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Why we can’t have nice things: Summit/John skatedot brings complaints, park changes

Seattle Parks officials say that because of complaints about noise, litter and tagging related to the skatedot feature in the new Summit/John park, they are taking immediate steps to restrict skateboarding in the open space and looking for “a long term solution.”

We first reported on problems with skateboarders at the park in late September before construction on the space was completed. At the October meeting of the Skate Park Advisory Committee, the members heard reports of excessive noise, littering and tagging occurring at the park. One man who said he lives near the park, told the committee he had posted videos of the skateboarders’ activities on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/summitandjohn. While many of the videos don’t show clear illegal activity there are a few like the one embedded below that are a pretty clear illustration of exactly what was not intended use for the park’s infrastructure. (Thanks to West Seattle Blog for providing information for this post.)


In an e-mail that is being sent to people who have sent the parks department complaints about the issues, officials list measures they are taking to curb the problems including adding blocks to the park’s rails (“which were not intended for skateboard use,” the e-mail notes) and installing a sign documenting rules and hours for the area. Here is a copy of the e-mail sent to CHS:

Seattle Parks has received many individual complaints in relation to the skateboard feature and other features used by skateboarders installed at John and Summit Park, recently opened on October 1st.

The skatedot feature was advocated for though the public involvement process during the design phase of the project. A skatedot is a singular skate feature within an overall park and these features are included in the Citywide Skatepark Plan. http://www.seattle.gov/parks/projects/Skatepark.htm

In response to the complaints Parks has received we are planning to make some modifications in order to improve pedestrian safety at the park.

*         Skate stoppers will be installed on the stairway rails (which were not intended for skateboard use).

*         Two bollards will be installed at the South West plaza entry from John St. to make the approach to the skatedot safer for all park users and pedestrians

*         A sign with a skateboarding code of conduct and hours will be installed.

Parks anticipates that these additions will help slow down the skate traffic in the overall site, allowing pedestrians to safely use the park.

We are also in the process of reaching out to the Parks Rangers and SPD for their feedback and assistance with the issue.

A trash can was installed on October 7.

Parks will continue to review your concerns and monitor the use of the park and we are coordinating with the Skate Park Advisory Council (SPAC) and other City officials to develop a long term solution.

Rick Nishi, a Parks Levy Manager responsible for the Summit/John work, confirmed for CHS that the new features were not part of the original Summit/John plan and will cost the department extra beyond the park’s budget to install. Nishi said he expects the elements to cost a few thousand dollars but won’t have an exact number until later this month.

Summit/John’s skatedot feature is a small “skateable” element on the downslope, western side of the park. It’s basically a curb — a really good curb, designed for skateboard use. Local community groups organized to raise about $50,000 to build the feature. UPDATE: Parks contacted us to clarify that the skatedot feature was scaled back because of budget issues and that the actual price tag on the current feature was $12,900.

Hi, in your recent post you said that the skatedot feature cost $50,000. Actually it cost $12,900. $50,000 was the cost estimate from the design consultant, but that feature was dropped it from the bid since we couldn’t afford it. Then, because the construction bid was low, Parks submitted a modification proposal for a skatedot and paid the $12,000 out of project contingency funds (built into the budget for every capital project).

**END UPDATE**

We’ve reached out to the man who attended the skate committee meeting and posted the videos to YouTube to ask him about the situation. We’re also checking in with Matthew Lee Johnston of Seattleskateparks.org to get more on his take on the situation and the steps being taken by Seattle Parks. He dissected some of the video footage uploaded to YouTube in this post. “It will be interesting to see how this plays out,” he wrote in early October. “We certainly want to build more integrated skatedots into city parks, and what happens here will definitely inform how Seattle Parks makes decisions in the future. Pretty soon it will be raining all the time, the noise will die down, and these neighbors will have to find something else to write the City Council about.”

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SeattleXB
13 years ago

OK, how is this different than dodgeball/bike polo (aside from the tagging)? Park features weren’t all designed for skateboarding, etc… I know this is a can of worms… :-)

Anyway, noise–Cap Hill–good times!

calhoun
13 years ago

It was entirely predictable that these problems would arise. And it is laughable that a sign stating a “code of conduct” will make a difference…most skaters will not even read it, let alone respect it.

