Comments on: Georgia Ave office building to bolster Fenton Village park

By: SkaterMom

SkaterMom — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:54:16 +0000

Oops…I meant to say 3 skateparks, Gaithersburg, Rockville, and Olney. And absolutely nothing in or near Silver Spring.

By: SkaterMom

SkaterMom — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:46:35 +0000

Kathy, there are currently 2 skateparks in the county — Gaithersburg and Rockville. K-town is a homemade park with boxes and other equipment made by the kids themselves. Much of what the kids built there is now gone.

And I’ll clarify my comment — the Planning Board says they need to build 15 skateparks, and of those, only one has been built (Olney.)

Regarding Takoma/Piney Branch skatepark, (which will not be ready until at least 2011) — the Planning Board’s documents state clearly that this park is meant to be a “small scale” community park — primarily for use by that community. It was meant to augment the larger, more “urban” 14,000 square foot Fenton Park, which is now not going to be built.

By: Kathy J

Kathy J — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:21:25 +0000

Skatermom
– what about the skate parks in G-burg, Kensington & Rockville? Do they not count as “in the county” because they are city-run? By my count that is at least 4 plus one coming to Takoma Park.

BUT BACK to the Fenton Park great news for much needed hgreen space – wish MNCPPC would update their web site and map of it to show the more recent land acquisitions for this park.
Also we Fenton Park neighbors were promised park signage and trash cans for the landscaped portion on Burlington Ave. Still waiting a year later…

By: SkaterMom

SkaterMom — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:16:32 +0000

LuvMyHood, I don’t know who first said this, but this is a very apt quote: “when a city doesn’t have a skatepark, that city BECOMES a skatepark.”

By: SkaterMom

SkaterMom — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:51:37 +0000

LuvMyHood, yes, blocking an area off to traffic to allow skateboarding is what used to happen, and we need to have that again — as an interim solution. That’s what we’ve been asking for, for the past year.

But in the long-term we need a skatepark. A real one. And one large enough to accommodate the huge community of skaters we have here in Silver Spring. Kids have been asking for that for 10 years. The Planning Board said we should have it. And all available data points to the need for this, and to the fact that it’s in the county’s economic interest to build one. (The Planning Board has said we need 15 skateparks in the county — at this point we only have 1, in Olney.)

By: silver solution

silver solution — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:46:32 +0000

I liked the decision made by the building planning board for this building.

By: LuvMyHood

LuvMyHood — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:18:57 +0000

SkaterMom, Beach Drive is closed to cars on Sundays, so people can bike. I wonder if something similar could be done for skateboarders, closing some paved areas that are very quiet at certain hours, and using them for skateboarding.
A park in a garage sounds good now, but demand for the parking will grow if all the planned stuff happens.

By: Fenton Park Neighbor

Fenton Park Neighbor — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:11:26 +0000

This is wonderful news, and I look forward to a green oasis growing in this spot. It will also be a wonderful amenity for people living in the high rise apartments nearby.

By: Skaterbeazt

Skaterbeazt — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:34:18 +0000

we’ve been asking for an alternative to Ellsworth for a full year and we’ve gotten nothing. also, we need a permanent skatepark, not temporary solutions. According to statistics, there are almost one thousand daily skaters in Downtown. This is a number that cant be ignored.

By: SkaterMom

SkaterMom — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:25:18 +0000

LuvMyHood, I wish more people thought like you. As an interim solution, I’ve been begging for a skate spot — pretty much any skate spot (as long as the ground is good) for the entire past year, since we lost skating on lower Ellsworth, because since then skaters have been getting kicked of every single skate spot in the area.

We desperately need an actual skatepark. Skateparks save lives — while skateboarding is statistically safer than playing basketball, the vast majority of skateboarding related deaths are motor vehicle-related, and almost no deaths happen inside skateparks. And the need for a downtown skatepark is expressed in the Master Plan. And skateboarding is *the* fastest growing sport in America, and even back in 2003 there were 11 million skateboarders (some sources put that number closer to 20 million today), so the need for a downtown skatepark is clear — both for skaters, and to protect property from skating-related damage.

Park & Planning proposed a “skate spot” (too tiny to be called a skatepark) for Woodside Park…but what they proposed is less than one-fourth the size of the park they previously planned for Fenton…when the number of skaters in the area has grown by leaps and bounds. And, even what they have proposed has been delayed, and Park & Planning won’t tell me for how long.

Dan Reed of Just Up The Pike recently recommended that we get an entire floor of the Wayne Ave. garage. Years ago, the Planning Board itself said that space in under-used garages should be considered for use as a skatepark. Using a garage does not take away the tiniest bit of green space.

Local skaters don’t even care if anyone puts a thing in the garage — we just want the space so that these kids, (some as young as 12) who are absolutely passionate about skateboarding, can just do what they love, and stay healthy and active and out of trouble, like we want them to.