| Defending
the interests of the city’s 20,000 young skateboarders,
Matthew Johnston is four years into a public fight to
get the Parks Department to build a citywide network of
safe, centrally located, well-designed skate facilities.
He’s helped put together a plan for the construction
of a network of skate spots around the city. And he’s
published a citizen’s guide to the tedious, time-sucking
public process at www.seattleskateparks.org.
All the effort, he acknowledges, has met with precious
little progress. There are fewer skateparks now than when
he got involved four years ago. The Seattle Center tore
down the city’s largest park in January, and the
only remaining park, in Ballard, is the size of a basketball
court. The citywide skateparks plan is long on ideas and
short on money.
Too bad, because the city’s parks accommodate the
sports more people played two decades ago. While the number
of kids in organized athletics dropped by 10 percent between
1995 and 2003, the number of skateboarders doubled.
“I drive all the way to Ballard to find [the skatepark]
is full,” says Johnston, “and I pass all these
tennis and basketball courts along the way.”
—Adam Hyla |