This is a very small park and I think there is too much crowded into it…skatedot, p-patch, landscaping, paths.

skate
skate
13 years ago

Won’t the sign just be one more thing to destroy?

anne
anne
13 years ago

i am all for having places where skateboarders can be skateboarders, but unfortunately there are always a few folks who ruin things for everyone. i live directly across the street from the park and my sleep is often interrupted by skateboarders who are practicing late at night. posting use hours will hopefully alleviate the problem, but i doubt that all of the folks boarding after midnight will comply.

“build a park, and they will come”

jdestes
jdestes
13 years ago

“And it is laughable that a sign stating a “code of conduct” will make a difference…”

I’ll put the over/under at 4 hours before the sign gets tagged.

pragmatic
pragmatic
13 years ago

So this skatedot is successfully attracting skaters. That tells me we need more of them, not fewer. Perhaps some where late night use is acceptable and not as bothersome to neighbors. The tagging is dumb though.

skate
skate
13 years ago

I don’t know how that tells you there needs to be more of them.

Maybe this was the one additional park needed to meet demand and building one more would be unnecessary.

safetyconcerns
safetyconcerns
13 years ago

I was walking out of the front door of QFC in Broadway Market yesterday and a skater literally skated into me while trying to do that sliding stop thing they do (he was somewhat unsuccessful as he struck me head on) and I was like, WTF dude, and he just shrugged and told me to ‘f–k off’
Nearly everyday I’m brushed or so closely brushed by a skater freewheeling with no regard for others on the sidewalks of Broadway. They have nearly destroyed all the brick facing on the front of the SCCC campus. They have no regard for anyone and will destroy anything that they think they can use as a prop. It’s horrible behavior, and after my incident yesterday, well, I no longer have a single ounce of sympathy for any of them and their needs. Running into me in the entryway of a grocery store because he couldn’t stop in time and then swearing at me like it was no big deal was just too much.

CapLocal
CapLocal
13 years ago

I am a skater. I don’t tell people to F-off unless they go ape sh#t. I also run into by people walking, running, bicycles, etc. As far as noise goes, I have no sympathy. I live very close by and I wake up at least twice a night because of street noise. Skateboarding is a part of our culture. Tagging happens in almost every neighborhood, not just your cute little piece of the world. Get over it. Out with the old, in with the new. There will be growing pains, but equal options for everyone. Skateboarding is not a crime.

Arthur
Arthur
13 years ago

I’m a skater. I volunteer at the Compass Center. I open doors for little old ladies. I skate down Broadway and avoid hitting people.

When you know you’re generalizing but then go on and categorically denounce all of a population it just makes you look like an idiot. It’s only the obnoxious ones you notice so it’s only them that paint the picture for you. Duh.

Generalization but internet commenters are dorks. Myself included.

A Neighbor
A Neighbor
13 years ago

Skaters need a place to skate but not at the Summit/John park. It just doesn’t fit with the small park concept. It is loud and deters people from gathering there who are looking for a relatively quiet place to relax and enjoy the green space. I can frequently hear from my living room skateboards crashing after dark and have recently heard them as late as 1:00am. The skateboarders who currently use the area spill over onto the sidewalk and stairs within the park making it dangerous for pedestrians who try to pass and to cars parked along the curb near the area. I’ve also noticed that some landscaped areas adjacent to the “dot” have been damaged by those using the area. This skatedot feature would be a better fit in a park that accommodates playing fields such as Cal Anderson Park. A mini skatepark does not work in the new Summit/John park.

Seriously?
Seriously?
13 years ago

How can you even compare the sound of people having fun playing dodgeball or bike polo (DURING THE HOURS WHEN THE LIGHTS ARE EVEN ON!) with the cacophony of skateboards rolling, sliding, and skidding/flipping away from their riders, in the middle of the night? No comparison.

