According to the Mercury News:
Amid the worst budget crisis in city history, with even police officers worried for their jobs, city leaders last fall said San Jose’s gem of a skate park — California’s largest — would have to either be left as an unstaffed free-for-all, privatized or possibly even padlocked.
Heaven forbid an unstaffed free-for-all! Then it would be just like every public skatepark in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Illinois, Wisconsin, and probably a few other states too.
– Thanks to Matthijs for the tip.
16 comments
Blake Everhart
No, this would not at all be like the open access parks in the rural and suburban areas you mentioned. I grew up in San Jose. The nearest open access skatepark is Roosevelt, and it is a disaster as far as violence and gang activity. I’ve been to so many skateparks in Oregon, and they are great. They can pull it off because it is a completely different environment.
Lake Cunningham is a skate facility. it has tranny ranging from one foot to thirty feet. It’s like a Van’s or a Woodward. It’s not a skatepark. Make fun of it and it’s pad policy all you want, but the public is not responsible enough to manage a facility like this.
abe
Problem is taggers will ruin it
DickCancer
padlock that nagger and fill it with dirt.
Carl
Just make sure the locals use the right kind of paint when they coat then place.
ubergeek
The Knoxville TN park is unstaffed and it is terrifying den of depravity and iniquity. I’ve actually seen people smoking cigarettes there! The horror. The HORROR! Save me oh mighty skatepark staffer! Auuuurrgh!
Skhater
They should cut down the fence and sell it for scrap. That would be a good fundraiser!
bailgun
^SOMEBODY ELECT THIS DUDE TO SAN JOSE CITY COUNCIL.^
warehouse
Every park in Canada is free.
There would be drinking, pot smoking, graffiti,bikes and lots of skateboarding (and other activities that lawyers in California could sue someone for)
Hope they leave it. I’ve been there twice. One time they let me skate. The other they closed it on a sunny,dry evening.Fuckers!
skaterdave
Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri…
Many lovely, well used, safely unstaffed free- for-alls.
Concretin Nik
Cleanest most excellent park I’ve ever skated (and slept in)… I dig it staffed. But “free-for-all” definitely beats padlocked. That’d be stupid… but considering the decision is in the hands of government officials… stupid wouldn’t be a surprise.
some kook
Padlocked = unstaffed free for all. There is no fence high enough to keep skaters out of a park like that.
carvin marvin
plus only old guy left overs from the mid-80’s vert ramp days would wear pads
seedy
Granite, St. Helena, Berkeley, Alameda, Sebastopol….
However, there are “brown people” in San Jose, AKA “not white” So the real trophy wives of San Jose would be more reluctant to drop their kids off at the cheapest babysitter in town to butt board for the day if it didn’t have staff.
cold ones
There are other unstaffed skate parks in San Jose in much sketchier locations.
Troy
And in California (Santa Cruz, Pacifica, Scotts Valley, Roosevelt, to name only a few.)
Troy
Menlo Park, Redwood City, Sunnyvale, …..