A lot of talk recently about the X-treme sports television contest industry giving back to the community in the form of permanent skate facilities instead of building temporary throw away parks. The Rob Dyrdek Foundation and Street League Skateboarding series is kicking in:
Newark, NJ – August 24, 2011 – Mayor Cory A. Booker, Members of the Newark Municipal Council, Devils Arena Chairman Jeff Vanderbeek and world-record holding professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek will hold a press conference to announce a $110,000 donation from the Rob Dyrdek Foundation to the City of Newark that will enable construction of a new skateboard facility at Hayes Park East, on Thursday, August 25, at 11a.m., at the Prudential Center at 165 Mulberry Street.
To be fair, $50,000 of that donation is “design services” which is bullshit. Any good design-build firm will include the the design for a nominal cost if not free. It’s only “valuable” when you get into companies that don’t build their own parks or situations where state laws (Like in Washington) don’t allow the same firm to design and build the park. 35K is in donated obstacles from this years tour which leaves 25k as an actual cash donation and not an inflated write off. It’s not as impressive as something like the Tony Hawk Foundation, but it’s a good thing and let’s hope we see more of this.
[Image of Rob standing on a pile of cash: Gentlemanly Conduct]
30 comments
Butthurt for BMX
Bottom line: Somebody is getting a big chunk of change, which will result in a park. $50K for design is a joke, but again, at least they’re going to get a park.
Addendum: Grindline has built some great stuff around the Northwest–some better than Dreamland.
MC
I suppose it depends what you like. I like skating. My faves are Pier, Hailey and Lincoln City.
MC
Oh yeah, forgot Walla Walla on my faves list.
Butthurt for BMX
Agreed. Purkiss-Rose junk can be really fun in a disfuctional way (and hey, rarely a crowd!). Airspeed is always flowy and fast. Dreamland is ballsy and imaginative. Grindline parks blend a lot of elements in unforseen ways. I think they all have merit, and should be judged alone, not against each other.
DickCancer
Tell Grindline, no tell Mark Hubbard that the two best parks that he has worked on were Newberg and Orcas Island and since…
hurton
I thought both the new lewiston and bingen parks were super fun and well designed.
Hass
The same could be said to Mark Scott. Those parks are amazing.
Do u know what ur talking about?
Oh, that’s right. I forgot that it is perfectly legal to skate at my local college campus. Thanks for the helpful tip…and I guess that it is impossible to design a skate park if you are not local and familiar with the natural environment??? I’ll be sure to tell Grindline that when they try to pursue a project outside of Seattle.
DickCancer
You know there is ONLY ONE great design and build company out there and It’s DREAMLAND!!!Grindline just wants to collect checks. Weed=suck park but hey it’s better than Redding,ca. Spokane-suckpark I could go on but hey Grindline is better than no park. I have to say after skating Colorado, and some Texass THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE! That one is Dreamland! Wally Hollyday great finish work but still lacks imagination, same tranny just different depths, Worhoudt, does he build anymore, Team Pain makes great wood but that’s about it, Airspeed, do they even exist, Place to Ride, MOLMO Sweden Stephan Houser that was epic, Erik Dawkins great start, fizzled out, Ca.shitparkdesign, and Az go pound sand.
Do you have balls to use your name
Dont hide behind a bullshit blog name. If you want a steet league course, then go out and skate your local college campus. For us its easy. Use your local and best skatepark builder. These costs are inflated as it is anyway. Traveling across the country to build a park isn’t helping keep expenses down. Not to mention not being familiar with the natural enviroment and incorporating it into the design.
Wheres the queer with the blurred out face from Fantasy Factory in the drawing above?!
Do u know what ur talking about?
there’s 26-skate parks as part of seattle’s overall city-wide skatepark plan. i don’t think that it’s a dick move that someone else has something different to bring to the table.