Scott Shinn
13 years ago

Thanks for your continued coverage of this important issue. The politics and policy of public space in this city are nothing new, but the emerging debate surrounding claims to that space by skateboarders is certainly a hot topic. Without repeating arguments that have already been made countless times by other people in other forums, I do think it is important to note that a significant amount of discussion and planning went into the creation of this park, that many people’s opinions were considered, and that the opinions of other people continue to be considered by the Parks Department as it performs the daily maintenance tasks that are required to preserve it for everyone to enjoy. Kudos to the Department for an open and transparent process. Even more importantly, I think we are beginning to move beyond the old, tired debates about whether skaters as a class of people can legitimately occupy public spaces like this at all, and the prejudices and stereotypes with which skaters have been branded for over 40 years.

Certainly, crimes such as those noted above (trespassing, vandalism, reckless endangerment, assault) should be dealt with accordingly. I don’t think anyone would argue with that. Skaters should also be required to abide by any codes that pertain to this park, just like everyone else.

For a whole lot more background and additional information about skateboarding and skateparks in Seattle, please consider the information contained in this dissertation:
http://www.parents4sk8parks.org/pdf/20071031FinalJohnCarrDis

Thanks for your support of the John & Summit skatedot.

SeattleXB
13 years ago

The boarders are having fun, and if they are there during park hours you can’t say that they aren’t allowed to be just as loud as dodgeballers are (100 people having fun – loudly – and 20 balls bouncing off chain link fences). Can’t have two standards for different parks. Seems that there is concern about the parts of the park being used in ways they weren’t designed for. There’s also parallel to the surface damage by bike polo and the glare screen damage caused by dodgeball.

Oh, and from personal experience dodgeballers always stay after the lights are off and the park is closed. Just an observation. Boarders should leave then too. :-)

pragmatic
pragmatic
13 years ago

Because there are already at least the 2 efforts mentioned in this article to reduce or limit skaters’ use of the park space.

Skate
Skate
13 years ago

You certainly can have different standards. They are different parks in different locations with different uses.

Skate
Skate
13 years ago

That is a stretch. I saw people playing tennis, we must need more tennis courts.

They are making modifications, some for safety.

Neighbor who can't walk by there any more
Neighbor who can't walk by there any more
13 years ago

But it’s not a prejudice – I have not been able to use the sidewalks abutting that park since the skateboarders showed up. They are bigger than I am and moving fast, and I don’t trust them not to run into me, so I have to make a detour so as not to give them the chance. My negative view of the skateboarders currently using that park is not based on any pre-existing ideas about what skateboarders are like – it’s based on my own observations every day in the last week or so.

kookomatic
kookomatic
13 years ago

Scott Shinn is a non-skating kook

35thNorth
35thNorth
13 years ago

Anytime something new pops up in the greater Seattle skate scene, skaters will drive out and check it out. The ledge is no better than the ledges skaters have in their own local skate parks so I don’t see too many going out of there way to come back unless they live close by. Most skaters live outside of the city and with day light savings and wet weather coming this won’t remain an issue.

It’s a great addition to what makes Capitol Hill and amazing neighborhood.

Brenda Starr
Brenda Starr
13 years ago

The skate dot was a bad decision for the residential community, for the park and for the skaters themselves. Because the planners did not do due diligence regarding what is required in terms of space and safety, we now have a hostile and dangerous situation. The parks department reports that this particular park feature came out of a community planning process. SO WHAT! That does not make it appropriate.

We voted for the pro parks levy and expected a park, not an athletic feature. The skate dot was brought up in the third and next to the last planning meeting. At this point the word was out that the park would share it’s space with the p patch folks. The community knew nothing about this skate feature. If the parks deparment thinks that communicating with the community means just posting things on their website and expecting residents to keep checking it, then they are either ignorant of community process or intended to keep this quiet until it was built.

All parties involved in the pro-parks levy certainly did a tremendous job of lobbying for the levy. So it is quite clear that they knew how to get information out to the community.

The meetings of the meeting show that there was little support for the skate dot, with one person saying it would be “cool”. It was also stipulated that the skate dot would not be funded by public money. Ultimately it was, and it was said that “the project came in under budget so we could afford it.”

The parks depart is shutting down wading pools because of money. However they went way out on a financial limb with this skate feature. The parks deparment needs to now be called to task to clean up the mess they made.

