2009 was a year of advocacy. Translation? Lots of public meetings.  I think by the end of 09’, Skatelife Memphis had worn out a lot of the skate community on public meetings.  We attended 6 public meetings associated with re-imagining the potential of the Mud Island River park.  That public process ended with a final land use report that placed a skate park as one of the key building blocks for re-energizing the park- a major win for skate park advocacy. 2009 was all about advocacy but 2010 has delivered action.

In November 09’, Skatelife won a Nike grant that was  used to build  an indoor skate ramp at the Greenlaw Community Center- a center that is being leased and operated by Memphis Athletic Ministries (MAM).  The ramp opened in late February of 2010.  MAM graciously not only allowed us to build the ramp inside the center but has used the ramp to develop their pilot skateboarding mentoring program. The program is currently run by two of their employees at the center- Mark Janetta and Dustin Mallory.  These two men, aside from being very gifted skateboarders,  have big hearts for kids.  Skateboarding is simply a tool that they use to connect and mentor the kids. Below is a short documentary showing how far these kids have come since grand opening.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Spring of 2010 was consumed by the Pepsi grant online voting competition which became widely known as the “I’m on board” campaign.  We got close to winning as we marched all the way up to the  #3  spot . If we had won the grant we would be building a small skate park right now in Binghampton on land that the Binghampton Development corporation owns.  The land is still available for a skate park so if you have a spare $250K in your pocket, let’s talk!

In my opinion, the Pepsi campaign was still in big win. We had a lot of fun taking pictures of people with the “I’m on Board” board -even Mayor Wharton took a picture with the infamous deck.  Although nationally skateboarding has become a major ticket item for the X games,  it’s still kind of an unknown for Memphis so getting the word out is a big step in ushering in an activity or sport new to an area. The Pepsi effort certainly helped in this regard.

In the fall of 2010, Mark Janetta won a GIVE365 grant from the Memphis Community Foundation. With that grant money Mark will be able expand the MAM skateboarding program.  He will used the funds to build a portable skate park.  He’ll take his Greenlaw skateboarding youth throughout the city to teach kids at other community centers how to skateboard.  Mark  said he’s excited to see his Greenlaw kids develop as leaders as they help him teach skateboarding to the youth at the other centers. Hopefully he’ll get that program in full gear in Spring of 2011.

Mayor Wharton kicked off the Tobey skate park project in September of this year and was happy to announce the park will open in September of 2011!  Finally we have a real deadline for the project! Thank you Mayor Wharton for breathing life back into the project.

Thanks to a number of volunteers and the gracious hosts of the ” A New Face for an Old Broad” event,  we were able to set up a temporary skate park at the event. What really struck me were the number of small kids that came by and skated the ramps. It appears that a lot of kids of skate parents ( or at least parents that used to skate) are coming of skating-age  so I can only imagine how many small kids will be running/rolling around the new Tobey park skate area. My two boys are certainly amped and ready!

At the beginning of this month, the preliminary design for the skate park was approved by the City Council. If you are interested in seeing the design check out this post that walks you through the design.

That’s it for now, in the meantime, have a Happy New Year and hopefully I’ll see you at the groundbreaking ceremony (TBA) for the Tobey skate park!

Ian Lemmonds  recently wrote a fantastic post  that  described the promise  and new possibilities associated with the Grand-opening of the Greenlaw ramp. March 27th marked the one month anniversary of its opening.   It’s an understatement to say that the ramp is getting well used.

Since the ramp opened, the number of daily participants has almost tripled from 11 to 30 kids. The ramp now has 25 kids that skate on it at least once a week and 90% of the 120 youth at the community center have tried the ramp one or more times.   Frankly the demand is overwhelming especially when you realize we have over 100,000 youth in this city.

To meet the demand, the need, we are looking to build more places for inner city youth to learn to skate and use the activity to help them develop into confident healthy individuals.

We’ve partnered with the Binghamton Development Corporation (BDC),  who has provided us land  for building a skate park at a location immediately adjacent to the future Greenline trailhead site at Tillman near Walnut grove.

We are trying to win a $250,000 dollar Pepsi grant through online voting so that means outcome of  the project lays in the voting power of Memphians.  This project is a call to turn “the love” for our city into action and help make building a skate park in Binghampton become a reality

Voting started on April 1st  and as of writing this post we were nationally ranked 14 out of 298 applicants.  Clearly Memphians are already stepping up to the task!

