Sometimes a Town Builds the Skatepark and Sometimes the Skatepark Builds a Town

By Ken Wright, 1-23-06

When my family and I spent two months last summer driving from Durango to Alaska and back, we looked for lots of cool things: lakes and mountains, towns and wildlife, hikes and fishing spots.

And we looked for skateboard parks. We were not disappointed.

As we approached towns, even on remote stretches of the Alaska highway, we could refer to our travel guides and find towns that boasted their skateboard parks. Those are the towns we chose to stay in. At first, we stopped just because we knew our kids could use the break and exercise. But we soon were surprised to find that by taking our kids to these skateparks – wonderful, huge, creative creations, and all free of charge – we also got to meet some great people. Young people. Teenagers.

In particular I remember Haines, Alaska. Sitting at the end of a highway in the southeastern part of the state, Haines is much smaller than Durango, yet the town recently built a beautiful year-round sheltered skateboard park – which the town’s teens were actively involved in both designing and maintaining. The kids we talked to were clearly proud of their park and their involvement in making it happen. We ended up turning our planned quick-visit to Haines into a week-long stay in no small part because we felt safe enough to let our 12-year-old son venture there on his own to hang with his new acquaintances – an experience he still describes as some of his most treasured on our trip.

And now he’ll have the chance to return those good experiences here in Durango.

The Durango City Council last week finally approved the $1.3 million needed to expand the existing skateboard park and build an extension to the city’s riverside bike path – some four years after the expansion was first promised. The hitch has been that although the park and bike path connector will be funded by a combination of city funds, a special recreation sales tax, and a state GoCo grant, the price tag still came up nearly $430,000 short. This gave some councilors pause on the priority of the project.

Another fear was expressed by City Councilor Tom Howley, who, sounding like the city’s elected representative of the Flat Earth Society, wrote in a memo prior to the council’s vote that if it the new skatepark were built it would need “a full-time security guard� armed with “a police radio.� Stating his intention to oppose the project, he added: “Anyone that thinks the park will be a healthy outlet for children probably still believes in the tooth fairy.�

Fortunately, the fears and pauses didn’t win out on this one. It would have been disappointing – and a huge mistake – if Durango had dropped the ball on the expansion. Durango could spend its money a lot worse ways (like, say, buying seven $2,500 “old tyme� bicycles to celebrate the town’s 125th anniversary). But it couldn’t find many better ways to spend the extra dollars needed to get this project done. The rewards will be reaped economically with the attraction for traveling families, and socially with the respect and honor the project will show our own community’s teens.

I can’t guarantee there won’t be some problems -- that’s the nature of any place people gather. (See Main Avenue any Saturday night.) But I can promise it’ll be a tantalizing and affordable attraction for families traveling to Durango -- and it will be a healthy place for our own community’s teens to do what they like to do, together.
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