oh wait, your against a ban, I was confused

I don't like them doing that. While I agree with the sentiment of this letter, that one bitchy statement about the banning of cars ruins it. The trail is primarily for bikers and walkers. The streets are primarily for cars. There is a bit of purpose and intent that is lacking in your disingenuous statement.

I sent a bitchy email to SDOT because construction had closed the sidewalk on both sides of 24th just above and just below 58th, in Ballard. You had to cross the street twice to get past.

In about a week, they sent out an inspector, discovered that one sidewalk was closed without a permit, and next thing you know? They opened that fucking sidewalk.

I mean, obviously I'd have preferred they send armored cops with mace they way they do when the leftivist protestors block a sidewalk for five minutes, but so what? Being bitchy does work.

I've witnessed many near collisions, had a near miss myself and know a co-worker who was hit by a skater there and suffered some nasty road rash. It's unreasonable for the city to not do something to this trouble spot before someone gets seriously hurt. Why don't you find another pet project to get all worked up into a self-righteous tizzy about?

How about this, kids and teens:

Open fresh air.
Soccer fields.
Sunshine.

That thing looks pretty weak anyway. Real skaters would just ollie over that bullshit anyway.

If you want to impress us with your l33t ollie skills i'll be at the Lower Woodland skatepark around 5pm, bust out brussel sprout.

How about one infront of the Stranger's office?

Bonus if you ollie over the bum pee stains!

"working on new skateboard parks at Delridge Community Center and Playfield in West Seattle, at Dahl Playfield in northeast, and at Jefferson Park on Beacon Hill."

Have neither funding nor space - Just excess smoke from the parks dept blowing their crack residue up our collective arses.

A smart old man told me that Seattle takes anything fun and destroys it. While other cities (portland with their master 19 skatepark plan with 4 already open) are building skateparks and open places, seattle has destroyed 2 legal ones (ballard and seask8), one great indoor park (raincity) and countless other spots. They shut down Raincity a week and a half for having an exit sign 2 inches off center then demolished the place for seachickens parking. Even Bellevue has 4 goddamn skateparks (with one undercover). Our pay-to-play choices are Innerspace in Fremont (small street ledges and banks) or drive 20 miles to Renton to skate at Skatebarn.

We need undercover places.

It helps to talk to the right people, but then again that might lead to actual dialog with possible results!...and that's no fun.

But if they hold a public meeting, maybe I could arrange that ...

I presume a comparably lib-tarded and misguided act of civil disobedience is in the works to protest this issue? Just make sure to protest the Parks Department instead of the SDOT. Maybe start obnoxiously skateboarding in the public park outside my apartment at 2am every Saturday night. Oh wait, you already do that.

Huh? I've been riding BG five days a week for six or seven years and I've never seen a honest-to-god pelotan. When are you seeing these spandex jihads?

I think for some bikers, though, "almost getting hit" constitutes anything from a legitimate scary near-miss to the mere presence of someone standing and looking expectant within 10 feet of their projected path (I'm guessing especially if said someone is holding a skateboard). And I wonder if what happened was that some of those more easily rattled folks simply took matters in hand and made a series of increasingly irate calls to the Dept. of Neighborhoods, and whablammy! No more skaters allowed on the bike path.

There's my two cents worth of radically unsubstantiated conjecture.

Problem solved.

Do we need a road study before putting guard rails on cliff edges? Just because the statistics aren't high doesn't mean this isn't ultimately more safe.

what's with the Savage obsession with skateboarders? this is a walkway/bike path, not a skateboard park. if some folks decide they want to shoot skeet* in that area, would that be ok too? i mean, i'm sure they would be respectful and courteous to walkers and all.

take a deep breath. focus your outrage where it belongs.

*by skeet, i mean clay targets and shotguns, not the slang term from popular music.

Since when?

1) Why would there be documentation from police or emergency services in terms of getting hit by a skateboarder/cyclist. If someone got hit, at most it would be a fall, unless the person had a medical condition that only got worse because of the fall (resulting in an emergency call, making documentation rare). In other words, getting hit by a bicycle or a skateboard, would hurt but no lasting damage (in most cases) would come from it.

2) I've never been to Seattle but from the pictures that just seems to be an underpass created to allow the path to continue and not be ostructed. In other words, that underpass was probably created to allow pedestrians to walk under, not for skateboarders/bicyclists to use for skateboarding/bicycling.

