Bill Gates says “Later skater. Skate later!”

While we were out… Seattle’s City Center skate park or SeaSk8 as it sometimes gets called, was demolished to make way for a new Bill Gates foundation complex. January 3 of 2007 marked the second time in recent years that the city of Seattle tore down a perfectly good skatepark to appease developers. Of course some might argue that the Seattle Center park was not exactly perfectly good. As with Ballard, more money was allocated to replacing the skatepark. Talk about inefficiency, why not just build two new parks and leave the old ones accessible? It’s clear that I don’t understand or appreciate eminent domain and the wheels of commerce. Pre/post demolition pics, links and more after the jump. [Credits: Demo Picture – Auggiedawg, Fascist Bill Gates – The Software War

Seattle Center’s replacement had a million dollars budgeted for it. Sounds like good news huh? Well it would be if they were actually building something. Apparently the original contract stipulated that construction on the new park must be in progress before the old park could be demolished. Either Bill got an exemption from that or he’s in violation, because so far the city hasn’t even agreed on a site for the new park.

I never skated this park, but I took some pictures of it back in 1999. I hear the bowls were pretty tight and that it was pretty mediocre overall, but still better than nothing. Right now there is a debate raging over at Skaters for Public Skateparks. Some feel SPS has drooped the advocacy ball. SPS claims says the proposed site was bunk according to their guidelines (i.e. no parks in the middle of nowhere). Nobody seems to be happy, and I don’t blame them.

Here are a few links to related articles:

From the Stranger, Seattle WA
Wiped Out
Seattle Center Skatepark Bulldozed into Limbo

From the Stranger, Seattle WA
Sold Out
Sold Out

From the Seattle Post Intelligencer, Seattle WA
Skate park plans take wing
Public gets say in where youths play
This article was written before the demolition, and it talks about all the bureaucracy involved in the entire process.

From the Seattle Post Intelligencer, Seattle WA
Nellams’ vision gets him closer to Center
Interim director recommended for the top spot
More talk about the skatepark burried in this article. At least it’s recent.

Click the pics to enlarge.

This Seattle Post intelligencer scan came from NorthwestSkater.com.

Here’s what they tore down.

Look to the center on the bottom.