Channel street: part one: why we did it

OVER THE LAST TWO YEARS a group of skateboarders in the Los Angeles Harbor region have been building a concrete skatepark under the 110 Freeway at Channel Street. The park funding has come completely out of their own pockets, and those of supportive community members and businesses. Using techniques learned on site and from their previous experiences building ramps and working construction jobs, the skaters are in the process of building their own scene. Influenced by the achievements of renegade skatepark builders in Portland (Burnside), San Diego (Washington Street), and Philadelphia (FDR park), and disgusted with the plans of local officials to build a sub-standard, plastic skatepark, the skaters just got together and started working themselves.

WHILE FAR FROM BEING FINISHED, the Channel Street Project is sessioned heavily on a daily basis by young and old alike, and the place just keeps on getting better and better as the skaters continue to build their park. This article is the first in a series that will shed a little light on the how and why questions behind our labor of love under the freeway. Hopefully it inspires a few of you out there to grab a shovel and start building your own reality.

The process of designing and building a skatepark is as abstract and creative an endeavor as the act of skateboarding itself.

Unfortunately, skateboarding is just lumped together with so many other sports when it comes to the agendas of city officials. They go about the construction of a public skatepark much like they would a basketball court or a baseball diamond when it's nowhere near as simple as that.

The design of traditional sports facilities is pretty much a cut and dry thing--you can do the same design over and over. This is what city officials are used to, and that's part of the reason why landscape design companies like Purkiss Rose (They're responsible for almost every piece of shit-crete in Southern California) and Skatewave (plastic, modular skateparks) are getting the bulk of contracts to design and build public parks. Essentially. they've got a few different and largely unchallenging design formats, and they keep using them. Southern California is covered with these parks, from Long Beach to Carlsbad, from Whither to Hermosa.

This type of situation was exactly what was happening here in San Pedro. The city and the local Boys and Girls club had contacted a few local skaters and asked us for assistance in planning a skatepark for the community. Initially, I thought that this was pretty cool of them, actually asking for skateboarders' points of view on how the park should be built. After a few meetings with business-suited fat men however, it became painfully evident that any input the skaters had to offer would be largely ignored. Ideas for a concrete park offering all levels of expertise were quickly shot down by the suits as too expensive and too permanent.

The idea lodged in these politicians and businessmen's heads was that skateboarding was just a temporary fad, and that building with concrete would make the site all that more difficult to tear down once the next new thing came along. The suggestion that the city consult companies like Grindline, Dreamland, Airspeed, and other skatepark design/construction companies actually operated by skaters was countered with "Sorry guys, this isn't a matter of getting your surfer buddies from Oregon jobs." With that said, the idea that the city was going to fund a world-class park had all but disintegrated in the minds of the skaters involved. Next thing you know, representatives from Purkiss Rose and numerous plastic park companies were showing up at the meetings, agreeing with all the fears of the suits. The general consensus among all but the skateboarder contingent of the last meeting was to build a modular skatepark with no ramp or structure above four-feet. Essentially, this was to be a skatepark designed and built by people who do not ride skateboards. Needless to say, the skaters had heard enough. The time had come for revolt ...

IN THE NEXT INSTALLMENT of the Channel Street Chronicles, look forward to an explanation of construction techniques, fundraising methods, tips for working with city governments, and further developments under the freeway. And keep your eyes peeled for Todd Taylor's accounts of dealing with big-city government in an attempt to get a decent concrete park in Los Angeles proper. Until then, happy shredding ...

COPYRIGHT 2004 High Speed Productions, Inc
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group