A little while ago at a Green Lake Community Council meeting, there was a casual discussion about the Green Lake Skatepark, a 17,000 sq. foot skateboard park in Lower Woodland Park. The general consensus was that, although many Green Lake residents had some trepidation going into the project, the skatepark has been a positive addition to the neighborhood since its opening day in June 2008.
What are your thoughts? Do you live near the skatepark? Has it impacted the neighborhood, either positively or negatively? Let us know in the comments.
To refresh your memory on the controversy that surrounded the park at its inception, here’s an excerpt from a Seattle P-I article dated February 1, 2006:
Skate-park site raises hackles
Green Lake residents rail at city’s switch to Lower Woodland Park
By Athima Chansanchai[ ... ]
“The first thing I want to make clear is that we’re by no means ‘anti-skate,’ ” said Hans Bjordahl, a Green Lake resident who has led a group of concerned neighbors against the latest location, a green space between a soccer field and a softball field along East Green Lake Way North between North 55th and North 52nd streets.
The park department previously looked at two other sites in the area that Bjordahl and other neighbors supported. They were closer to the woods and a BMX area. They thought it was a done deal and looked forward to seeing it break ground.
That optimism quickly soured when he and other neighbors found out that the latest favored site has moved east — much closer to their homes. Supporters of the skate park believe that four lanes of traffic, a parking lot and trees are an effective sound buffer. Depending on whom one talks with, the distance from the proposed skate park to the nearest house is anywhere from 108 feet to 178 feet.
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Bjordahl and other neighbors are also upset about the potential loss of open space and the potential for a much higher decibel reading from a skate park.
“It’s across the street from my house, and I can tell you firsthand it’s heavily used: by sports teams to practice, spectators to cheer them on, cross-country teams to host their meets and by residents of the neighborhood every day,” he said. “And in terms of noise, the occasional cheer from the soccer or softball fields is very different from the constant clatter and grind of a skateboard park.”
Forget soccer moms. Skate moms are intense.
“People tend to connect the sound of skateboarding on worn sidewalks with the sound of skateboarding in a skate park,” said Kate Martin, a mother of two teenage skaters. “Urethane wheels on hard-troweled, mega-smooth concrete is almost without sound. … That roar of a skateboard thundering down an old sidewalk surface with all its pebbles exposed over time has no correlation to skate-park noise.”
Parents for Skateparks don’t think the proposed location is ideal, but it can work.
“When they compare noise generated from the skate park or any other athletic activity, they’re the same. I think the situation is the fear there’s evil children and all this evil stuff is going to happen, and that’s been disproven,” Martin said. “These people own property across from a very intensely programmed, active recreation area in the busiest park in Washington state. Skateboarding is more popular than baseball amongst the kids nationwide. The use of the land will never become less intense.”
For Martin, skateboarding is a pastime that deserves serious consideration. “This is not Xbox in the basement or myspace.com ad infinitum or childhood obesity,” she said. “This is strenuous recreation and exercise that is at the same time social.”
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A couple of clips of the action at the now-installed (and heavily used) Green Lake Skatepark:
