It’s been a while since I’ve covered the Kings Highway DIY project in St Louis. Much like BSSS before it, Kings Highway enjoyed an existence as an officially tolerated temporary DIY skate a finite lifespan. The crumbling bridge it rests under was built in 1936, and scheduled for demolition next spring. Amazingly, they’re still adding onto it as late as last week. Unlike BSSS, however, There are definite plans for a replacement… of sorts. The city is leasing an unused parcel of land to the non profit for $1 a month, but the non-profit has to pay $2,000 in insurance annually, as well as funding the entire construction. They are also losing the overhead coverage that they used to have, cutting down on the amount of time the park will be usable. You’d think a major American city with no public skatepark could do better than that. The locals have been actively fundraising though, and have even secured a 5k grant from the Tony Hawk Foundation, bringing their total fundraising efforts to $13,000. They’ve even got a listing for material and other donations on Craigslist. I’m not sure that the before and after square footage evens out though. The new…

Here’s another video about the Detroit’s Ride It sculpture park, this one from the Tony Hawk Foundation, that just raised another 25k for the project. Portland’s own Evergreen Skateparks is there working on it.

The Tony Hawk Foundation donated $30,000 to expand the building efforts of Ride It Sculpture Park, located in the wild, wild Midwest of the urban Detroit wasteland. Powerhouse Productions started the original product. I’m sure my friends are sick of hearing me say this, but I swear if I didn’t have kids and a mortgage, I’d move to Detroit. A man could reinvent himself there. [Source: Evergreen Skateparks]

Holy cow. Bill Danforth doing his best Popeye impression at Kristian Svitak’s ramp. I had no idea BIll Was so… old. All those gratuitous pro models must be wearing him down. In all seriousness, I have nothing but respect for Bill, and I bought myself a handful of his Alva decks with the tri-tail. Loved that board. BIll Danforth. Grover knows him from his days in Michigan. Both those guys are hilarious. Hey Kristian and Regulator, you keep making these videos, I’ll keep posting every (other) of of them. Danforth’s got a model on 1031. Midwest uber alles. UPDATE: Added Bill’s video part from the 1989 video “Young Gunz.”

The Kings Highway DIY project in St Louis is scheduled to be torn down within a year as the 76 year old bridge overhead is being demolished. KHVT (Kingshighway Vigilante Transitions 501c3) organizers are working with the city to fundraise and sanction the first public free skatepark in the city. To ensure that the skateboarders of St. Louis will still have a place to skate, KHVT must act quickly. We are working closely with St. Louis City’s Land Re-utilization Authority (LRA) to find small, unused city owned properties to be transformed into free, public “skate gardens.” As of now, KHVT is $33,000 short of the $50k they need to build this first spot. And that’s where the Kickstarter campaign comes in.

Shove it is a crazy huge art show crossover with skateboards, artists and paper toy designers. It would seem like an odd thing, but MC made a paper toy version of GVK a few years ago. This is a Kickstarter project, and they need the money to produce limited releases of the skateboards I guess. It’s also supposed to be a public relations effort for a new skatepark in Des Moines, but they are super, super vague about that in the video, which is, in any case, pretty interesting for the Kickstarter genre.

Another frankenramp creation, Barnside (unofficial name) is somewhere in the Kansas City area. Four videos after the jump. Chin Ramp indeed. – Thanks to Dave Campbell for the tip.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin locals who aren’t content to wait for the Turf to be dug up again or settle for facilities like the one you see above (no joke!) have taken things into their own hands. RideMKE is a non-profit organization committed to establishing sustainable concrete parks in Milwaukee. (MKE is the airport code for Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport.) The first item on the agenda is to clean up and improve the abortion that is Estabrook park, but the ultimate goal is to spread concrete to new locations. The county is on board because it isn’t costing them anything. Check the story out on OnMilwaukee.com, or stop by RideMKE blog or Facebook page.

Iowa isn’t really on the map yet, as far as skateparks go, but Spohn Ranch aims to change that. Photos from the new Oskaloosa, Iowa skatepark after the jump.

It’s being reported that Rob Dyrdek is negotiating the purchase of Alien Workshop off of Burton. “While Rob’s message was definitely premature, we did want to confirm that we are in an open dialog with him about a possible purchase. At this point, please note that nothing is confirmed, and we will absolutely do a formal announcement when and/or if that transition happens.” That kid loves Ohio. I imagine that’s got to be a good feeling, buying the brand that gave you a start in your own neck of the woods. [Source: Shop Eat Surf via Skateboarder Image exceprt: Gentlemanly Conduct] P.S. Yes, I realize this is not exactly hot off the presses.