who can I not vote for because of this?

I'm starting to smell the suck of this city.

What a truly shitty thing to do. There is probably some lame rationale like "public safety," the same kind of "public safety" that SDOT has been invoking while they've been taking out crosswalks all around town. Of course, people will now jaywalk and find other (perhaps more dangerous) spots to skate, but the city won't be liable.

Spineless cretins.

I have some photos of it torn up on my flickr.
http://flickr.com/photos/drunkel/2918186577/

RIP - Wall O'Death.

Dang.

And I was just admiring this new single wheel board this guy had on the Ave today - extendable skateboard with a front and a rear wheel, made it easy to surf curves.

DANG!

STEP AWAY FROM MY SKATEPARKS!

http://www.concretedisciples.com/skateparksdb/skateparks_display.php?id=2894

The cool thing is its at the corner of retirement community, so it's like young and old together!

Someone will be hurt, cuz I see a skatepark altered. Altered to make it a double-black diamond, or whateva. If that picture is an obstacle, I see it as more of a challenge. Not for me, oh no, but for certain type-a boarder types is what I mean.

Someone is going to crack a head or neck finding the means to get air over that hedge.

No signs or nothing saying if it has been closed?really?

Now, again, 8:30 a.m. on a Tuesday is probably not considered prime skate-time, but on the other hand I DO see lots of walkers, bikers, & even a fair number of strollers out at that time of the morning, so it occurs to me they occupy the BG and pass under the U. bridge with a great deal more frequency than do skaters, and that rocking off "TWoD" is clearly meant to protect pedestrians, presumably from skateboarders "bombing" down that very slope.

I have no idea what the level of accidents might be in that location, or, even whether there have been any injuries from skater/other collisions there at all. Dan, I think either yourself or someone on your staff should be able to wrangle that information from the City.

Because really, it would make a HUGE difference to me in terms of whether or not I think this was a good or bad move on the part of the City: if there's evidence that public safety has been jeopardized by skaters, and this can be demonstrated, then by all means let's keep things safe.

On the other hand, if there's no such evidence of public harm, and the City has just taken this action based on a perception of potential harm, then yes indeed, that would be a very sucky thing for them to have done.

Believe me, skaters are not easily discouraged, I'm sure there's a way to make it skate worthy again. In fact I might just go down there and survey it myself.

Down North is Funky, check us out.

when i saw the post, i was kinda hoping they'd destroyed the "art". i remember thinking that was crap when it went up - typical bad seattle public art. i'd rather we had more statues of lenin.

Cause that would be - fair.

Thanks seattle. I'm really glad we have put on over half a dozen fundraisers for marginal way this year alone and have to nickel and dime just so we can have a place to skate.

I only ride past this on my bike, but this is disturbing. It's a quiet little spot where folks can skateboard. They are usually aware of riders so I've never had a conflict there.

Doesn't SDOT have anything better to do? Like, say:

1) fixing all intersections so the signal sensors detect bicycles
2) putting up signs that say "Bicycles in Roadway. Change Lanes to Pass" instead of painting "sharrows" in the gutters
3) Installing bike racks so bicyclists can park (e.g., Westlake Mall, International District).

A list of things they should be working on is published at www.bicyclewatchdog.org

That spot offers enough seclusion for sections of those rocks to be chunked out and Quickcreet'ed over in the next few weeks I'm sure.

www.marginalwayskatepark.org

Timebomb and many other people have put countless hours into making a renegade DIY spot into a legal place to skate. For how long, we don't know.

Even if they're dirt cheap at Home Depot. They're open late.

Really.

And don't affix a sign saying "Bill Gates GO BACK TO MEDINA!" to one of the bridge supports ...

Who wants to bet that the city has been planning to do that for 30 years?

Quikcrete is not the solution, you can't just pour concrete over existing concrete - it will chip off. Holes need to be cut out then refilled. You only have one change to make a good pour so the more people you got to smooth it out the better.

The best way to reclaim that spot is to take the boulders out and then fill those holes in with a nice portland blend.

I kind of want to build a wall blocking something that Fat McMayor Cheezeburger uses.. anyone have his address?

No, they haven't. That spot hasn't been like that for 30 years. That stretch of the trail hasn't been paved for 30 years and, even after they paved the trail there, the place where the ramp is now was just packed dirt, used as a storage area for the shopping carts of homeless people and graced by the occasional burned-out hulk of an abandoned car, until about 1991.

Also? That was a shitty ramp. There was no room to get enough speed to go up it and there was nothing to do at the bottom -- the trail's only about 10 feed wide down there, so if you tear down the ramp you don't have room to do anything at the bottom. Skaters went there because it looked like it should be a good place to skate, but for practical purposes it was kind of useless. Red square, five blocks away, is a much better spot.

