The Multnomah Villager

In case you haven’t been to Gabriel Park this weekend, the skatepark is open. After staggering over to the park with Sally the dog (after like 2 too many beers at Journeys last night) we went up on the hill and watched the skaters tear it up for a while. It’s a great facility. Looks like a good addition to the park. Sitting on the grass watching the skaters is a good time, since I’m WAY too old to start skateboarding. Head on over there and take a look, but not now.. Woof! It’s hot. The dog and I will probably head back over to the park a little later again if a breeze kicks up, until then, I’m hiding out in the house.

They’ve started work on the Gabriel Park skatepark. We noticed that fencing had gone up last weekend. It probably has been up for a while, but what with all the rain and winter and all, I haven’t been over to Gabriel Park in ages. Anyway, there’s a big backhoe-type thing over there now and it’s moved a LOT of earth already. Here comes the skatepark. Ready?

Jr. V and I recently headed over to Holly Farm park, to check things out, and for me to find out where this park actually is. It’s over by the Library on Capitol Highway, and it’s really nice. There’s a large grassy area with new sidewalks circling the park, and a circular forum/gathering area at the NW corner.

The sidewalks are perfect for some scooter action, which Jr. V quickly discovered and overall, this park is a great little area to visit. Ironically, this is the first actual park in the West Portland Park neighborhood.

There’s a new playground with a nice range a equipment for little kids. Those of us who live near Gabriel Park can only dream of a layout like this. There are a couple of picnic tables near this area.

But of course the main attraction here is the skatepark. It’s a bowl, with a couple of entrances, rails along the edges, and a good assortment of drops, banks and other features. Both time that we’ve been there, there have been an assortment of teen and twentysomething (and a few older) skaters taking turns busting moves out in the bowl. All the skaters that we’ve watched have been practicing great ethics, waiting for the previous skater to exit the bowl before dropping in themselves, and watching out for spectators and younger kids. I suspect that people who oppose skateparks on the grounds of the parks attracting “the wrong element” would be surprised after spending an hour or so watching a lot of these kids use the park.

We’ll go back early in the AM one of these days so Jr. V can kick around on his scooter before the skaters show up for the day. He’s not to the skateboard stage yet, which is probably a good thing for our insurance rates. Down there in the upper bowl are some of his friends, including Sean who he was at West Hills Early Childhood Learning Center with. Small town, this. Holly Farm is a great park. There was a recent article in the SW Connection about its official opening, thanking among other Amanda Fritz, whose blog I often link to, and who is running for Sam Adams’ seat on the City Council. Great work everyone- hopefully this is a sing of how things will be at Gabriel, once “our” skate park gets built.

Here’s an interesting story about the park’s evolution at the Portland Park’s Foundation’s newsletter.

Additional Links:

• Holly Farm Page at Portland Parks website
• Post about the Park’s opening on Amanda’s Blog
• Holly Farm Category @ Skaters for Portland Skateparks Blog

Come out to the Multnomah Center tonight from 7:00 - 8:30PM to review and comment on the design for the upcoming skatepark at Gabriel Park. This is the second of two of these open houses. Not sure what room these are in, but there will surely be signage. Multnomah Art Center is at 7688 SW Capitol Highway. Call 503-823-6191 with questions.

Couldn’t make it to the whole meeting, but I did stop into the Gabriel Park Skate Park Community Open House. There was a good-sized group, primarily made up of skaters, who were contributing suggestions and feedback on the design features when I arrived. It seemed a little chaotic, mainly since the group of folks (older folks, not skaters) two tables in front of me insisted on having a completely separate conversation during the entire meeting.

Most of the suggestions were about the finer points of the design of the park, which since I am not a skater, don’t mean a lot to me, but it seems like the main points that came out of the meeting are as follows:

• There is a strong push towards making this a primarily “tranny” park, and only the late arrival of some pre-teen skaters towards the end of the meeting may have saved ANY street features in the design.
• There is concern among some members of the group, and primarily among the aforementioned younger folks, that there be various skill levels accommodated in the design. The current design is not for beginners.
• Many folks seemed to think the current snake run design could stand to have a bit of a curve towards one end.
• More curbs man, more curbs.
• The park eventually will have some sort of a roof or cover on it - perhaps similar to the open cover on the basketball courts at the Multnomah Center.
• The design team is very interested in the comments of skaters and community members, but at this point mostly skaters, since they’re trying to lock the design. There is a link to the comment form below.

Here’s a CAD of the preliminary design. Based on all the feedback given at the meeting, this is certainly subject to change, particularly the balance of tranny to street features and several people suggested ringing the skate park with “rideable” planters, which would help alleviate noise concerns.