3) Roads are made for car-use primarily, DS's "clever" comparison doesn't make sense. Pedestrians/cyclists are not menanced by cars; there are more car-car accidents every year than pedestrians-car accidents. Yes yes, if there's a bike lane, then all vehicles, motorized and non-motorized need to fine tune their driving abilities and learn to "share the road". But for the most part (and I don't agree with this) roads are primarily for car use if they have been initally designed as such (which is the case for about 99.99% of North America)

This underpass was created to allow pedestrians to continue walking along the path. There could be an issue with zoning bylaws, the safety of pedestrians and the safety of the skateboarders/cyclists. Like the guy from the city said, skateboarding parks are opening up all around your city. From my experience in Toronto, most skateboarding parks are located by community or rec centres, which have people staffed with first aid and quick access to phones to call emergency services if need be.

Must've been a slow day for news in Seattle or something - dont you guys have an election in like 2 weeks?

The path was created specifically for cyclists and pedestrians. Seattle doesn't have an awful lot of public works for skaters. But you wouldn't know that, because you have never been here.

Which begs the question... Why are you commenting, exactly? Don't you have some election results to cry over?

"This ramp is in a heavily used section of the Burke Gilman trail. We have received a number of complaints from cyclists, pedestrians, and moms with strollers about conflicts with skateboarders who are using the area as an unofficial skate ramp. SDOT went out to the site and observed the problem and our conclusion was that it was a hazard to have skateboarders skating down a ramp that runs right into the Burke Gilman Trail. While we do not relish talking out the skating spot, SDOT has a responsibility to remove known hazards along the trail."

In my opinion:

1) From a skater's perspective, the attractive things about this space are that it is covered, has (or rather, had) a very large skateable bank across from a big ollie gap onto a large piece of public art with a concrete base. It is also accessible via the BGT and located near other popular skate spots in the U-District. Also, it is not really a "skatepark" - just a great place to ride a skateboard in the city.

2) From SDOT's perspective, the proximity of the bank to the trail accidentally created a skate spot with traffic lines that crossed the BGT, creating a hazardous condition.

3) It was only a matter of time before something happened here. Skatespots like this evolve naturally from the found environment, and skateboarders have perfected the ability to recognize and utilize such features. Thankfully, enough time passed to allow the Wall of Death to become an important part of Seattle's skateboarding landscape, so there is a community of people who would like to see skateboarding in this public space again.

So the real question is: What now?

Again, in my opinion:

1) This piece of public space could be further modified to support skateboarding again. A boardslide/grind rail placed between the BGT and the art would give skaters a way to continue using the space while travelling in the same direction as bikers and pedestrians. A small halfpipe or other permanent concrete structure placed South of the art might also be interesting. Other solutions might accomplish the same goals.

2) There is no magic wand to wave here. Even though SDOT was a participant on the task force that created Seattle's Citywide Skatepark Plan, the Wall of Death was never acknowledged as an "existing skatespot" because it was never officially planned or sanctioned. Unlike Seattle Parks, SDOT is in the business of creating and maintaining transportation corridors throughout the city, so their perspective is very different when it comes to recreation. If the Wall of Death were resurrected as an official skatespot or skatedot, it would take compromise from both sides of the table, as well as funding that could be spent building skateable terrain in other parts of the city.

3) Renegade/DIY construction is always an option, but that takes long-term effort and resources too. Plus, there's already a world class DIY project on SDOT land in South Seattle, along with a great community of skaters who build and maintain that public space themselves.

4) Minimally, it's certainly reasonable to propose a solution to SDOT that represents the interests of the skaters who use this space. I and others would be very interested in anyone's suggestions on the types of skateable features that could be built here.

Thanks to everyone for getting involved in this important issue.

For more information on "Skateable Terrain in Seattle" please review the following 2005 position paper by the Seattle Parks Skatepark Advisory Committee:
http://www.parents4sk8parks.org/pdf/skateablecity_083105.pdf

Scott Shinn


Parents for Skateparks

Biggest problem for skateboarders at the Lower Woodland skatepark which Dewey mentions? Bikes.

Also , this is a large step away from the proposed skate spot skate dot program that was propposed a year or two ago.