Closing Bell: A Skate Park For Gowanus
As we learned at a recent community board meeting, a local group is still pushing to transform the under-used public park on 3rd Avenue and Douglass Street into a skateboarding paradise complete with new bathrooms and equipment. Totally tubular! GMAP
As we learned at a recent community board meeting, a local group is still pushing to transform the under-used public park on 3rd Avenue and Douglass Street into a skateboarding paradise complete with new bathrooms and equipment. Totally tubular! GMAP
There have been a few comments on about the skate-park concerning insurance and liability that I want to direct this towards as well as debunking the notion of skateboarding being for “losers” (pretty funny to think that huh?)…
Skateboarders are going to skate where ever they can. If there’s a nice curb or transition to skate… They’ll go out of their way to find it. This is most likely going to either be on a city owned piece of architecture or it’ll be privately owned. Both of which currently are huge liability concerns for the city and residents for a number of reasons. IF you put a designated area for skaters to use than the liability goes way down. Think about it. You have a waver for skaters to sign, you have signs up all over the place and you greatly diminish the liability. Not to mention saving the architecture that would otherwise be damaged and need to be repaired. I could go on an on….
For the uniformed: Skateboarding is actually a very highly regarded sport. It’s a multi billion dollar industry. It’s everywhere and for everyone. It’s about time NYC woke up to the benefits of having well built skateparks.
Look at California for example. Great skate-parks everywhere. Don’t be judgmental and uninformed a skate-park is the best thing that can happen to this park in particular. Think about it, it’ll put you Tennis players one step closer to getting some courts out there 😉
I work in the building across the street from that park on Douglass. The only people I see in there now seem homeless, sleeping on the few benches, ex-cons doing pull ups and push ups shirtless on the playground, or immigrant playing soccer in the the rear.
It would be great to gentrify the park. It has a nice amount of square footage, and houses a public pool.
Tho I’m sure that if this does happen the building I’m working in will be bought and I’ll be outta that area =(
skating and blow jobs. its too bad we have to choose.
I miss the hookers. They loved that pard. At least they gave the hood some diversity… now the only diversity is that some of the white folk are foreign.
The city should turn all the rich assholes’ brownstones into skateparks.
Why is everyone so mad about a skatepark? Why is this much worse than a basketball court or handball court? For years, that’s all the city would build.
So let me get this right.
Most of the park next to Byrne Park behine the NOVO (4th Street between 5th and 4th Avenues) is becoming a Boymelgreen-built “skate park” and now another park 9 blocks away is become one as well?!?!
What’s going on with these “skate park” conversions? Is it cheaper to maintain so the Parks Dept. is doing this?
Why not pave over the Great Lawn in Prospect Park … there are hills there … would make a great “skate park.”
Not In My Backyard
what is a nimby?