In Astoria, an elected official who understands this has secured $600,000 in the 2005 city budget for a skateboarding park, possibly beneath the Triborough Bridge.
By Matthew Monks
“The kids who like to skate have nowhere to go and now they will have a place,” said City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria).
He will meet with the city Department of Parks and Recreation later this month to discuss the logistics of the park and said it was too early to describe the project in detail or draw up a timeline.
Queens Parks Commissioner Richard Murphy is fully behind the idea, saying skaters need a place to cruise where they can jump off ramps and slide across rails without disturbing the public.
The skate park should be “a wonderful thing because the kids use park furniture as their ramps and sometimes they use play equipment, which is absolutely horrible,” Murphy said.
Like Vallone, he said a Parks Department-owned lot beneath the Triborough Bridge near 23rd Street is a likely location, especially since a skateboarding demonstration went off without a hitch there in June.
“It's apparent that they love this sport and as government we need to provide them a suitable location,” Murphy said, which the city has been doing throughout the borough the past several years.
Astoria would be the third place in Queens to get a skate park.
Officials broke ground in February on a $600,000 park in Rockaway Beach, which will have steps, rails, and half pipes for skateboarders, inline skaters and bicyclists. City Councilman Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach) funded it through his discretionary budget.
In 2003, a mobile skate park opened in Forest Park in Woodhaven.
Astoria has been trying to get a skate park for years, said Community Board 1 District Manager George Delis. The board approved a park four years ago, but the project fell through due to a lack of funds, he said.
While getting a roller hockey rink is the board's top priority, Delis said he was thrilled when Vallone obtained the $600,000 from the city's capital budget for the skate park.
“I'm a former youth counselor. I believe in recreational facilities for kids. If it makes them happy, do it. Get them off the street,” Delis said.
Reach reporter Matthew Monks by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