Here is a link to the comment form. Comments need to be submitted prior to July 6th.

I’ve posted about this enough that I’m adding a category for skate park posts, since I’m tired of linking them up by hand. Click on the category list to the left to find all my posts related to the skate park, or for those of you reading this on an RSS feed, try this link: All Multnomah Villager posts tagged “skate park”.

The next open house will be on July 31st at 7PM at the Multnomah Center. Tuesday’s meeting was in the auditorium, so check there first.

Come out to the Multnomah Center tonight from 7:00 - 8:30PM to review and comment on the design for the upcoming skatepark at Gabriel Park. This is the first of two of these open houses, the second will be next month on Tuesday July 31st, also 7:00-8:30 PM. Not sure what room these are in, but there will surely be signage. Multnomah art Center is at 7688 SW Capitol Highway. Call 503-823-6191 with questions.

There are two community open houses to review and comment on the design options for the new skatepark at Gabriel Park, says the flyer that arrived today. I know all of you have one of these, but for those friends OUTSIDE the immediate area, here’s a scan of the schematic of the skatepark area, showing where the skatepark will be, and where the additional 10 parking spaces will be added.

The open houses are on Tuesday June 26th, and Tuesday July 31st from 7:00PM to 8:30PM at the Multnomah Art Center (7688 SW Captiol Highway, 503-823-6191)

I’ve posted about the skatepark several times, the most recent post is here (Gabriel Skatepark Update and NIMBY Alert) . For the record, this ‘blog gets a fair amount of traffic from Google and Yahoo by people searching for skatepark information. There’s definitely a lot of interest in this facility, on both “sides”.

The Gabriel Park skate park specific section of Portland Online has all the details, here.

So at the Multnomah Neighborhood Association meeting last week, Rod Wojtanik from Portland Parks and Rec gave us an update on the long-rumored Gabriel Park skatepark project. As is the case anytime that skateboarders are mentioned, there was much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments about the fact that skateparks tend to attract the “wrong element” (read: teenagers) who are likely to spend their time smoking in the woods and making loud noises, as well as drawing immense amounts of car traffic to our tranquil park. Much of the presentation was spent addressing these concerns - which is not to say that the concerned parties left satisfied.

Questions were raised about how a project like this got approved, and where were the opportunities for community feedback. To that I say: This discussion has been going on for years and there have been numerous meetings and rather extensive press coverage of said meetings, and the results. Which is to say this: we’re getting a skatepark. It’s been a done deal for a while. Find excellent information, complete project history and community and general surveys related to the City’s overall skateparks project at the Skate Park section of Portland Online dot com. This has to do with the City’s skatepark projects in general though, and is not Gabriel Park specific. For that, read on….

First some background. The skatepark, as designed, is relatively small - just 8-10,000 square feet which is pretty much the size of a standard single tennis court. It will be concrete, and mostly sunk into the ground, which will significantly alleviate any potential noise. The Gabriel Park skatepark is being designed to serve both “street” and “tranny” style skaters, as well as BMX bikes and inline skaters. What?!? You don’t know what “tranny” skating is? It is not doing tricks while dressed in women’s clothes. There are two main “schools” of skateboarding: “Street”, which is the “outlaw” type of skating, where tricks and moves are performed using curbs, steps, stair-rails and other things you find out in the street, and “Tranny” or Transitional skating which is skating in specific man-made skate environments such as bowls, half-pipes and skateparks. Most of the complaints directed at, and damage done by skaters is related to “street” skaters.

The park is going into the former location of the fitness course, next to the sand volleyball courts at Gabriel. I have posted about this previously, here:
The Rocks Area: Where are the Bars?” and here: Gabriel Park Play Area Status. For those of you not familiar with the layout of the park, here’s a picture of the location we’re talking about.

There were a few concerns voiced at the meeting that definitely have some merit: There likely WILL be bike traffic to the skatepark, some of which may choose to cut across the park and not stay on the trail. If casual BMX riders decide to run down the hill to the skatepark bowl, that could have a very negative effect. Although most skateboarders are just regular kids, there definitely IS an element of the skate culture that also experiments with smoking, drinking, etc. so it IS possible that there could be a certain element sneaking off into the woods to have a smoke, and that truly would create a serious fire hazard. However - the main inpact that we’re liable to notice is additional parking. Yes, the City would create an additional 15 parking spaces by cutting parking spaces into the berm that you see in the left-hand side of the above photo. While this certainly isn’t the end of the world, and the park could use more parking - it’s another piece of green gone.

