Letter: Skatepark Should Not Be Political Football
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To the Editor:
It's time to stop treating the North Adams skate park project as a political football. Because it's not. It's a long-term project that was initiated by young people in our community who invested a lot of heart and time. I know. I was there.
From 2005 to 2014, I ran UNITY youth programs at the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition. At the core of our offerings was our Youth Leadership Program, which engaged high school students in community mapping and needs assessment. Every year, the same strong theme: a powerful desire for public spaces in which young people can feel welcome and valued.
In the fall of 2009, our group of YLP participants zeroed in on the idea of a skatepark to meet that need. During his inaugural address, Mayor Dick Alcombright stated his intention to meet with UNITY youth hear their ideas, concerns, and hopes for North Adams. He did just that, three weeks later. When we told him we wanted a skatepark, he expressed enthusiasm, asking us to research the topic in more depth and come back to him with a broader statement of need. We got to work, doing months of research and polling students and staff at Drury and McCann. Nearly 500 students were polled. Out of these, 99.4 percent of students favored building a park; 47 percent have skateboarded or were interested in skateboarding. These numbers were far larger than we had guessed they would be. The need was there.
We spent the next year researching and designing a proposal. We learned that quality skateparks cost serious money, as they need to be made of concrete and build to last. Young skaters involved in our project – and later, professionals who we reached out to – were adamant that we build with concrete, rather than cheaper metal or wood. Concrete is safer and has a longer life. It requires less maintenance. We also learned that we have more BMX bikers in our community than we had anticipated; thus, we expanded the design to include BMX elements in a larger, inclusive skate plaza. I think back with fondness on the image of about 10 BMX bikes parked outside of the coalition office, their 11, 12, 13 year-old owners upstairs around a conference table, sharing their ideas.
We learned from these young people and their parents – several of whom became involved as we moved forward – that families will travel across state lines for daytrips to quality skateparks. We connected with Susan Cross, a curator at Mass MoCA, who was excited about an artist who could collaborate on the project and elevate it to skateable art. As time went on, the project became bigger and more exciting.
And the city remained committed to it, recognizing it as community development, a way to meet the needs of our young people, and a possible tourist draw. Former City Planner Mackenzie Greer worked on the project first when she was at the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission and then as a city employee. She helped us discover that our proposed park could draw from a large regional catchment area. We were more and more excited. The city spent small amounts of CDBG money on BPRC's staff time and then on a design for the park, which was completed last year by the nationally-recognized Spohn Ranch Skateparks firm.
Plans are now in the works to commit $276,000 on CDBG funds as a required match to (possibly – we're waiting to hear) $400,000 in PARC grant funds in order to bring the project to completion. PARC funds, from the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, assists cities and towns in acquiring and developing land for park and outdoor recreation purposes. We receive $1 million in CDBG funds each year and use it for a variety of community development initiatives. The skatepark is entirely a worth use of these funds.
Calling this a "$700,000 skatepark" is somewhat misleading. We had been planning a $200-$250,000 park for years and then took advantage of an opportunity to leverage state funds – which can be used only for parks – to scale up the project. The scaled-up project would be a state-of-the-art tourist draw: a skate and BMX plaza that expands Noel Field's appeal and usability. Not only that, but $276,000 – or the $676,000 total, if you prefer – may sound like a lot of money, but in the world of community development and municipal projects, it is actually not a big project. It's a small amount in the world of municipal projects.
By comparison, parking at Noel Field, when it was installed years ago, cost around $1 million. Site development, building projects, public works all cost a lot of money. It's the nature of it.
All along the way, we only heard support and enthusiasm for the project. My YLP students presented their ideas to the North Adams City Council and were well received. I never heard one negative comment about the park until Bob Moulton expressed in his mayoral campaign that he would divert the CDBG funding that is meant to support it. And now John Barrett has stated the same. I really saddens me, as this is a dream that came from our local youth and is, to me, a savvy prevention strategy that gives young people an opportunity for pro-social involvement while sending the message that their community values them.
Yes, we have blight. Yes, CDBG funds can be used to remediate blight. But the fact is, $276,000 would be a drop in the bucket for blight. It's another Band-Aid. Whereas that same money could be used to leverage $400,000 in state funds to build a state-of-the-art skatepark and realize the dream of our local young people. A dream which could help tear down an empty building (the old Modern Liquor store) – a well-known blighted property. A dream which could help enliven the downtown by engaging young people in being more present in it. A dream which could increase tourism and retain tourists, who can spend time at the skate/BMX park while they're here to see MoCA or the Clark. All of which is strong community development.
There are so many issues more deserving of political debate than $276,000 dedicated to improving the quality of life for young people in our community. Improving their quality of life, no less, in a way that they specifically thought of, researched, and advocated for.
I so look forward to seeing this project completed over the next couple of years and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with that original group of teenagers – now 20-25 years old, some of them MCLA students – at a ribbon cutting that not only says "this park is open" but says, more importantly "your voices matter here."
Kate Hanley Merrigan is running for a second term on the North Adams City Council.
Tags: election 2015, letters to the editor, NorthAdamsElection, skate park,