To get  “On Board” you can do join the “Binghampton Skate project” FB group and then go vote very day for the project HERE.  Be sure to always to first login at the bottom left hand corner of the page before clicking the  “vote” button.  If you have voted, the button disappears and is replaced with a word like “awesome” or “thank you” or “gracias”!

Final thought: Pepsi has empowered the grassroots for action so let’s make good on their offer and show the U.S. that Memphis has what it takes to nail one of these highly coveted grants!

For those who were not able to attend the first two rounds of meetings, please try to attend one of these final meetings. We need you there. We especially need families and their children to attend since we only had a few in the past few meetings. The new River park plans are about kids too!

The final three master plans will be shown and we will have our chance to comment and give our input on the plans.  Expect to see some exciting presentations with skate and family friendly space as key themes in these plans.

See you all there!

Meeting Details:

1. September 29 meeting: Memphis Botanic Garden (750 Cherry Road), 5:45 pm
2. October 1 meeting: Mud Island River park ( Inside the Mud Island River Park) Harbor Landing, 5:45 pm

P.S. Tell your friends, write on your facebook wall, blog about it, invite your neighbors and family- let’s get the word out and have our community support this!

Just for fun: This is what a destination skate park would look like on the South tip of the Mud Island River park

In the previous two posts, we have been interviewing Jeff Haley, the project manager for Colorado Springs memorial skate park project. Colorado Springs opened this park in March 2009. It’s the second largest skate park in the country and the city was just ranked number 1 in July 2009 as being the best city in the country for living by Outside online.   The goal of these interviews are to educate Memphians in the important role recreation plays in drawing people back to our city.  A skate park is one of the coveted facilities that is  found within cities that possess some of the highest quality of life rankings.

In part II we asked Jeff about the rationale in choosing their location for their skate park , we looked at how the park was designed and built and finally we discussed how the location of the park opened the activity up to a lot of youth that previously had no access to skateboarding. This is the third and final part of our  interview. It’s short and sweet.  We look at why skate parks  are low cost facilities and end with Jeff’s final advise to any city considering building a premier destination skate park.

Maintenance

AS: One of the big selling points for a concrete park that I have shared with the Memphis City officials is the low cost of maintaining the facility. What’s been your experience?

JH: This has been a big selling point that we have witnessed to be true. We simply leave a few brooms out in the summer and the skateboarders clean the skate areas themselves. In the winter we left out snow shovels and they cleaned the snow too! That is a huge component in budget planning and long term return on investment for the community.

Final thoughts

AS: What type of advice or encouragement would you give a city considering building a skate park as a major attraction/ recreational venue?

JH: Skate parks are the real deal and if you build these parks well you will be doing a huge service to your community. Our new skate park is the most used facility, day in and day out, of all the facilities that we have in the City and that says a lot since we host a large range of activities available to people in our parks system.

AS: Thanks Jeff.

JH: My pleasure.

The authors 4 year son does his first "rock-to-fakie" at Colorado Springs Memorial Skate park

In this post we continue our conversation with Jeff and talk about how the City of Colorado Springs chose the location for its destination skate park,  how the location has brought new participants into the park and why extending hours to night operations were important.

Choice of Location

AS: How did the city come to chose Memorial park as the final location? I lived in the Springs in the 90’s and have fond memories of that park. What a great choice.

JH: There were a number of reasons why Memorial became the park of choice. In 2006 we started a new public master planning process for that park so we already were looking for public input for that area. This park was also close enough to Downtown so our hopes were that park would draw most of the skateboarders away from downtown to the new park. Which it has. Memorial park is a community park that has many activities to chose from so we wanted to put the skate park in a visible place where there were already a lot of people around using the park.

AS: That makes sense- the more eyes watching the safer the park will be.

JH: Exactly.

Reaching inner city kids

AS: Was there any issues raised with having a low-income neighborhood near the skate park?

JH: There were some concerns from some parents that would be driving the kids from some higher income areas of the city but these concerns were quickly dissolved when the park opened. They were unfounded.

AS: Personally, I was deeply gratified to see the park so accessible to so many low-income kids. It’s part of our organization’s mission to bring skateboarding to inner city areas of Memphis.

JH: Yes, this has been one of the more rewarding aspects of this project. There is such a large diversity of skate park users.

AS: I guess it goes to show, “if you build it they will come” especially when you see new kids skating who have never had access to a skate park.

JH: We’re reaching kids who are at risk of obesity, you know, the kids sitting home playing video games.