The boarders are not bad people and skate boarding is not a crime. However the parks depatment has created a cauldron of tension that has the ultimate effect of casting a very bad light on the boarder community. The skaters, the neighborhood and the park deserve better.

PS Don’t park your car on Summit in front of the park. The skate boards are flying off in all directions and cars are getting hit.

not a skater
not a skater
13 years ago

It doesn’t take a Master’s in Urban Landscape Design to tell you that skaters and P-patches would never mix well in such a small space. I don’t know whose idea it was to try to “integrate” skate features into neighborhood parks, but this person doesn’t seem to know the first thing about skating or public parks. This is a bit like “integrating” a firing range into a bird sanctuary, or putting bike sharrows on I-5. There are certain activities that simply need their own space, and skating is one of them – it does not mix well with any other park uses.

The sooner this skate feature is removed (entirely), the better.

RBA
RBA
13 years ago

Please note, the parks department is not doing anything to address noise. Their main concern is reducing liability to pedestrians and vehicles. The park is in a canyon-like area with no sound buffers. Every sound made by the skateboards bounces back and fourth between buildings and can be heard from blocks away. One night 8+ skaters were in the park at 10:45 p.m. and the police were called. I spoke with the officer on the scene and he was empathetic to my noise concerns. He even said that he could hear the skateboards from blocks away as he was arriving to the scene. He also said that some of the skateboards were argumentative – go figure.

This noise cannot be compared to other noises that people tolerate because they live on Capitol Hill. A group of screaming people waking you up is not comparable to this issue. That noise comes and goes in a matter of seconds. This noise happens all hours of the day, even after 10 p.m., and goes on for 30/45 minutes at a time.

btw, it’s 10:15 p.m and there are still skateboards in the park. This is when I usually go to bed but it’s impossible to do so. Now what should be the city’s top priority, making sure these skateboards have a place to skate or the sanity of the residents effected by the noise?

rba
rba
13 years ago

Scott, thank you for providing your non-bias link.

The dissertation states “comments have compared the noise generated by skateboarders to a “jet engine,” a “locomotive,” and a “racecourse,” even though the actual noise generated by skateboarding in a smooth concrete skatepark is comparable to the level of sound generated by a dishwasher (Lemmon, 2006). The tendency of residents unfamiliar with skateboarding to aggressively argue that a skatepark would be “too loud” suggests that noise has typically been grouped with and used to stand-in for a broader range of disorder.”

Yeah, right. Try walking by the park or sitting in my apartment and tell me if the noise sounds like a dishwasher. The skateboards are not just gliding on smooth concrete. They are jumping, grinding on the skatedot/stairs/staircase rails/planter boxes, and losing control of their boards. Honestly, do you think this produces the same amount of noise as a dishwasher?

calhoun
13 years ago

I completely agree. The skatedot is inappropriate and unsafe in such a small park, and it needs to go.

kg
kg
13 years ago

To be clear, I’m against littering and vandalism, but I’m certainly pro-skateboarding.

This section of olive is one of the busiest streets on capitol hill, the 8 and 43 are running up and down it all day and night, plus 4 lanes of denny way spilling in and out, with a crosswalk chiming at all hours. Not to mention the noise of people and pedestrian traffic. This is the fucking city, get used to it. Noise in this case is culture and energy! Embrace it. Smile! Stop complaining and count your blessings. Also consider this is something brand new, the excitement and use of the park will surely die down, especially with fall and winter setting it…

mm
mm
13 years ago

This is a city is such a tired arguement.

Let’s be clear that this is skateboard culture and skateboard energy. Not necessarily everyone’s culture or energy.

bobcat
bobcat
13 years ago

Not like the drunken idiots yelling at all hours of the night are comforting? It sounds like a herd of gorillas outside there after 1am due to the runoff from the bars. How about the greyhound / bus noises every hour? I lived next to that area for 5 years on denny/bellevue and barely slept.

