“Flush!”
That’s the sound of wasted money.
The city’s master plan for skate park construction envisions 11 skate parks in San Jose, one per district in addition to a regional park.
Not only is it grossly wasteful to build a skate park in each district at a cost of nearly a half million dollars each, but in so doing, the government is also misdiagnosing the root of teen boredom. By applying a solution that will address solely skateboarders, the city is not targeting the issues of teens at large.
Skateboarders can ride on some sidewalk areas and in locations designated for skating, like skate parks. But malls and high-traffic areas are off-limits. To discourage teens from violating the law, the government stepped in to build an alternative venue for recreation.
Are skate parks needed? You bet. But building them should be a private responsibility, rather than a public one. Just as Laser Quest reaches out to teens who enjoy laser tag, and privately owned bowling allies target bowling enthusiasts, private businesses can follow suit with the youth skateboarding market. For the government to intervene and compete against individual businesses by providing access to skateboarding facilities for free challenges the American tradition of private enterprise.
While lauding the increased presence of public skate parks, Chris Overholser, the national director of communications for Vans, an apparel company that owns skate parks, said skate park businesses experience pressure from government competition.
“It’s really hard to compete with free,” he said.
For the public, skate parks pose the threat of draining parks and recreation funds. Public skate parks don’t have the same level of supervision as private parks, which use waiver forms, among other things to restrict liability. Few other public facilities engender the same level of personal risk, so these liability issues can lead to lawsuits against cities, which can limit any other projects the parks and recreation department plans.
Some might argue that businesses don’t get involved in the skate park industry, so skaters are left to deface city property. Even if that were true enough to validate the construction of skate parks, the parks need not be constructed on their current scale. Among teens, skateboarding is a minority interest.
Sure, some recreation specifically targeting skateboarders might be appropriate if businesses weren’t going to get involved. But the construction of neighborhood teen centers, which appeal to the needs of far more youths, would be more effective in satisfying demands for recreation.
While skate parks only meet the needs of some, teen centers offer all kinds of services, and attract 50 to 75 teens daily.
Supervisor Jennifer Scranton, of the Santa Clara teen center said, it holds movie nights, “hip-hop Thursdays,” and Xbox and pool tournaments.
Skate parks hold no such special activities.
Teen centers also hold events such as band jams and dances that can attract up to 250 teens. The heads of some Bay Area teen centers are even collaborating to plan different excursions for local youths.
If skate parks are going to be integrated into city recreation programs, they ought to follow the Santa Clara teen center’s model. It has a skate park directly adjacent to it, making it a major draw to all area youth.
Nevertheless, the city of San Jose is on track to re-evaluate its master plan, titled the “Greenprint,” in a few years. And re-evaluate it should.
Mary Beth Carter, the associate landscape architect for the city’s Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services department, said the skate parks built to date have been in neighborhoods with the highest demand.
Considering that the demand is distributed as it is and that the average cost per skate park has ranged from $250,000 to $450,000 with construction costs rising 15 percent each year, constructing skate parks all over the city is a waste.
If dollars are going to be spent on teen recreational facilities, they need to be spent well. Let’s keep track of what the government can do, and what teens want it to do. City officials must be mindful of clogging the drain.