AS: Yeah, like Tony Hawk Skate. Except now they can out do it for real!

AS: So would you consider this new park a regional or destination park?

JH: Yes, this is our big park and it has users visiting from all over the U.S.

Small Parks accessible for neighborhood kids

AS: How about smaller skate parks for beginners and kids that can’t get to the bigger park everyday?

JH: Back in 2004 we started putting pre-fab ramps in neighborhood parks. In addition to our four larger parks, we have about five of these in the city. They are not much, just a half-pipe and maybe a rail and a few small boxes or smaller ramps.

AS: Not concrete?

JH: No the ramps are steel and some skaters have complained about the quality but for beginners they work quite well. As the skaters get better and older they can drive with their friends to Memorial or to the mid-sized concrete parks.

AS: How was this project completed so fast? I hear it started in 2007 and was finished 2009.

JH: I joined Colorado Springs parks and recreation in 2005 but initial conversations for the park started back in 2004. There were a number of things that really got the ball rolling. We were re-master planning Memorial park, which really was just looking at the existing space and seeing what else we could fit into the park. The park is already pretty packed with stuff. A tennis complex came up but we already had tennis courts and 12-15 skateboarders started showing up at the meetings and brought up the idea of a skate park. That was just part of it. Another factor that weighed in was the Downtown business community. They were tired of all the skateboarders damaging their property and when the skating community suggested the skate park idea it seemed a perfect fit for dealing with two needs.

AS: Any other factors?

JH: I had colleagues putting articles on my desk all the time that espoused all the great benefits of a skate park for a community. Also, the national statistics and our overcrowded parks provided ample evidence for the need for a larger park.

AS: How important were site visits?

JH: Site visits were critical for showing us what well-designed parks looked like and helped us appreciate why our existing parks were not meeting the needs of the skate community. In particular, one of the Denver parks officials cued us into how these parks have become major people magnets and helped add to the liveliness of the Denver downtown area. Once the skate park became the main contender, the momentum really took off as our parks grant writer, Amy Cox, landed $700K from private funding for the park which included funding from a car dealer ship, the Denver Broncos, the Colorado Lottery and the rest was made up with TOPS money. TOPS is a 1/10 a 1% sales tax that was approved by the voters for exclusively funding Colorado Springs recreational projects. For people to tax themselves tells you a lot about how our citizens value their quality life in terms of recreation.

Design and build of the park

AS: Did Team Payne design and build the park?

JH: They did all of the concrete work with their own team that they brought in for the year. We did have our own city contractors do the preliminary grading and digging for the site. That allowed the $1 million raised for the park to be used exclusively for building skate able space. Their team were like artists when it came to shaping and forming curves into the concrete. Did you think they did a decent job?

AS: They did a fantastic job. Any type of bumps in the curves of the concrete spell disaster, in terms of safety, for the rider. I have ridden the entire park and there are no bumps in the transitions. Nice work!

Lighting

AS: I noticed you just got the lights turned on this week for night skating. Why the delay?

JH: We wanted to first see how successful the park was and go from there. The big push for the lighting came from skateboarders that wanted to skate after work.

AS: I skated the other night and there were 100+ people out there at 10:30 pm. Incredible. What did it cost?

JH: We got a great bid at $90K. We expected closer to $150K.

AS: Any resistance for pushing for this?

JH: Not after we saw how many people were using this park and the need from working skateboarding folks.

Memorial Skate Park, Colorado Springs, CO

Once a year we go and visit my wife’s family in Colorado Springs and our two boys get to have the time of their lives with our three  nephews.  Between our last July visit in 2008 and our present one- the city built a major destination skate park which after all was said and done sized in around 40,000 square feet or around three quarters the size of a football field.  That’s big!  The skate park  started as a conversation back in 2004, hit the city radar in 2007 and was completed in March 2009. That’s fast.

With Memphis considering a couple of skate parks, including a major one on Mud Island ,  I thought interviewing the person that managed  the Memorial  project would definitively and   authoritatively address some of the concerns of our own city officials.

I contacted their parks department and with only two days notice,  Jeff Haley , their City Landscape architect and project manager for the skate park agreed to meet with me the day before we left to drive home to Memphis.

Here is what Jeff had to say.

Rationale for building a large park

AS: Was there as concern about having too many skate parks in the area? ( the Colorado Springs area had four existing parks before this large skate park was built )

JH: This was really never a concern once we realized that skateboarding is the baseball of today’s youth. You are probably well aware from your own efforts that nationally, skateboarding has become the third most popular activity among youth. In fact a lot of the issues we were having with skateboarding was due to its popularity.

