Skate Detroit

Consider it's a given that Detroit has a problem or two. Every year Detroit demolishes about 2000 vacant homes considered dangerous to the community, and another 2500 become vacant. Currently, there are 15ooo vacant lots in the possession of the city of Detroit, in which it cost 4 million dollars yearly for the city to maintain. In addition, the city consistently ranks in the top 10 most dangerous cities and top 10 poorest cities in the United State. There are very few places children and teens can go to stay out of trouble and do something productive.

It's easy to look at these things as liabilities, creating a city famous for death and destruction. The Detroit trap isn't money, it isn't race, it's a viewpoint. A viewpoint which chokes the city endlessly. The city has been dying for 60 years now. So it's just a wasteland right, let it fester, move away as quick as possible. Like a gazelle being left for dead after a lion has it's way, the city sits and rots. The gazelle no longer has a purpose to this earth, it lived got caught in a bad situation, and now it's the end. But wait, so the gazelle is dead, but has it nothing left to offer? Once the lions have cleared, buzzards will soon flock, picking through the left overs, then the crows, then perhaps another lucky animal that happens upon it. Still, the animal will continue to decay, now lending it's remaining nutrients to the local vegetation and insects, which will in turn provide food for other animals. Finally, the gazelle will become earth, again one with mother nature. Though it may have seemed that the gazelle was worthless, useless, purposeless after it's fatal run in, it is clear that the animal still had much to offer to the community through it's remains, bringing new life to the inhabitants.

Skate parks originated in the streets and parking lots of America. Teens would build ramps and courses out of anything they could find. Sliding down handrails, jumping up on concrete benches, building ramps out of garbage cans and found materials. For years, the skateboard culture was seen as a menace to society. In the 90's, the movement began to gain acceptance, people were taking to these makeshift skate parks on boards, bikes, and skates. Soon these activities became dignified sports, gaining mass media attention through major TV carriers like ESPN and ABC. Communities began to realize that these activities could actually be constructive and keep kids from getting into trouble. Positive role models emerged like Tony Hawk and Dave Mirra. Skate parks began to spurt up all over the nation, in community parks and recreation centers. Companies began making brand new ramps and parks out of wood and plastic. These parks have been full for years, providing America's youth a place to constructively engage in activities helping to keep them off the streets and off of drugs. Though these pre-made skate parks draw neighborhood skaters, many skaters claim that the best parks are those that most resemble the days of the street skater, with picnic tables and abandoned cars. Detroit doesn't have any skate parks but they do have abandoned cars and abandoned buildings.

If you proposed to City council to build a skate park, they would simply laugh at you saying, "We don't have money to pay our cops, why on EARTH would we build a skate park!?" Then you tell them it could begin to solve all there problems, and they would laugh even harder. What would a skate park have to offer a community ridden with abandoned house and vacant lots? A chance perhaps? A renewed purpose??

Well lets see, the obvious benefit, as stated above, would be getting youth off of the dangerous streets and into a positive environment where they can interact with other youths and compete in individual sports, improving their abilities, as well as their confidence and character. What else can a skate park do? Well, if it's good enough, it could attract teens from neighboring cites and suburbs to the city. People keep leaving Detroit, it would be nice to give them some reasons to at least visit. If it was really good, it could even attract national attention and people from all over the world might come just to skate at this park. This would certainly help local businesses, bringing people into town means hotels, restaurants, and shops have increased traffic, the common effects of tourism. "But this is clearly out of the question, we would need tons of money and space to create something like this." Detroit, clearly doesn't have money, but it sure does have space.

So basically, a skate park could be great for Detroit but the city definitely doesn't have the money or time to even consider an undertaking such as this. All of their time and capital is tied up in demolishing all the dangerous abandoned houses that just never seem to go away. Well, what if building a skate park could somehow help the city in the demolition of houses and somehow save the city money. "Well that's just preposterous, you have GOT to be kidding me. This is just getting out of hand... I can see how a skate park might help the youth but I really don't see how it could possibly Save us money, and magically demolish abandoned houses!" At this point, you would be thrown out of the city council meeting.

But, out of curiosity, lets take a look at this idea. Obviously, a brand new, professionally built, out of the box skate park would be very expensive, especially if were talking about making one of the best in the United States. But, we've already seen that skaters actually prefer skate parks that contain elements of the street, parks that are clearly built by skaters and not by contractors. Parks which consist of stairs, cars, handrails, and not just pre-manufactured ramps arbitrarily placed on a slab of concrete awkwardly cut into a suburban landscape. Using this logic, it's safe to assume that a great skate park would be one that uses street elements and is designed by the skaters who will be using the park.

Detroit's many abandoned streets are full of elements that could easily be used by skaters to make a park. Railings could be used for grind rails. Houses could be dismantled and the wood could be used to build ramps. Doors can form walls and transfer boxes. Pitched roof trusses are basically ramps in themselves and we have plenty of those. Detroit has enough vacant land that it could easily give a portion large enough to create the largest skate park in the US, and save money by doing so. Skaters would jump at the opportunity to build their own skate park. A skate park, built by skaters for skaters, out of reused elements from Detroit's many abandoned streets. Carpenters, architects and community members would volunteer to help in the effort, suburban teens would drag their parents out to help. A skate park, built out of the community, by the community. Dozens of houses would be razed without any cost to the city, saving approx. 4000 dollars a house that the city would have to pay to have it demolished. People would come from the suburbs, from the US, from Europe, to see and skate on America's largest and greatest skate park.

Now, it's important to note that a skate park isn't the answer to the problems in Detroit, rather the mindset that a skate park could actually help. The perspective in which the city and it's constituents, both animate and inanimate, are hopeless. Change takes heart, it takes people, not money. Though the gazelle may be dead and seemingly empty of life, it's really just beginning to serve it's community.

NEEDS: Citations, more evident examples, Web 2.0 connections, pictures