Skate and Annoy

Save The Ballard Bowl

Puget Sound Skatepark Association

There has been an ongoing battle to save the Ballard Bowl, a kick ass concrete bowl located in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. Originally conceived as a "temporary" solution, the Ballard Bowl was built by Grindline withthe help of some of the Dreamland Skatepark crew. It is our understanding that they essentially donated all of their time on the project.

Enter a developer and a city council with an adgenda. They want to tear the bowl down to make room for a new mixed use park that will have a reduced size skate park to possibly be built by legendary skatepark blunderers Purkiss Rose.

Why not leave the old one in place? Several lame arguments have been made, including the recently scientifically disproven myth that the park was not built to last.

"The Parks Department wants to destory the existing skatebowl, only to build a new one approximately 50 feet east of the current location. Skaters believe this is a collosal waste of taxpayer money - a new bowl could cost as much as $300,000. Why, when budgets are being reduced, would the Parks Department want to destroy a perfectly fine skatepark that is less than three years old and was built by with community grants and volunteer support? "

There is no current central location to easily find the latest info on saving the Ballard Bowl. You best bet is to join the Yahoo group and sign up for the emails and check the Sleestak forums on a regular basis.