AS: Such as ?

JH: Even with four existing skate parks, our parks we’re becoming overcrowded with skaters and we still had a large population of skaters that were skating and damaging public and private property in Downtown Colorado Springs. Our existing skate parks were not able to meet our demand and they also were not designed very well.

AS: Do you think that with this new large park, you have met the needs of the skate community?

JH: Yes for now. But, I think we could do well to build another large park perhaps half the size of the Memorial park in Northern east quadrant of the City. There are a lot of youth in that area who have to drive 15-20 miles to get to the new skate park.

AS: Did 40,000 square feet seem too big at the time ?

JH: Yes we did think that was a large chunk of concrete at the time. But now when I go to the park I am grateful we went big because every square foot of that park is covered with skateboarders, bmx bikers, roller bladers, Moms and Dad’s and their kids and spectators. Just the other day I saw three older ladies at the park watching the skateboarders in the big bowl. They looked like they had escaped from a nursing facility. They were having a great time watching the kids.

AS: I was having a conversation with the security guard at your city administration building and he actually thought the park was too small. Never thought I would hear that spoken from anyone but a skateboarder.

In part 2 we will look at how they decided on their location as well as the construction of the skate park.

Stax Museum

I went on one of Sherman Willmott’s tours of Memphis with my Father a few weeks ago.  Sherman gave us a personal tour of  Memphis where he pointed out the places, other then Graceland, that contributed to the city’s rich musical history.  He is available for personal tours . Turns out he just happens to be the main guy that founded the Stax Museum!

Sherman has become one of my most passionate co-advocates for what Skatelife is trying to do in establishing a premier recreational magnet on Mud Island.  Sherman’s candor is refreshing and inspiring.  Here is what he has to say:

“Dear Memphasians:

I’ve lived in Memphis since 1974. During these 35 years, there has been
nothing in the empty spot at the South End of Mud Island.  Nothing.  Zero.
Zippo. Zilch.

Skatelife Memphis has proposed to the Memphis city parks division and
Riverfront Development Corporation to build an affordable, world-class skate
park that would draw skaters (and their families!) from all over Memphis,
Shelby County, & the whole freakin’ world! While the Riverfront Development
Corporation has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars “planning” for Mud
Island’s future, this visionary idea sits and grows mold.

This proposed skatepark on Mud Island could be one of the greatest things in
Memphis.  It would bring life to a lifeless part of Mud Island.  It would
bring thousands of skaters a year to Memphis from all over the world.  It
would make Mud Island flourish. It would give Memphis another world class
attraction much like AutoZone Baseball Park, the Stax Museum, Sun Studio,
and Cozy Corner BBQ!  (I should know. I helped build Shangri-la Records as
well as the Stax Museum from scratch to fruition.  We built the Stax Museum
on an empty, abandoned parking lot in South Memphis and now Time Magazine
calls it one of the top 50 attractions in the United States!).  And it would
cost a fraction of money that they are spending on a floating dock they are
building with taxpayer’s money right now!

The majority of the people attending the meetings that the Riverfront
Development Corporation are hosting want this skatepark and attend the
planning meetings to make sure the voices of skaters are heard. Please
continue to support Skatelife Memphis by attending these meetings.

Memphis needs this skatepark on Mud Island!  You may (be old enough to)
remember the funny posters from the  1970s that said, “Ski Mud Island.”

The Skatelife folks are working their butts off so that one day we can say, “Skate Mud Island!”  Their efforts won’t go anywhere if the public doesn’t weigh in and show up at these meetings.

This would be an awesome
experience for everyone.  Give Skatelife Memphis a few hours of your time
and attend these meetings and make this cool dream a reality. Otherwise the
bureaucrats will put something lame, hideous, & doomed to fail that does not
appeal to the citizens of Memphis and the world.

Please support Skatelife Memphis and keep this amazing dream alive!  You
will be helping to make Memphis a better place to live.

Rock on,

Sherman Willmott
Shangri-la Projects”

There will be two Phase II meetings

1.Memphis Botanical Gardens
Tuesday May 12th, from 5:45 – 7:15 pm
Location: Memphis Botanic Gardens, 750 Cherry Road (near Audobon Park)

2. Downtown Meeting
Thursday May 14th   from 5:45 – 7:15 pm
Location:101 Island Drive ( At the Mud Island River park)

Why the big push?