TLDR; you live in the city. because of this you need to accept you will have to deal with other people of all races, creeds, colors and activities. a big fuck you to the yuppies who moved across from the old Kincora/Cha-Cha/Bus Stop block and complained about the noise.

dont like noise? move to magnolia with the old farts. You are on capitol hill.

deal with it and stop whining like a bitch.

if you are filming from your apt with your tinfoil hat on obviously you need to take up a better pasttime then sitting on your ass.

maybe you should take up skateboarding. exercise might do ya good.

Hosh
Hosh
13 years ago

The bars are too noisy in my great neighborhood of capitol hill. I vote we close all bars and restaurants at
9pm for “quiet time” on capitol hill. Who’s with me!?!?!?

Seriously guys, you live in CAPITOL HILL!!! If you can’t deal with the noise or the tagging (which is on every doorway/alley/bus stop/park bench/etc etc…)

Then MOVE TO BELLEVUE!!!!

Oh by the way, skateboarding keeps more kids out of trouble than it gets them into it. I’ve been skateboarding for 15 years and I owe everything in my life to it. My career, my best friends, its my life.

Skater
Skater
13 years ago

It’s an accident. He tried stopping. And you yelled at him. Also You can’t say “skaters” Just say a skateboarder cause we are all different. The skateboard changes nothing.

joeblow
joeblow
13 years ago

1st, wasn’t the whole “skatedot” idea something the city was pushing instead of building more actual skateparks? i could be wrong, tho.

2nd, why the hell does it cost nearly $13k to build a cement ledge!? also, why is it going to cost thousands more to skatestop the rail? also, even if it wasn’t designed for skating, how is this hurting anyone? not speaking of the noise/vandalism complaints..

3rd, i guarantee there was graffiti in that area, on that street, before and there would be some at the park whether the skatedot was built or not. period. i am not saying that skaters aren’t often synonymous with graffiti but, yeah. the skatedot being there makes no difference.

as said, if you don’t agree with the “you live in the city” remarks, you are an idiot. go to nyc, sf, etc. and i guarantee there will be a lot more noise. if all of you yuppie fucks can’t handle it then please, go away.

oh and, one more thing; take out the skatedot and people will still be skating there and expect the graffiti to get worse. i can understand enforcing the “closed” hours and if kids keep getting busted for skating after hours they will eventually learn their lesson and stop. that is the only point i can understand if only because most parks have set hours anyways. noise/vandalism/misuse aside.

WoW
WoW
13 years ago

You cry baby! Suck it up!

mappy
mappy
13 years ago

“This is a very small park and I think there is too much crowded into it…skatedot, p-patch, landscaping, paths. “

NO KIDDING! Geez! This is what happens when a) design consultants and community leaders don’t think stuff through b) you try and design by committee/consensus rather than one unified design. c) you allow funding concerns/opportunities lead and inform your design (rather than the other way around)

‘Design’ is an art & a science, it’s not something regular folks can just dabble in and somehow manage to make great creations. Show some respect for the craft

mappy
mappy
13 years ago

Uhm, kinda late for ‘public commentary on the neighborhood-approved park design’, don’t cha think??

You had your day. Why get riled up now?

…or are you one those folks who get mad about elected officials and their sometimes-in-error choices, but can’t ever be bothered to vote?

Civic works take energy and effort: clearly the folks that support skating put in the work. People that want urban cities to “be quiet” did not. Hindsight-Armchair-QB antics are unwelcome.

mappy
mappy
13 years ago

First, some notes:
The Parks dept owns the land and gets to decide how it’s used, public process or no. If they want skate features, then they can put them in. (Sometimes they do this in response to city-wide needs and also in response to pleas made by proactive citizens at city council meetings.)
That said… Dear Anti-Noise folks: be thankful they didn’t put in an off leash dog area or dodgeball court to offend your sensitive ears.

The Pro-Parks levy was mainly money for acquisition of land, was it not? It didn’t pay for DEVELOPMENT (design & build) of this park, -because if it did, why was Jen Power & Unpaving Paradise spending weeks raising money for designing & building this park? That being the case, trying to link the ProParks levy (and citywide vote) to the parks-dept management, and community-approved Skatedot seems thin & weak at best.
Lastly: most city parks are open till 11pm, right? So why all the fuss about skaters using the park at 10 or 1030pm?
If there’s actually complaint-worthy illegal noise after 10pm (or legit illegal activity like tagging), then there’s a very simple solution – one that applies regardless of whether the park is open or not(or whether we’re talking about a park or not): call 911 and ask the police to charge these guys.

