Allison Waters, a Portland-based skateboarding lover, has unveiled a concept for a “family-friendly indoor skate park” within Portland city limits.
The current plan is for two days a week to be open to BMX and other bikes.
“We had all through the summer to skate and then it started to rain,” Melissa Clark says in the video for Waters’ Kickstarter campaign, which continues until next week, describing her three daughters’ falling in love with skateboarding. “We are shut down from November until — May? June?”
For $80, early Kickstarter backers can get a full year of standard membership, which includes a discount to the park sessions and shop and early access to events. For $600, they can get a full year of all-you-can-skate “unlimited” membership.
If it’s funded, Waters aims to open the park this fall, ideally in northeast Portland.
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Katie Proctor, a Portland mom who co-founded Kidical Mass PDX and who is supportive of Waters’ park plan, said in an email that the working plan is for bikes to be welcome in the future Stronger Skatepark on Wednesdays and Sundays.
The campaign has set an ambitious target of $25,000. But because this is a Kicksterter, none of the pledges will be claimed unless they actually succeed in raising the money. So if you’d spend $80 or $100 for a year of membership if this park did exist, there’s no reason not to pledge now and help make it happen.
Based on the video, it sounds as if Waters may have a backup business plan if this campaign doesn’t get all the way. But if they can get the $25,000 up front, that’d ensure high quality for the ramps they aim to build.
— Michael Andersen, (503) 333-7824 – michael@bikeportland.org
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