It’s plain and simple – the project is the next big thing that needs to happen Downtown and it’s going to provide a substantial  influx of new visitors, shopper and residents.   I almost cynically smirk when I hear someone make that type of statement.  How many times have we been promised the stars and in return we get vacant or nearly vacant or highly underutilized venues?  They are all over the place- the Pyramid,  Mud Island, Peabody Mall and even Main street.  I am sure we all collectively cringe when we hear about the next big project that’s going to save our city.   Is a skate park on Mud Island going to single-handedly transform and revitalize Downtown? No.  The Downtown, as any long time Memphians will tell you , has already come a long way and is on a path for continued revitalization.  The skate park is simply an exclamation point for those efforts. A big one.

Yet, I would unwaveringly  place the impact of  a premier skate park on Mud Island at the same level as the beautiful Redbirds Stadium or the FedEx Forum yet with a price tag that is 1/10 the cost.  Wow, that’s a bold claim! Let me explain.  You all know the statistics by now.  Skateboarding is a 5 billion a year industry,  nationally it has 14 million participants, and it ranks third as a national pass time and number of outings (64) per year among youth and young adults.  Beyond these statistics,  what truly elevates the skate park’s impact  is the fact that this  venue will draw a large and diverse group of  participants and fans.  So…..

With 1 million people in Shelby county, if we apply our national statistics,  that adds up to a potential user-base of  50,000  participants that individually could visit the park on average 64 times a year.   Annually, that’s 3.2 million people visiting the Downtown area to skate and hang out.  That’s 8 seasons worth of Redbird fans! That doesn’t count the roller bladers , roller skaters, BMX bikers, parents of the skaters or the visitors coming in from the Tri-state region.

An added perk is that by increasing our participant base in fun outdoor activities, we will  shed our reputation for being one of the least fit cities in the nation.

Growing up and moving in…

When the younger skaters grow up,  they will look around and  see that  lo and behold there are some pretty nice condos downtown and  Uptown is starting to look like a bargain.   Let’s step in their shoes for second: hmm….I could affordably  live a few blocks from best  skate park in the country, shop at the Farmer’s market, hang out on Beale Street,  attend a basketball or baseball game at two premier facilities,  work out at the YMCA and go to a million different events hosted by the Center City Commission without ever getting in my car!  And then when I have kids  they could go to the new Downtown Elementary and  walk to Mud Island after school or maybe for P.E class.  Not bad.

The most important ingredient: You!

For this project to mature from a plan  into a “shovel-ready” project will require a sustained public support base.  Even the best public project can fail without the buzz leading to active engagement of it’s supporters. This is the reason why I formed Skatelife Memphis-we are simply the “squeaky wheel” that is constantly educating our city officials and providing tangible ways for Memphians to support this project.   The success of our efforts rests on each of us participating.

Here is how to participate:

1. Online surveys will be available to take on the RDC website in the near future

2. Join us on Facebook and Twitter

3. Leave a comment and give us a “shout out”!

Of greatest importance…

4. Attend the public  meetings

There are two public meetings being held in May. You can learn about what goes on at these meetings by clicking here and here.

Phase II meeting times.

1.Memphis Botanical Gardens
Tuesday May 12th, from 5:45 – 7:15 pm
Location: Memphis Botanic Gardens, 750 Cherry Road (near Audobon Park)

2. Downtown Meeting
Thursday May 14th   from 5:45 – 7:15 pm
Location:MIRP Harbor Landing, 101 Island Drive (gate security will give
directions) Basically drive to Mud Island and go through the security gates. It’s
on Mud Island.

RSVP  via email: skatelifememphis@gmail.com with your number of guests and which meetings you will attend.  We want to make the RDC hosts have enough tables set out for everyone.

Let’s do this together!

A major concern we had moving to Memphis was the public school system. Where our son would go to school, as discussed previously, was a major if not the most significant reason for the location we chose to live.

Do your research

We visited discussion boards where people offered their advice for moving to Memphis. There seemed to be a negative consensus that the Memphis city schools (MCS) were filled  with  crime, drugs and thugs. We were quite discouraged since private schools were not a realistic or desired option for us. Michelle, my wife,  did her own research which indicated that the school we had found on the map, Snowden Elementary,  ranked  high  in math and  english test scores. We enrolled our son in the school as a kindergartner. It’s been two and half years now and our son continues to blossom as a Snowden scholar.

