Seattle Parks and Recreation
This original design for the Ballard Civic Center Park was widely criticized by skateboard advocates for not preserving the original skate bowl, and by skateboarding parents for not including a larger skate area. A new design is expected later this fall.

“If I had my druthers I’d keep the bowl and build a permanent street park but if you’re going to tear the bowl down, don’t put in some half-assed solution,” said Kate Martin, the co-founder of Parents for Skate Parks.

Martin and the other founder of Parents for Skate Parks, Scott Shinn, joined forces with the Puget Sound Skate Association several months ago to call attention to skateboarders interests during the design of the Ballard park. They successfully lobbied members of the city council and ultimately the mayor, to quash the Parks Department’s original plan to build a park without skateboard features.

Parents for Skate Parks has effectively used the existing skate bowl – a very popular structure with skaters far beyond Ballard – as a call to arms for the skate community when bartering for more amenities in the future park.

In a press release sent to the Ballard News-Tribune, the Parents for Skate Parks described how it had removed three core samples of concrete from the existing skate bowl, had them taken to a materials lab for testing, and then received onsite consultation at the bowl from a noted concrete expert, all in an attempt to put to rest allegations that the bowl was structurally unsound.

Gerry Howe of Howe Engineering, who has previously designed concrete structures at the Woodland Park Zoo, evaluated the bowl and scoffed at the idea that several thousand pounds of concrete, in some places nearly a foot thick, might structurally fail under the weight of a skateboarder. He also noted the Parents for Skate Parks and the Puget Sound Skate Association were aware the bowl would eventually be demolished.

“My understanding was the skate people wanted to keep this [bowl] open while they built another one so they wouldn’t be left with nothing,” he said. Howe said he initially assumed skaters wanted to keep the existing structure but that “…the more I listened, the more I thought they’d be willing to have a different design, they just wanted a hand in designing it.”

The Parks Department was made aware of the core-drilling plan from a press release Parents for Skate Parks sent informing the department of their intentions. Parks’ Superintendent Ken Bounds sent a letter to Kate Martin, warning her that testing the bowl was destruction of park property, and quoted sections of the Seattle Municipal Code detailing punishments for violations. He finished the letter promising to “take action” should the core samples be taken. As a testament to Martin’s continuing influence, Bounds and the Parks Department have decided not to take action.

“I wish they hadn’t done that, but we’re not going to press charges,” David Takami, a spokesperson for the parks department said.

“It’s interesting because they’re trying to stay under the radar,” Martin said of the department’s decision. “We’re kind of relentless.”

The Puget Sound Skate Association and Parents for Skate Parks are also well connected. Less then a week after testing skate bowl core samples, a skate bowl supporter posted pictures of Martin, several members of the Puget Sound Skate Association, and Chris Hildebrand, general manager of Grindline, the skateboard company that designed the existing skate bowl, in city council member David Della’s office. The group was meeting Della and fellow council member Jean Godden, to present their case for the park.

City council members aren’t the only people listening. In a candid e-mail copied to five members of the city council, Parks Superintendent Ken Bounds asked Martin to understand the need behind destroying the existing bowl and urged her to help parks enlist the aid of Chris Hildebrand in providing oversight during construction of the new bowl.

Seeking Grindline’s input is a reversal of fortune for skate boarders. Just last May, a public hearing on the design of the park was held by park board commissioners. The hearing was one of the last opportunities for supporters to appeal for skate board features in the park – features parks planners did not include in the design. Commissioners heard testimony from several skateboard-toting speakers decrying the undue influence private companies like Security Properties, the developer next door, ostensibly had on a public park design process.

The Project Advisory Team will meet sometime this fall to review the new plans for the Ballard Civic Center Park.