Carl
SPAC wanted Dyrdek to pay for a Grindline park in GL’s back yard? Dick move.
wrong
SPAC only wanted Dyrdek to donate to a park that wasn’t already funded. Roxhill was already in the city budget and in process. Dyrdek’s donation could have gone to any one of the many unfunded sites in the Seattle skatepark plan, putting a park on the map that would not have been built without him. After Dyrdek’s donation the city money that was going to the Roxhill skatepark went back to the general fund. Net gain for skateboarders = 0. All he did was negate the hard work many put in to secure funding for the Roxhill Park.
Do u know what ur talking about?
Hass, I’m not sure if your comments were directed at mine, but I have frequented this site for years and my comment in regards to other “world class” builders were not directed at Grindline, Dreamland, or Team Pain. Anyone who skates knows that those are top builders. But when I see posts on here where S&A compares the Dew Tour bowl to the X Games course, I mean geez, really??? I don’t care how much engineering went into that bowl, it’s just plain boring. Any which way you want to spin it.
hurton
the west seattle park issues with drydek foundation set my opionon on the matter.
http://westseattleblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/dyrdekdonationletterspac.pdf
Mac
Very interesing. Thanks for sharing this. What, if any, was the response from the Mayor or Parks Dep’t?
Do u know what ur talking about?
And who did you have these “real conversations” with? The City of Newark? Rob Dyrdek? Wouldn’t either of those be the most reliable resource? And who’s giving away free designs? ARC? Spohn Ranch? You call that “world class”? hahahahaha
Hass
You don’t do well speaking on your own behalf and you should limit doing it for other people.
If you have been visiting this site for any amount of time you would see that design/build companies such as Dreamland, Grindline, and Team Payne have large portfolios of skateparks spread across the globe.
For instance, Dreamland skateparks has donated the design of a bowl to the city of Corvallis.
Do u know what ur talking about?
real jounalism is fine. as long as you know what you’re talking about. oh wait, you don’t know what you’re talking about..
Hmm-I-wonder...
Sounds like a bitter losing job bidder to me… lose a few jobs to companies that include design in their bids didja? Besides, it’s his site. He can writewhatthefkhewants.
kilwag
Yeah it would, except I don’t own or work for a skatepark company. And you can bet there will be no real bidding process for this park.
Naw, just sounds like someone with a little bit of insight into how these things go down, actually. Based on, you know, real conversations and not just idol worship.
Hmm-I-wonder...
I understand exactly Kilwag, I was talking to him (DUKWURA). Sounds like his company, or his favorite company, lost out a few times because of an exaggerated design fee.
It’s YOUR site. Say what ya like Kilwag.
Butthurt for BMX
Note: Journalists don’t abbreviate with txt-speak. Then again, how would you know that? You hardly know what “ur” talking about.
kilwag
I stand by what I wrote. There are many world class skatepark design/build firms that don’t charge a separate fee for the design of the park. So yes, it’s great that the foundation is donating the obstacles from the contest series and the cash as well, but the value of the design services is exaggerated.
Coos Bay Park process
when we had grindline design a park plan for coos bay skate park they charged $20,000 for a set of plans that didn’t even have an engineer stap on them. they all charge for design.
Sandor
It’s against the law to have real journalism in skateboarding. Take this posting down now. Incisive thinking will only get you reflex action from the brain-dead. See above.
Do u know what ur talking about?
oh i guess it doesn’t cost any $ to hire engineers or any other design professionals when creating a skate park? and i guess there’s no value when someone wants to DONATE obstacles?? That must really suck for Newark, NJ.
get out
Dyrdek is in cahoots with California Skateparks. They both suck
who cares anyway
i hope dyrdek is in cahoots w/ a good kevlar manufacturer…brick city yeeeeeeeeeee-yuuuuuuuuuuuh!!!!!!!!!
who cares anyway
yeeeeeeeeeeee-yuuuuuuuuuuuhhh!!!! brick city!!!!!