News Another Skatepark Update
posted by on January 8 at 22:47 PM
On a belly full of phad thai, I’ve returned home from the skatepark advisory committee meeting where I learned a few things (no, I already knew they don’t have phad thai in Thailand).
The Seattle Center has a March 1 deadline to show the City Council a site to replace the recently demolished skatepark. John Carr, chair of the skatepark advisory committee, said the City Council will withhold a quarter of the Center’s funding until they provide an analysis and recommendation of potential sites.
The committee talked more about how surprised they were the park was demolished so soon, and why they didn’t know earlier, and how people from the city’s parks department didn’t know either, or how someone might have known but didn’t tell anyone, and so on…
After realizing they will never solve the mysteries of the bureaucratic black hole, the moved on to talking about “skate plazas,” which are skateparks with benches and handrails like an ordinary street corner, as a possible replacement for the old park.
-Brian Turner
Now that's the way to do it! Make a decision (hopefully a wee bit faster than this one), stick to it, and provide consequences if the responsible parties don't follow through.
Are you serious? I had no idea that there is no phad thai in thailand. I'm not shocked, just a little disappointed.
The whole skate plaza is a nice idea for random areas of the city.
But replacing an actual park with a couple benches and rails? What bullshit. If Seattle Center has to put in another park, then it should be a real park, not a "skate plaza." By the way, whoever came up with that term probably doesn't skate very much. Skate plaza? Who came up with that, my mom?
All I know is that I've had phad thai in Thailand more times than I can count.
It's amazing that Seattle is home to the best design & build skatepark companies and yet can't seem to build a world class park in the metro area...
No phad thai? What are you talking about? Sure it's drier (not drowning in oil like here), but there's plenty-o-phad-thai in Thailand.
there was a skatepark meeting last night? gee thanks for letting seattle skaters know.
Brian, i know i sent you the inital news of the skateparks destruction and we chatted on the phone for almost half an hour. it'd be good to see some of 'the other sides' of the story printed rather than just the watered-down parks bureaucracy.
Translation: You are not rich people like Bill Gates, so we sold you out and are now trying not to look like we did what we did.
I'm curious about how this came as such a surprise to everyone, too. Didn't we all know that the Gates Foundation bought the property over a year ago? Did people expect that they'd build around the existing park?
Maybe everyone assumed that it would be the standard five vote / two legislative intervention process before anything actually happened.
Or is the Gates Foundation just way ahead of schedule?
Then I'd love to know what I was eating in Bangkok and Chiang Mai last year that shared that name and was on the menu at every restuarant and streetcorner stand.
Now, it's true the pad thai in thailand isn't as tasty as the pad thai in america. really dry and basic. but it's the national dish, so what are you gonna do?
Josh, as per their (seattle center and the parks dept) agreement we were supposed to have a new park by the time the old one was destroyed. Now we do not have a skatepark in downtown seattle. Not only that, but we do not have a spot, no plans.. nothing. There is nowhere for little Timmy or Suzie to skateboard legally that doesn't require them to dodge skaters with overinflated egos (ballard bowl), or a puddle infested kinky bowl under a bridge in the worst area of town (Hanford St)
Bobcat, it's all about the greenbacks. You don't have them and the Gates' do.
That's why you were hung out to dry and I've only got a "skateboard-mini-park" next to me at Gasworks ...
koyteow phad thai is everywhere in thailand. in general, it tastes better than most versions of it here.
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