Riverside Skatepark Resolution Passes as Community Board, Skaters Approve Redesign

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The saga of the Riverside Skatepark redesign is over. The full Community Board 7 voted Tuesday night to pass a resolution for a $1.8 million reconstruction plan approved by skaters that frequent the park. The resolution passed by a vote of 34 in favor, zero against and zero abstaining.

The drama started when skaters crashed the full Community Board 7 meeting in June to complain about a redesign plan commissioned by the city parks department and approved by the Community Board Parks & Environment Committee.

The skaters' primary grievance was that the redesign plans did not carry on the vision of Andy Kessler, one of the original park's designers and a New York skating legend. The board elected to not pass the resolution in June and to send the issue back to committee for further discussion.

At the next community meeting Margaret Bracken, the landscape architect for Riverside Park, was able to work with skaters to create a new design for the park. The new plans incorporated design elements the skaters felt were missing in the original plans. Most notably, the new plans included 11-foot vertical elements and transition skating elements.

"At our committee meeting we looked at this new design and we had a number of skaters, including some very charming children, who were all quite happy with this and we believe that the parks department is too," said Klari Neuwelt, chair of the Community Board 7 Parks & Environment Committee.

The city made a proposal, the people complained, the community board took action and everybody ended up happy. Democracy gets a much-needed win.

A small contingent of about five skaters showed up to the Community Board meeting Tuesday, but this time they struck a different tone. Instead of criticizing the board, the skaters praised the new skatepark plans and the board's willingness to listen.

"New York should aspire to the best and this plan brings that out, to your point it's a miracle of good democracy" said skater Shan Reddy. "New York should take a leadership position, we want to give our kids opportunities like cities like Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Boston have and this will accomplish that."

To complete the argument-turned-lovefest, community board members went on to praise the parks department, designer Margaret Bracken and the skating community.

"Kudos to Klari and Margaret but especially to you guys who came out and within a month got to a solution that everyone's happy with, " said board member Richard Robbins. "I hope you guys come back to some other meeting for some other issue, you can see what can get done when you get active."

[Photo: John McClumpha via flickr]