Changing the design of the park in response to criminal behavior that happens to occur there?? Insanity. It makes ZERO sense. (If this were the city’s MO, then all the bushes would have been pulled up from their roots in Volunteer Park to respond to all the illegal public sex.) Crime happens where it wants to. Do you think the anti-skater architecture-change measures at SCCC stopped the skating on their grounds? Ha! Not even.

Please…
Accept that skating is okay. Accept that some skaters are very upstanding and hard working folks with a serious sport to pursue.

The paradox is, having these skaters there to bring activity to the space and watchful eyes to the neighborhood during dark hours actually decreases crime and discourages criminals from ebing anywhere near – car prowls, graffitti, burglary, rape, muggings, lewd conduct are all going to go down around an active park. Encouraging round-the-clock users to partake in recreation and parks resources is Good Park Design.
You take the skateability away, and watch what happens to those unfenced p-patches in the quiet, unwatched, night. It might not be noisy, but you may just end up missing the skaters when John&Summit turns into another unwatched stinky dark mess like Tashkent.

calhoun
13 years ago

“This is a city is such a tired arguement.”

I agree. Whenever anyone criticizes urban problems like noise, graffiti, vandalism, etc, their comments are immediately dismissed by hipsters who (I guess) think these things are acceptable in a city. They only are accepted because some people think they are inevitable and that nothing can be done, but this is just apathy and lack of concern for the environment in which we live.

Another common response is to suggest that the commenter “move to Bellevue.” This is incredibly rude and arrogant. Those of us who want our city to be better are staying right where we are, we’re not going anywhere.

Winkie
Winkie
13 years ago

I really don’t understand how this situation is *hostile.* I also live across the street from this park, and I think it’s nice that at least SOMEONE is using it. There’s another park just ’round the corner on Thomas and Bellevue that gets used for little more than hobo campgrounds and doggie dumping grounds. If you expect the skaters to be hostile, why wouldn’t they expect the same from you? My experience has been that they are perfect gentleman, and always give me the right-of-way when I come down the sidewalk.

Winkie
Winkie
13 years ago

Skaters will skate in a park regardless of whether it has a special “Feature” built for them. At least this way they aren’t damaging what was meant to be a bench.

Winkie
Winkie
13 years ago

…not to mention, it’s two blocks from the freeway. I hear at least one siren a night.
In a neighborhood such as this, with such a high population density and an abundance of nightlife options as well as homeless folks, you can’t even expect to enjoy peace and quiet in your own apartment. Honestly, how often does your neighbor’s paces or bass or dog’s wagging tail thumping on your ceiling bother you? But you can’t take away their right to pace, bass, or wag. Seriously, if the noise of other people bothers you, relocate to a place where there are less people. This is not arrogance, this is logic. Seriously. I live across from this park. My folks live in Bellevue. Whenever I visit them, I’m stifled by the utter quietude, and frankly, prefer the constant din of the freeway, the park, the upstairs neighbors, and the humming sub-station right behind my apartment. Less density equals less noise, period. Don’t work yourself into a lather about making “your city” a “better place.” It’s a great place, but it IS a city. Don’t pretend you didn’t know these things when you moved here.

bobcat
bobcat
13 years ago

safetyconcerns:

I was almost hit by a car yesterday walking across the street. All drivers are murderers. Cars should be banned.

Your logic is invalid. Please stop using the internet.

bobcat
bobcat
13 years ago

skate –

there are over 200 baseball fields in the seattle area and 99% of the time i see them empty.

show me an empty skatepark or take your useless logic somewhere else.

skate
skate
13 years ago

Stereotypes wouldn’t be stereotypes if there wasn’t an element of truth to them.

SKATEBOARDERS have an image problem. Only SKATEBOARDERS can change that image problem.

skate
skate
13 years ago

When you walk by a baseball field it is empty 99% of the time. So baseball has to be occuring while you are near a baseball field for it to be happening. Great logic. The pot is calling the kettle black.

