Skaters, bikers and bladers unite for new skate park
Skate boarders don't like rollerbladers.
Rollerbladers put wax on obstacles so their skates will slide faster and smoother. That wax makes skateboarders slip. And the rollerbladers don't like most skateboarders. Their wooden boards, not attached to their feet, limit them from jumping the biggest gaps and grinding the longest rails. Don't even ask about bikers, whose huge metal rides cause painful injuries during the occasional skate park collision.
But they'll forget all these problems. Just ask them about building a concrete skate park in McAllen. The answer is a unified "yes."
For years, skaters in the city of palms have ridden small metal ramps at the McAllen Municipal Park, located north of Pecan Avenue on Bicentennial Avenue. The ramps and obstacles are challenging for beginners, they say, but after a few months, the park becomes boring. Plus, the metal has become damaged over the years. Some skaters haul large, home-made wooden boxes to the park for more challenge.
Many skaters still use the park. Several others, however, say they have started making two, sometimes three trips a week to the Brownsville Sports Park, where a $688,000 concrete skate oasis awaits. Brownsville opened it in December after a five-year campaign by local skaters to get it built. The 12,000-square-foot park features obstacles twice the size of McAllen's park, and it's built from concrete with variety. On a weekend with good weather, as many as 1,000 skaters use the park, says Tuffy Martinez, the facility's superintendent.
That's what the skaters want in McAllen. That's the one thing they all agree on.
But city officials often balk at dropping more than half a million dollars on a skateboard park amid a recession, says Larry Pressler, McAllen's director of parks and recreation. And $688,000 is just the construction price; Pressler says it also costs money to maintain and operate.
"One of the things the city always looks at it is how many customers are served with the dollars spent," he says. "With things like police, fire, streets, drainage, infrastructure and things like that, those are pretty much necessities our residents here need to live. One of the facilities the city has interest in updating is the skateboard facilities, but there's other things that seem to push it back all the time."
But it's not a hopeless cause. Pressler says skaters can work towards the park. He encourages them to speak regularly with elected officials, such as city commissioners and parks board members. Pressler can only submit proposals for skate parks. He can't approve the funding, and he says skaters who e-mail him with pleas and demands for a better park often don't understand that. He also encourages skaters to speak directly with elected officials, rather than send them e-mail.
And the younger skaters should encourage their tax-paying parents to speak on their behalf, he says. These measures have worked for runners and joggers, who now enjoy an extensive path along Second Street.
For the foreseeable future, skaters will continue to make the trip to Brownsville. Jeremy Rodriguez, known as "the Germ" and widely regarded as one of the best skateboarders in McAllen, says he drives to Brownsville three times a week, often packing six other skate boarders into his truck.
The group usually spends the entire day there, gassing up and buying food from local restaurants. They leave at night when the lights go out. Kevin Wagoner, owner of the Switchfoot Skate Shop in McAllen, says most of his customers do the same thing. Wagoner, an Oklahoma native who has skated all over the country, says a major city needs a good-size concrete skate park.
"McAllen wants to be a world-class city," Wagoner says, "but they can't even be a Brownsville-class city."
