OSU demolished their West Campus Skatepark to make room for a new Sports Facility. Thisdemolition left Dodge Park as the only public skatepark in Columbus. Dodge was built in 1994. Since that time skateboarding has grown in popularity to the point that Dublin, Westerville, Powell, Worthington and pretty much every other suburb have built skateparks.
I stopped by Embassy Boardshop in Clintonville to get their opinion as to whether Columbus needed some more skateparks.
Embassy had donated the ramps for the OSU park.
Eric Barkow, Embassy’s owner, emphatically agreed that Columbus needs more public parks saying, “The demand is definitely there. The campus park was used quite often. Even Dodge, for being in poor shape, is used often.” (Skate Naked is a private park for the record.)
In addition to the demand, skateparks are good for the community.
If you have lived in the past the 30 years it should be obvious skateboarding nurtures creativity, empowers youth and is good exercise.
Take a look at Skateistan, a Non-profit that builds skateparks in Afghanistan and Cambodia. Skateistan won UNICEF’s Sport for Education Award, and was name No. 85 in the Global Journal’s Top 100 NGO’s” for 2013. 40 percent of the skaters at Skateistan are female!
Back in Columbus there is talk about building a skate park at the Audubon Park on the Whittier Peninsula, or another park around Dodge.
Barkow said his ideal location would be where the majority of skaters live, “I would personally like to see it on the North Side of Campus. This seems like where the largest population of students and young adults are moving. Not that many young people live in German Village or around Dodge.
Ideally, Tuttle Park would be the best possible spot but it’s not up to me.”
CJ Townsend who works at Embassy has some bigger ideas.
He thinks Mock Rd. in Brittany Hills could use a park similar to Venice Beach for starters saying, "There is a skatepark and then there are basketball courts. Something right there in the middle of that because there isn’t anything to do over there.”
CJ’s idea would have a bunch of small parks that would be connected by a route of the Joyce Avenue construction project that would eventually follow a route that starts at Mock Rd and leads to the King Lincoln District.
CJ explained his vision while helping a 40 year-old man pick out trucks. The man was about to go skate with with his 13 year-old nephew.
“I guess my idea for building skateparks for Columbus would be to put basic things everywhere so there is not just one. In a day of skating you can go to all of them. You can visit all these neighborhoods. That helps because skateboarding is a huge carrier of culture.”
Both CJ and Barkow agreed that the park, or parks, do not need a huge expensive vert ramp.
Barkow said most skaters would be stoked on ledges, planners and islands. “It doesn’t have to be a lot. Skateparks can go either these giant elaborate parks with lots of bowls or elaborate ramps. Or you could make essentially a flat peace of ground with some ledges that will get skated every bit as much as a super elaborate big park. It doesn’t have to be expensive.''
He cited the fact that skaters are building DIY parks around Columbus as the template for a cost effective park.
“If they gave us the spot. We could build it ourselves. They would just have to give us the land. Maybe blacktop it. We will fill it.”
CJ took Barkow’s simple approach and applied it to his city planning idea.
“Even if it’s just at a park and there are these really nice ledges there that you can just skate. They don’t look like a skate spot. They are just nice. No one is gonna' stop you from skating. And the pavement is smooth, something simple like that. And maybe there is a random quarter pipe just here. Maybe there is a random mini-ramp just here.”
CJ feels the creating ideal little parks could also encourage skate tourism, adding, “Little things everywhere so people want to come here to skate and film like what they did in Kettering with that skate plaza. But that was more over the top cheesy spots, more natural. Attracting people that are coming from New York, Chicago and on and on.”
CJ also went on to say a series of skateparks could also provide outlets for architects and public art. “It’s 2014. We can make some nice looking cheap shit. You know.”
