PEGGY PEATTIE / Union-Tribune
Joseph Fernandez (left), his friend Shane Cromwell, and others are spearheading efforts to raise money for a new skate park. The city's impromptu park had to be torn down when ramps started to rot. |
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IMPERIAL BEACH – Shane Cronwell, 12, knows why Imperial Beach needs a skate park.
“We have to go really far, like Coronado, to skate now or we get tickets from the police,” Shane said.
Now he and others who want the park have set out to raise the money they need to support it. They are asking for help from the Tony Hawk Foundation, a group that promotes public skate parks in low-income areas, and from skateboard manufacturers.
Until 2005, the city had an impromptu skate park – a series of ramps and lips that have since been removed from the Imperial Beach Sports Park because they had started to rot. Since then, local skateboarders who haven't been able to catch a ride to skate parks in other cities, such as Chula Vista and Coronado, have either gone without or have been skating in places they aren't welcome.
“I can totally understand why businesses don't want them grinding on their property,” said Lisa Cronwell, Shane's mom. “There's no place better to go, and it's a perfect illustration of why we need the skate park.”
Shane and dozens of other skaters showed up at a City Council meeting a year ago where skate park designer Brian Moore of Site Design Group Inc. in Solana Beach talked to the city about what surveys showed skaters were looking for and how feasible such a project would be for Imperial Beach.
At the meeting, rows of scuffed skateboards were stacked against the walls. Shane was there with his friends.
“I went to two meetings,” he said. “I learned that you pay attention to everything they say because you can ask something they already answered.”
Shane and his friends have gotten tickets for skateboarding on the street.
The first ticket comes with a $100 fine, and fines can rise to $400 by the fourth ticket.
Shane said he mostly he skates at home or at parks that his mother and friends' mothers drive to.
“Action sports are a great way to encourage kids to get healthy habits,” said Emily Young, whose children skate. “And it helps our kids see they're part of a community that supports them and one that they can and should support, too.”
In January, the city affirmed the information they got from the Site Design survey of local skaters: The best location is the community Sports Park because of its space, infrastructure and good public transportation.
“There's staff and supervision already available there, and they have great public transportation to and from the park so parents don't have to drive,” said Moore, who led the site study. “You want people to have access and supervision. You want to not find you're bothering the neighbors with noise and crowds.”
Moore's outfit, which designed the Robb Field skate park in Ocean Beach and the new skate park in Carmel Valley, is looking forward to designing a unique park for Imperial Beach, he said. It's now about money for the next phase.
The city has a $15,000 gift from the makers of “Lords of Dogtown,” which was filmed there, and $50,000 from County Supervisor Greg Cox to build a skate park.
Even with the seed money, the project needs a lot more to get built. Estimated final costs are $200,000, about the norm for a skate park in a community park setting.
So the community committed to the project, including support from Ollie Angel Sk8 Shop in Imperial Beach and a promise from the Hawk foundation.
Faye Fernandez, whose son Joseph loves to skateboard, says a new skate park will be great for the community.
“My son skates and the majority of the kids here skate,” Fernandez said. “With nowhere to go, we end up driving our kids out of town and paying to skate – kids who are fortunate enough to have parents who can find the time and gas money.”
Fernandez was born and raised in Imperial Beach and said the skate park is a necessary part of the town's traditions.
“We're a surf town, always have been,” she said. “My kids surf and when the water's polluted, they skate. I like my kids to be outside, playing baseball and skating, not indoors playing video games.”
The group needs to raise another $135,000 to get the park built.
As National City has proven, it can be done. The city is coverting tennis courts in Kimball Park into a temporary skate park after teen skaters went to the city and asked for one.
Marty Graham is a San Diego freelance writer.
