austin public skatepark action committee

Thanks to the hard work of El Paso Skatepark Association advocates led by Paul Zimmerman, El Paso joins a select group of Texas cities that can boast two public concrete skateparks. Carolina was the first concrete skatepark in the extreme western Texas city. On July 8th, the El Paso hosts a grand opening of the Westside Skatepark, which features a mini-bowl and a skate plaza-styled street course. See this flyer for more details on the public skatepark opening.

The Art in Public Places component of the House Park Skate Plaza has made some forward progress in the city process. Earlier this week, the Art in Public Places Panel approved the design concepts that Chris Levack has proposed for the public skate plaza. The designs have been met with support by city staff, the public art panel members, project team and stakeholders. Once approved by the Arts Commission (expected on November 17, 2008), Levack will be placed under a commission contract to fabricate and install the work.

Chris has already completed several art installations around Austin. Two of his art pieces can be seen at the Mueller Redevelopment and his shade canopies are enjoyed daily by shoppers dining outside at the Whole Foods at Lamar and 5th Street.
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Impatient skaters who fretted the past two months while the ramp was closed will now be able to skate on the concrete miniramp in Patterson Park. The delay was planned to provide protection for the recently planted sod and grass seed that are expected to prevent erosion of the earthen berms that surround the ramp. The two months enabled the grass to create a strong root system that should help it make it through the winter as well as withstand trampling by miniramp visitors.

Late last week representatives from Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department signed off on the project, which added the volunteer-built skate spot to the city’s official roster of recreational facilities. Materials for the construction of the concrete miniramp were purchased with generous donations from the Austin Parks Foundation, Vans Shoes, Frog Design, and Austin’s skateboarding community.

APSAC’s first volunteer skate spot construction project is almost finished. Over the past few months, APSAC members have donated their labor and time to build Austin’s first public skate spot. More than $10,000 was raised in private donations to purchase materials for the construction- no city money was applied to this project. Currently, all concrete has been placed for the mini ramp, but the facility won’t officially open to the public until the grass has taken hold on the site. Until then, it will be closed.

PPMR signage

PPMR coverage in the Austin American-Statesman [Read more →]

The City of Austin is currently soliciting public input on the types of activities people would like to see supported in the future development of Waller Creek in Central Austin. The online survey doesn’t currently list ‘skateboarding‘ as an option, although it does include rollerblading. It looks like they are considering a concrete path of some sort, which could easily be designed as a skate path that would support jogging, rollerblading, bicycling, and skateboarding.

If you’d like to see more skate terrain  added to Austin’s urban landscape, take a moment to fill in the online survey and advocate for skateboarding in the Waller Creek master plan. I’ve spoken to the survey administrators about the omission of skateboarding from the activities list and they’ve said it can’t be updated as the survey is already live and it’s not possible to add it now. Our best option may be to select ‘rollerblading‘ from the activities list, then enter text in the boxes below requesting skateboarding as a Waller Creek activity.

Please encourage other skateboarders to fill out this survey.

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/wallercreek/survey.cfm

Austin Parks and Recreation Planner, Ricardo Soliz, is conducting public input meetings to determine what improvements Austinites would like to see built in parks throughout the city. Soliz will take the suggestions and requests gathered at these meetings to compile a list of capital improvements to be included in the next City of Austin Bond Election (date to be determined).

The previous bond election yeilded a skate and BMX plaza that will be constructed later this year in House Park. This is actually a paltry accomplishment compared to the millions of dollars allocated in that bond package for such recreational expenditures as 15 new tennis courts and new golf course putting greens. That’s why it’s important for skateboarders to attend these meetings to tell the Parks and Recreation Department that we need facilities, also. Austin’s hundreds of public tennis courts, baseball diamonds, football and soccer fields sit idle every day. It’s only skatepark, Mabel Davis, is crowded EVERY day. [Read more →]