Friday, August 28, 2009
Sk8 Glenview
Posted by Mary Cashiola on Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 11:45 AM
Even though redevelopment plans for Mud Island are still in the early phases, local skaters may soon have a new home.
The city's park services division has proposed Glenview Park, south of Southern at McLean, as the site for a $440,000 skate park.
"We were trying to find a central location," said Mike Flowers with park services. "Overton Park is full. We just can't cram any more in there. It would have been a great location, but it's full."
Glenview also has the added benefit of having a community center on site, meaning access to bathrooms.
The city doesn't yet have a contract for the design of the park. but it will be quarter-acre to a half-acre on the western side of the park.
The City Council will have to approve Glenview as the skate park's location before the project can move forward. Park services expects to bring it to the council in the next month or two.
Local skate-park advocates have also lobbied for a separate and larger skate park as part of the Riverfront Development Corporation's redevelopment of Mud Island.
Comments (13)
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Good choice. It's just south of Cooper Young and I think there might be a good response from that neighborhood, as people can just skate on over in five minutes.
I'm a big fan of that neighborhood in general. Granted, I haven't been there in a while, but I'd consider it one of those hidden gems of the city.
*I consider it* ... And that's why we have that feature where you can read your comment again before you post it.
The danger of parks services is that they will think they have checked the box, and we'll still be years and years behind in the number and location of skate parks needed in Memphis.
I worry most that they'll do what so many cities (towns, villages) do. They'll build it, never budget anyone to actually maintain it in any way, and then blame the skaters when it's a crumbly mess in a year.
I thought they approved Tobey Park for this? I am all for either & love the idea of having it at Glenview Park. One problem is that there is no visible entrance or Glenview Park sign north of the RR on Southern or McLean. Many mid-towners don't know the park is there. There's a way turn the decrepit walking entry at Seattle into an 'entrance' fronting the McLean/Lamar intersection though: The city will need to clear a couple of tax parcels (already marked for comm development) at the dead ends of Mclean and Seattle. The city could landscape and install a path from Lamar and Mclean around to the Seattle walking entrance. Add a sign at the southern corner of Lamar and Mclean. That would go a long way in the efforts to advocate for this park in general. It's a great park and nice neighborhood hidden by blight along Lamar. Hope it happens.
As I understand it, they looked at a number of proposed locations, including both Overton and Tobey, before the selection of Glenview.
"I worry most that they'll do what so many cities (towns, villages) do. They'll build it, never budget anyone to actually maintain it in any way, and then blame the skaters when it's a crumbly mess in a year."
This will not be a problem. A key advantage of a concrete park is that it has almost zero maintenance associated with it. Concrete parks last decades with very little wear and tear provided that bikes are not on the premesis.
Skateboarders must take ownership of their parks and clean up after themselves. This will take a concerted effort on the behalf of the youth, parent-skaters, parents of skaters, and adult skaters. Germantown's skate park is frequently trashed and this is in a well to do community. There is no active skate committee or team of skaters that "owns" that park.
Skatelife Memphis will work with a core group of skaters, families and community members to ensure that this park is taken care of and clean. We will also try to coordinate efforts with Parks and Recreation so that trash cans are emptied on a regular basis given the fact that this park will experience heavy use.
We welcome anyone's help that would like join us in keeping our future skate park clean and safe place to skate.
I don't even skate but I am very excited about these projects, and if there are scheduled clean-up days at the skate park, I will gladly participate. Here's hoping that somebody can get the capital/investors together to build a real climbing gym in Midtown or the Univ. district, too. Nashville has 2 that are both state of the art and a great place to leave the kids for a while w/o having to worry if they're getting into trouble.
Mane can't wait...I hit the streets everyday trying to find a good place to skate...even though I do find a place it's tough...depending on where u skate u get kicked off premises...but I really like to skate at my school.Seems to be the only place I can...besides some places downtown.If u ask I would say yes to a skate park...but gotta ask the council...
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