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Xtreme Athletes to Meet at Boston Public Library on July 30th for New Skatepark
Discussion!
14 July 2003
With popular Fox Channel 25 Sports Newscaster Butch Stearns on the podium,
skateboarders and other Xtreme athletes, along with civic and community leaders,
will meet at the Boston Public Library (Copley Square, Mezzanine Conference Room)
on Wednesday, July 30th at 6:30 PM to discuss the planning of Boston's future
world-class skatepark. The Charles River Conservancy, a parklands renewal organization,
is advocating for the design and construction of a skatepark on the New Basin
parklands in the vicinity of the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge. Numerous
local community leaders and elected officials, including State Senator Jarrett
Barrios, have voiced strong support for the project.
On the agenda for the July 30th meeting, a panel of speakers, including Renata
von Tscharner, president of the Charles River Conservancy, will address questions
and comments from athletes, parents, and community members. Professional skateboarder,
Vanik Hacobian, a long-time advocate for the new skatepark, will also be on the
panel, along with representatives of local law enforcement agencies and park departments.
During the meeting, community members will have an opportunity to ask questions
and share their ideas about the proposed skatepark. As in a previous meeting held
at the library on June 5th and attended by about 50 skateboarders from the Greater
Boston area, audience members will be encouraged to join in the effort to create
a world-class skatepark.
At the June 5th meeting, which focused on the design of the skatepark, skateboarders,
inline skaters, and BMX bikers exchanged ideas with an architect and a professional
skatepark designer. Conservancy-sponsored meetings will continue throughout the
year to keep sports enthusiasts and civic leaders informed.
Providing a place for active sports within the Charles River Parklands is a
tradition that goes back to the 19th century. Frederick Law Olmsted and Charles
Eliot designed America's first outdoor gymnasium in front of Mass General Hospital,
not far from the proposed skateboarding site. Following in their footsteps, eminent
cardiologist Paul Dudley White, physician to US President D. Eisenhower, advocated
for the creation of a bicycle trail within the Parklands. While the Olmsted-Eliot
gymnasium has succumbed to the passage of time, the White Pathway remains crucial
to the athletes of Greater Boston.
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"The Charles River Parklands were designed for both active and passive recreation,
and now that snowboarding has become an Olympic sport, skateboarding, the summer
equivalent of snowboarding, also deserves a high-quality venue where it can be
practiced and enjoyed," said Renata von Tscharner, president of the Charles River
Conservancy. "The idea for a skatepark accessible by foot from Cambridge, Somerville,
Charlestown and Boston, and with four T stops nearby, capitalizes on space in
the vicinity of the Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge and access ramps where no trees and
grass would grow."
The Conservancy has received funding for skatepark advocacy, youth participation
and design efforts from the Boston Foundation, the Tony Hawk Foundation and individual
donors who recognize the importance of giving young people an area to legally
practice Xtreme sports. The skatepark, located in an area known as "the New Basin,"
will provide a place for youth to legally skateboard, while entertaining residents
and visitors in a secure, well-lit and well-traveled area of the Charles River
Parklands. As State Senator Jarrett Barrios said, "All this new construction needs
a focal point, a place of beauty and excitement where people can gather and community
can be formed. The graceful acrobatics of the skaters will be art."
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