And, finally, those skaters were a fucking hazard. I used to bike commute that stretch of the trail and at least once a month I'd see some dipshit newbie on a K-mart deck nearly slam into a cyclist when he lost control on the slope. Skating is not a precision sport -- even good skaters miss their trick about half the time. Playing ramp games on a slope with no clearance on a busy bike trail was a stupid fucking thing to do and, frankly, I'm glad the city finally got wise and blocked the slope.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled pointless whining.

But yeah, completely lame. Not surprising though, as Seattle has always hated skateboarders (even the non-bobcat ones).

I'm still gonna go up and around those fucking rocks on my bike though, and it's going to be way more death-defying and shit, as I'm cutting up through the fuckin ivy and then mobbering up and around and probably losing it in the dirt as I come back in...

There. All better!

Whatever the reason: thanks!

In the city of Seattle, skateboarding is illegal on the street, and on the sidewalk. Yes.

The destruction (by the way, it's always worse--the things they do to "skateproof" a spot) of The Wall of Death could serve to show non-skaters what it's like to lose a spot...it sucks. I'm sure WAY more bike tires roll up on that thing than skateboard wheels, maybe someone who can vote (most skateboarders are kids: non-voting and therefore without rights...save for we few manchildren out there, still riding useless wooden toys) will be angry enough to figure out what to do.

But, the City of Seattle hates skateboarders. This proves it, again. Look how easy it is for them to destroy a skate spot, and how hard it is for skaters to build one. The few thousand dollars (I dunno, how much does it cost to rip that strip out and glue in leftover river rock from some city councilmember's "water feature" or whatever?) that it cost to do this?--bobcat and his friends could've made something rad with that money...

I couldn't agree with you more. I used to skateboard there for fun, and ride my bike on the Burke Gilman trail for transportation to work. The skateboarders are generally respectful of the people on the BG trail, I can't speak for everyone of course. We didn't want to get hit by some guy racing by anymore than they did. I do have to point out that I have had way more close calls riding my bike on the Burke Gilman trail. Usually from those spandex clad asshole racing cyclists going 30-40 mph and weaving through pedestrians and slower moving cyclists.

I liked the spiky part of the actual "Wall of Death" piece there, but always felt the "wall" section wasn't prominent enough to evoke the daredevil stunt the artists were going for. The best art was the latenight skateboard tricks I saw my friends do down there: Terrible T did a frontside halfcab heelflip into it, I shit you not! Caught clean, probably 1998. True daredevil, indeed.

I predict: much garbage collecting along the top of the rock strip, some clever (and not-so-clever) spraypainted slogans, and a return to shopping carts (gnarly dudes on the street doing drugs hate skateboarders too, being also too loud/fast/young/fun for them). I may or may not contribute to one or more of these blights (including living down there, as my health insurance at work just doubled and rent's going up and tomatos are like hella bro).

But yeah, um, it was indeed a legit skate spot...you just had to be a bit gnarlier than the average Judah Sixpack.

I was in a head on collision back in August 2008 with a small girl (maybe 7 years old). I was riding my bike west along the trail. If you approach the wall, you will see that the trees obstruct the wall and you have no idea if anyone is on the wall. Without any notice this girl came flying off the wall and collided head on with me. Luckily she was wearing a helmet. She walked away with minor cuts and bruises. I had bruised ribs and a sore back for over a month after the collision. Imagine if I had killed her and it could have totally been possible.

So I would hope you all realize that the wall of death is not the best place to Skate and ride bikes on. Sooner or later, the name of the wall would really mean THE WALL OF DEATH due to an incident where someone would be killed.

I am glad to see this fixed.

Good thing I've never been hit by a biker while walking or crossing a street. You bikers really are a shining beacon of safety. Point one finger at us and you have 3 pointing back a yourselves.

The reason Wall of Deaths demise bummed me out is that we don't exactly have many places to skate in the rain. Yes, if you haven't noticed it rains here a little bit. The closing of the W.O.D. is just going to push people back into the Fun Curbs under Red Square and the Heated Garage around the corner.

There. All better!

Pit bulls.

And I loved pedaling fast up that thing and flying down. Boo on concrete obstruction. A couple rocks have ALWAYS stopped skaters....yeaaaaah. Dicks.

Seriously. The city has generously installed a base for a much more exciting skating spot! Mix gravel with concrete and fill the voids between the stones. Cover up the surface with plain concrete to make a smooth speed bump that allows skaters to pump more speed on the way up and get good air on the way down!

FIGHT BOREDOM!

so local government that you're not going to stand for their hypocracy