At  Snowden we met many other like-minded transplants that shared a similar story and  who were also quite pleased with their choice to give the MCS  a chance. In a nutshell, Snowden provides a multifaceted high-level curriculum, strongly involved parents and a  disciplined environment that demands the most from its teachers and students. Snowden is a culturally diverse school with a racial demographic comprised of about 80% African American, 15% Caucasian, 5% other (Asian, Hispanic, Indian). We were initially concerned about the near homogeneity of one race which could lead to the minority race being singled or left out. This has never been a problem. The 20% provides a  nicely balanced  cultural dynamic. As it turns out, our son’s best friend is a wonderful and very gifted African American student. Other great public schools that we have heard of through our conversations with various transplant parents include Peabody Elementary, Idlewild Elementary, Grahamwood Elementary and the Downtown elementary.

Final advice

Do your research and visit the schools.  Most importantly, talk to families who were in similar positions as yourself and who have children in the public schools. Beware that  you will receive  a wide variety of opinions from parents whose children have never been in the MCS system-mostly negative. Don’t let this discourage you in your search – just remember the segregationist history of the South and this will give you a better context for those opinions. You’ll find just the right fit for your family.

Good luck and maybe we’ll see you at Snowden!

If you just moved to Memphis from the West or either coast, your outlets may have included cycling in and around the city or just outside the city limits or  surfing in the ocean or snowboarding in the mountains or going to your local park to swim, roller blade or skateboard.  If these are some of the things that you enjoyed before moving to Memphis, then you may have experienced some withdrawal symptoms since moving here.   Where there  was a locale for your activities in your previous residence, there may be recreational void here.

Anyone else feel this way?
Don’t lose heart though you are not alone.  There are many Memphians, transplants and natives, that want the same type of physical outlets that you cherish.

Skate Demo at Fairgrounds, 2008
Photo by Amie Vanderford

Cycling
Take cycling for example: the first Greening Greater Memphis meeting in February of 2007 drew a packed room of  over 1000 people that were very interested in seeing more bike paths established through-out the city. If you are an avid cyclist and refuse to let your habit die an untimely death, get involved with organizations that are trying to get more cycling options available through-out the city. There are two websites that will immediately connect you with others in the cycling community. Check out  Memphis Critical Mass and Revolutions . My neighbor and friend, Daniel Duckworth is the owner of the Midtown Bike Co so drop by his store and he’ll give you the full scoop.  His shop recently re-located from Midtown to downtown Memphis.

Skate boarding and roller blading
The skate options are  marginal but that situation  will be changing for the better in the near future.  Until recently Memphis had no immediate plans for building a  skate park.  In 2006, when we moved here, I was determined not to give up my skate park habit so I started an online skate park advocacy group called Skatelife Memphis .

In April of 2008, Parks and Recreation asked me to recruit skaters to a ramp demo hosted by the American Ramp Company.  I was a bit concerned that perhaps I was the only voice in the wilderness calling for a skate park. Wrong. We had a solid 300+ skaters show up to the event!  Based on the response of the demo, the Memphis Parks department requested city funding and funding was approved in July 2008 for a public skate park.  The ground breaking ceremony will occur sometime this fall.

Skate Demo at Fairgrounds, 2008
Photos by Amie Vanderford

A major future game-changer- help us!
In the next few months Memphians have a pivotal opportunity to fill the recreational void by advocating for a major recreational magnet.  The Riverfront Development Corporation is hosting a public meeting where it will partner with the public in developing  a master plan for Mud Island.  For the past year and a half  Skateife Memphis has advocated for building a major competition skate park  at the tip of the island- these meetings represent the next stage in moving the skate park project forward.

Skateboarding has reached an all time high among our youth and its participants have eclipsed the number of youth playing baseball- a park on Mud Island would be a huge draw for youth and families to the downtown area .  Imagine with me, the X-games or the Mountain dew tour being hosted on the island with the city-lit skyline as the back drop on one side and the might Mississippi flowing past on the other.

Cities that were or are currently ranked #1 in the categories of the safest (San Jose, CA) , fittest (Colorado Springs, CO), and most family friendly cities (Louisville, KY) are also cities with the top three largest skate parks in the U.S. Clearly there is a lot for Memphis to gain by building  for one of the new American pass times.

Please join with me in an effort to leapfrog our fitness and quality of life rankings closer to these other cities. You can join our cause by signing up on our Skatelife Memphis emailing list.