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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Is “raising funds” rather than “raises funds”? The headline made me think that Allison met her goal.
Good point, edited.
Take a leaf from Burnside Skate Park and DIY some ramps, bowls, etc. below the Marquam Bridge. It’s dry and I think everyone involved would be enthusiastic about activating that area.
Yes !
The Trusty Switchblade wooden skatepark bowl is being evicted from the old Portland Design Works location. It would have to be cut up and reassembled, but it is well-constructed and thousands of dollars in materials that really should be re-used instead of demolished.