

• A recent sound study confirms the skate park is within legal decibel requirements for the area. Additionally, skate-park guidelines do not allow loud music.

• Well-planned skate parks are visually stimulating. And for those who can't tolerate watching skaters, landscaping can mitigate unpleasing sight lines. (But real visionaries would do well to erect bleachers for senior citizens, parents and others to comfortably watch the activity.)

• Parking is a non-issue. Many facility users live within close proximity to the park. Many are too young to drive, anyway. Many current skaters walk, take the bus, or are dropped off by parents. (Cultural events, community festivals and a proposed 200-unit apartment development adjacent to the park will, however, cause major traffic migraines!)

Built by skate enthusiasts who volunteered their time and labor, the Ballard Skate Park provides a safe and controlled area for skaters to pursue recreational and leisure activities. And it is obvious the park serves an immediate need in the community.

If you look at the big picture, integrating the skate park into the new park benefits the local and greater Seattle community in many ways:

• Skating (both skateboarding and in-line skating) is one of the most popular recreational activities in the U.S. The skate population is embarrassingly underserved in Seattle, which has only one skateboard park (at Seattle Center). Considering that Seattle has more than 200 athletic fields, 50-plus basketball courts and 10 swimming pools, it's obvious that skaters have been left out of the loop.

• A safe and controlled skate park provides our youth and adults a place for healthy recreational activity — off the sidewalks and streets and out of danger of being run over by motor vehicles.

• The city's Parks and Recreation Department skateboard policy articulates that skateboard-park sites should be developed as part of larger park spaces that provide other park amenities. The current Ballard Skate Park meets that requirement.

I think most people can agree that Seattle needs more skate parks. However, an offer by the Ballard chamber to help find a new location for the current skate park is not the answer to the Ballard skate debate. The current park serves an immediate need. We must keep the Ballard Skate Park where it is and then work together to create more parks like it throughout the city.

The Ballard community has evolved since the time a new urban center was first envisioned. And Ballard will continue to evolve.

If the proposed Ballard Civic Center Park is truly to be multifunctional, it must be designed with the entire neighborhood in mind and include the skate park in the final plan.

Ballard residents and skate enthusiasts made this clear at a community meeting earlier this year when they turned out in force to view a trio of possible plans for the new park. Only two of the designs included the skate park.

If the Parks Department lives up to its responsibility of equitable distribution of community facilities, and if the department and the city understand the immediate need being served by the current skate park, then the preferred design to be unveiled Tuesday will include the skate area.

There is no reason why a safe and controlled skate park cannot share green space with Frisbee throwers and sunbathers. By integrating the skate bowl and street course into the new park, the community retains a useful, vital, active and needed space for skate enthusiasts in the community.

Kelly O'Neill, a North Ballard resident, is a member of the Puget Sound Skatepark Association, www.pugetsoundskateparks.org

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company