Sunday, September 6th, Eugene is one of the three towns chosen for the LRG Skate Northwest Tour schedule! Autograph signing starts at 2:30 p.m. and the demo is at 3:30 p.m. Click here to see all the details.

On Monday, August 26th, a homeless man was killed in the W-J Park. On Tuesday, August 27th, SES received this inquiry from a local news agency: I’m a reporter with KVAL news. I was hoping to set up an interview today regarding the skate park under the Washington-Jefferson street bridge. Tuesday, a homeless was stabbed and killed there in broad daylight. I’m wondering if this changes your plans, or if you plan to go on with this project. Elissa Harrington, KVAL News. Jon Faulkner responded on behalf of SES in an on-camera interview that afternoon. That same day, this written reply was submitted:
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Elissa,

I would be happy to respond to your questions.

In no way does this change the plans for the siting of the skatepark. In fact, on the night of the incident, just a few blocks away, the City of Eugene Parks and Open Space and Skaters for Eugene Skateparks hosted the first in a series of design workshop meetings with the recently chosen designer of the skatepark, world-renown Dreamland Skateparks. One of the participants at the meeting witnessed the crime on his way to the meeting and shared the sad news with us, but the meeting went on with the understanding that we were all envisioning a different future.

There are two choices for the Washington-Jefferson Park: 1) write it off, continue to neglect the area, and watch crime increase over time; or, 2) reclaim the space and replace negative use with positive use. This type of incident only further reinforces the need to provide a transformational centerpiece to the park that brings consistent, positive energy and users to the park. A world class, destination skatepark will bring this consistent, positive use and energy and will transform the entire neighborhood.

There are testimonials from across the nation and around the world about the positive impact building a skatepark can have on a neighborhood. Burnside skatepark in Portland is a perfect Oregon example of this transformation. The same type of activity that currently occurs in Washington-Jefferson Park occurred there before the skatepark was built. Redeveloping the park to bring a vibrant, busy, active, multi-age facility into the area will allow us to create a synergy of uses with family viewing areas, a renovated restroom, increased visibility from the street and direct vehicular access throughout the park. The enhancements will be combined with the community then rediscovering the existing basketball courts, stage, horseshoe pits, and walking paths and the dynamic of the area will completely change. With the skatepark being covered and lit, there will be very few occasions when the skatepark won’t be busy, if not packed, with locals and visitors. We believe the addition of the skatepark provides the perfect catalyst for the much needed revitalization of Washington-Jefferson Park.

I encourage you to take just a few minutes and read this page: http://www.skateeugene.org/myths-vs-reality.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any other questions.

Best regards,
Bob Chandler
Skaters for Eugene Skateparks

Greetings to all,

Just a note: I was in Portland over the weekend and stopped by a skate park that is in front of Madison High School on 82nd Ave. This park was designed and created by Dreamland. It was in full use at the time that we were there at about six pm on Friday evening.

The most interesting thing about this park was that although there were a lot of people there, no one was loud. People only hooped it up if someone did something really cool. They had two bowls for skaters, along with a wide shallow area for beginners and some nice features for learning to grind, ride stairs and jump. One bowl was very deep with very steep sides. My guess is about 11 feet deep. These kids and young adults were skating up and around this bowl like it was childs play, (pun intended). Even when they crashed they were quiet and shook it off. And others would generally be encouraging and not negative. The park was getting a lot of use and you could see who was good and those that were still learning. The best part was that these kids were so respectful of each other. Everyone took turns and shared the space. One rider would take off; then when it was clear another would start to skate.

Suz and I hung around for about an hour and no one was disrespectful. At one point I went up to a young man that was around twelve or thirteen I asked him how long he had been skating and he said six years. Imagine that, he was only six or seven when he started to skateboard. This kid was just getting into the large deep bowl and you could tell that it was a bit intimidating for him. He was a very nice individual and although a bit shy he loves skating and spending time at the park.

If this is a snapshot of what we could be providing to the kids of Eugene it will be one of the best things that we could do for our youth. I was very impressed with the quality of the park and the whole “scene” (if that term is still used). We got to Suz’s sisters house and told them where we had been and they knew all about the skate park and its history. It has been there for about two years now and it was started in controversy. Parents were very upset and thought that this would be a bad thing for the school grounds and the adjoining park. After it was finished and opened up to the public, many mothers would work shifts watching over the park to ensure that nothing bad would start happening. Well they had worried for no reason. The result was as I described above. The mothers don’t even bother to monitor anymore.

My wife’s sister works for the library at the school and is there every day during the school year and said that there have not been any “bad incidents” at the park or the playground or school since it has been open.

That is a great testimony! Lets build this park!

- Bill Cole, Wheelworks

Are you interested in how the skatepark will look? Want to have a say? This is it – now is your time to speak! Please join us at the first in the series of 5 design meetings with Dreamland Skateparks, tonight (Tuesday) at 6:00 p.m. at the Whitaker School Cafeteria (21 Grand Ave.).

Skaters attending the Lane County Fair (August 18-23) will be given the chance everyday from 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm to participate in the SES sponsored “Highest Ollie Challenge”. Each day at the lunch hour, SES will be providing people with the opportunity to take home the daily prize, and then each days winner will be asked to some back on the final day of the Lane County Fair, Sunday and compete against the other finalists for the grand prize and the bragging rights to winning the “Skaters For Eugene Skateparks Highest Ollie Challenge”. Using a limbo style mechanism, participants will be able to show their skills utilizing the first trick any skater has to learn, the ollie. The current world record is set at over 44″ from flat ground. Will one of our participants be able to break the record? Come by each day to see!