I have to say though, that I am continually amazed at how alarmed people get whenever skateboarders are mentioned. Have we really gotten that old so quickly? Skate park skateobarders are regular kids, with the same interests and propensity towards being or not being troublemakers as any other group of kids. Oh, we ant facilities for these kids, sure… They have to have SOMEWHERE to go…. The implied second part of that sentence.. “other than here” is never explicitly spoken. However, there’s a key difference between skaters and the typical “smoking area” crowd from my teen years, and that is… skateboarding is hard. That is to say, doing tricks on a board and skating in a park without hurting yourself takes a certain level of skill and dedication. I don’t skate, but I’m a rock climber, and I’ve heard many of the same speeches made about why climbers are shiftless and no good for the outdoors. I’ll tell you something though. You’ll find an amazing amount of dedication and sense of ownership of “their space” among these and any other “alternative sport” people. Kids who skate at a park take ownership over the spot in a way you wouldn’t think “the kids of today” would be capable of. They’re protective of their scene, and the maintenance and behavior control issues that go along with it. Skaters use the term “concrete consequences” - which means that any lack of preparation, control, maintenance or skill will land you on the concrete, and it will hurt.

When this park opens, especially if you’re opposed to the idea, you should head down there some sunny afternoon and check out the scene. I think you’ll be surprised at not only the variety of types of people found skating/blading/biking at a park, but also at the vibe. Yeah, kids will be wearing black. Yes, they’ll be listening to hardcore music you do NOT want to hear, and yes, they will have hair of all colors and probably some piercings, but it’s OK. We often decry the fact that younger people don’t seem to be getting involved in neighborhood or local issues. Building a skatepark is a good step towards getting them involved. The sense of ownership over that small space soon spreads to concern for the citywide system of skateparks, parks as a whole and more. We can’t expect kids to suddenly decide to get involved in transit planning and zoning reviews, but taking part in the “policing” and maintaining of a skatepark? Sure, that’s possible.

That’s a long enough post now - discuss amongst yourselves, or in the comments. The document that was handed out at the meeting addresses the specific points related to the Gabriel Park skate park. Thanks to Rod Wojtanik, you can download a PDF of the entire document Gabriel Park Skatepark FAQ (PDF, 112KB)

So, in the comment string on one of my posts yesterday, Cate (who’s been a very active reader and contributor these last couple of days) asks the following question:

Okay, another question… :-) Is the City going to replace the equipment they took out next to the volleyball courts at Gabriel Park? Or are they going to do something else with that area? (When Parks got rid of equipment at Custer Park, they replaced it. But I heard that equipment was removed because it had lead in it, not because it was beyond repair. Don’t know if that’s true.)

This is a question that longtime readers of this ‘blog will recognize. Last August, I had an email exchange with the Parks Department about this issue. As many of you know, the small slides were removed after being boarded up for some time, as a result of having been vandalized. The slides were not replaced, although we now have a shiny new fence railing where the top of the slides once were. This play area, although primarily for small children, is the only play structure in the entire park. In fact it’s the only “structure” of it’s type since the excercise bars (down by the volleyball courts) were removed, after a prolonged slide into disrepair.

The excerise facility will not be replaced. Well rather not with the same type of facility - since the long-rumored skate park will eventually take over that area as well as the volleyball courts, which will move (allegedly) to the grassy area south of the tennis courts. This, however is still firmly in the “rumor” stage.

In August, I noticed survey marks on the play area and sent an email to Parks, wondering if there were plans afoot to expand the play area. My original post, and the Park’s Department’s response to my email is here. I was told at the time that plans had been, or were in the process of being developed for this site, but that replacing the play structure would involve a plethora of site grading and otherwise very expensive “up to code and ADA standards” improvements. Its no surprise that nothing has been done. There is currently no sign of any of these plans on Park’s website, which is on Portland Online, at this link. Due to the recent Parks Departmen reorganization and the current focus on outdated facilities (Here’s a link to the Tribune’s article about both issues) I should think that the play facilities are pretty far down the list of priorities. You’ll note that the park maintenance structure at Gabriel plays a starring role in these articles about primitive facilities.

It’s time to get back after this issue again. So Cate, there’s your “answer”. Careful what you ask about….

So I noticed a little piece in the Southwest Community Connection this month about their new website.
Here’s the link Southwest Community Connection.

It appears to have a selection of the stories from the paper, not the full content, so unfortunately you miss out on what I consider to be the must-read of each issue, the (usually entertaining) Police Blotter.

Front page story of the online and the print edition is the selection of Gabriel Park to be a future skatepark site, which has got people all over the neighborhood throwing a bit of a NIMBY fit. I may post on this subject at some point, although the rate things move through the city - I don’t expect any skateboarders rippin’ it up at Gabriel anytime soon….

This might explain the partial demise of The Rocks Area, though.