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]

Homeless folks inhabiting Miyashita Park in Tokyo are understandably upset about the fact that their local government has sold the park out from under them. Apparently there were no public hearings or notices before the sale to NIke became final. NIke has plans to turn it into a well-landscaped skate plaza. The park has a sizable indigenous homeless population that will likely be displaced, and they’ve gained some support worldwide, but it seems to me that everyone is pissed off at the wrong people. Don’t get pissed at the people who bought your home for a bargain, get pissed at the bank that foreclosed on you. According to a short video about the situation, Nike refuses to respond publicly to anyone concerning the park. Not the greatest public relations plan, but maybe it’s geared towards some sort of Japanese culture hook that I’m not hip to. Watch the vid after the jump.

– Thanks to 100% Talkboarder for the tip. [Source: The Smoking Section]

Or at least I have to assume it’s open, although judging by the photos aI got, it’s either wildly unpopular or a very well kept secret. Marek Litinsky is our man on the scene:

Hey, so I went up to Orcas this weekend. Turned out I went with bunch of kooks who saw the park and wanted to leave. I thought I was gonna pull my hair out. So, no shots from the island but at least I got couple photos from that new park in Seattle and bunch of shots from marginal way where we spent the night and skated a bit sunday morning. There you go. dont go on trips with little kids. EVER!!! it doesnt matter if they are 18 or 38. Theres even a photo of ever elusive dick cancer for those readers who would wanna see 38 year old skatepark collector.

I’m going to hold off the Marginal Way photos for another day. It’s too much for one post. I had planned on asking Bobcat to do the photo recon, but I thought better of it since I didn’t want him to suffer from a ruptured brain aneurysm if he ever set foot on the unhallowed ground. I know it’s not the same sort of terrain they tore down at the old Sea Sk8, but it looks fun to me. Maybe I’m blinded by all prettiness. Although you gotta love to hate a design that puts all the biggest tranny on the same side of the park, with nothing facing it to build up speed. That’s my armchair critique. I also don’t see the big glass pyramid that was in the original design.