Every time I walk by a skatepark they are empty 99% of the time. If I showed that to you, it wouldn’t be empty. We would be there.

We are now two useless people. Welcome to the club!

jo
jo
13 years ago

I’ve been reading this thread where several people have suggested to move to Bellevue, Magnolia, ect to avoid the noise.

Why does Capitol Hill have different noise ordinances than these other areas?

idiot
idiot
13 years ago

Capitol Hill is a neigborhood in Seattle. Bellevue is another city. That’s why there are differences. I can’t speak to whether Magnolia has something different from Capitol Hill though.

Many people in this neighborhood seem to think the solution to every issue is to ask somebody to leave. It is starting to make sense though. Just let the idiots live here and put up a wall around them after everyone else has moved away.

Darble
Darble
13 years ago

The design at this park is terrible. The sidewalk is rough and noisey, and the SBers are constantly in everyone’s way walking down that side of the street….It’s just poor design all around that doesn’t work very well for skateboarders, pedestrians, residents, or anybody attempting to relax in the new park. Bad form, all around.

jeff
jeff
13 years ago

I hear noise from I-5 every night. Sometimes it keeps me up. What do you think the odds are that SDOT will restrict hours on I-5 if I complain?

Noise
Noise
13 years ago

Speaking of odd. How odd is it that you are comparing noise from an interstate highway to noise from skateboarding. Try to focus.

calhoun
13 years ago

The noise regulations are in effect city-wide…they are the same on Capitol Hill as everywhere else.

It’s just that the residents of other neighborhoods value “old-fashioned” things like peace&quiet, no vandalism, graffiti, littering, etc…..and many of the hipsters of Capitol Hill could care less about these things.

mappy
mappy
13 years ago

calhoun:
Some people have a name for those urban things (such as graffiti, noise, and *gasp* skateboarding) : “culture”. It’s these things – and others that some people whine about- that help define a city’s culture.
Without them; blandville, ivorytower-ism, or worse, overgrown-suburbia.

The reason a lot of those people say “move to bellevue” isn’t because they actually literally want you to move, but to remind you what seattle would become if it were to erase all these signs of culture and diversity – (bellevue’s cornered the market on both blandville AND overgrown-suburbia). Seattle has been, and should always be, the urban and yes, even hip(ster), bigger denser alternative.
Some of us seattle natives, and transplants I suppose too, have a civic pride about this sort of thing… HONEST CIVIC PRIDE… and have a hard time understanding why the culture (and activism around it) wasn’t noticed earlier by folks that make comments like yours.

It comes off as offensive, and insulting our civic pride, when we these people defend their apparent beigeophilia with comments like “us who want our city to be better”.

Our city IS better.

And in regards to adding MORE via the vitality and unique opportunities provided by the skater culture, we’re better for it.

Signs, signs everywhere are si
Signs, signs everywhere are si
13 years ago

Has anyone looked at the “rules” sign that was posted? Where the park hours are, there’s a bolt through the closing hour, and you can’t see what the time is.

G
G
12 years ago

Why have the Parks and Recreation Department placed pedestrians in danger of being hit by a skateboarders or bicyclists utilizing this skate-dot feature? Trying to enter a park that was meant for “everyone” has new meaning here. Define everyone. I can’t use the skate-dot, neither can the majority of people who live here. A “sorry”
after nearly getting run over to access the park is not enough. Who will be responsible for medical bills incurred and the pain and suffering of someone injured at this site?

What about the noise that can go on day after day and through the wee hours of the night for someone else’s moment of an adrenaline rush? Trash cans get overturned, bottles broken, and the loud screams of the skateboarders skating down the street echo through the dwellings as if in some canyon and reverberate through the heads of those trying to sleep.

I don’t want to be on anyone’s side, I just want what is fair as a homeowner, taxpayer and resident. Usually these particular skate-dot features are far enough away from the public at large so that they are safe for the skateboarders, safe for pedestrians.

This particular skate-dot pits both parties against each other like our lame freeway systems that crisscross lanes of traffic over each other. Accidents? Of course there are going to be accidents. It’s a poorly designed skate feature implemented as an “experiment” in a place I call home.