SKATE PARK

It's easy to hate prefab parks. In fact, most people do, except uninformed suburban kids, who get them plopped down in their neighborhoods. Within the skateboard community, it's an unavoidable protection mechanism for some portion of skateboarders to hate the angle or the lack of transition or poor planning a skate park designer installed. This attitude keeps designers at their best. It's simultaneously the most endearing and annoying part of skateboarding.

Josh Brooks

The DWP benches in all their excellence
But, imagine for a moment that you live in Wilmington, California, which by figures is more than two times more dangerous than the US average. According to Sperling's Best Places, an online website that compiles figures about various communities, Wilmington ranks 8 out of 10 in violent crime, an over-reaching category composed of four main offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. The US average is 3. Do you think it would trouble you too much if the street plaza that was built in your neighborhood didn't have enough transition?

Yes or no, when Maxwell Billieon, an entertainment executive, initiated a project, nearly seven months ago, to provide a new skate park to Wilmington's Rec Center, he did so with the kids in mind. Hays Hitzing, who works for the builder Spohn Ranch, explained, "We were approached by a guy named Max Billieon. He really wanted to do something there, give the kids something."

The park appears to be Billieon's first step in a very flashy movement, in which he plans to recruit celebrities to promote projects to uplift urban and global communities and at risk youth—a sort of capitalistic philanthropy. The program is called the Ambassador Series and currently has the support of notables like Wu-Tang's Raekwon, former Fugee Pras, Active Rideshop and skateboarders Daewon Song and Paul Rodriguez Jr.

Josh Brooks

The centerpiece to the park
With connections to Los Angeles City Council's 15th district, Max Billieon and Councilwoman Janice Hahn "were able to get it fast-tracked, where it went through quickly," Hays explained. "There already was a fabricated ramp park there, that Spohn Ranch built about 5 years ago. We took those pieces out and put in a concrete street plaza."

But before any construction was done, Max made sure to involve Paul Rodriguez in the planning process. "He [Max] went around to schools and asked these kids who they like and I guess my name kept coming up," Paul explained. "They approached me about doing the skate park they wanted to do. I would be the guy that makes sure the park turns out right, 'cause sometimes when cities get involved and they don't have a real skater, the obstacles come out funky. I wanted to make sure it didn't come out funky."

In the area of LA, they couldn't have chosen a better Ambassador to help make a street plaza. Saying Paul Rodriguez is skateboarding's best representative would be disingenuous, since there are so many pro skaters that represent different demographics, but he most definitely speaks to a majority of the low-income inner-city kids who find solace in the low cost of boards and shoes and the accessibility of skating rails and ledges. "…It's not really expensive to get into—it's a couple hundred dollars at the most for shoes and a complete and you're up and running," Paul explained.

Josh Brooks

Recreation of the LA High banks
Skating around LA, Paul knew the Wilmington area and the reputation it had for crime. "Wilmington High School is a spot I skated all the time back in the day. Max's goal, if the city would allow us, was to build this park in a spot where the kids had a lot of distractions—where there was troubled youth."

With the interests of these low-income skaters in mind—the kind that skated street like P Rod—Max worked with Spohn Ranch (who discounted the project by about 40 %) to get the park built in a week. The builders used the speedy technique of installing ramps into the pre-existing concrete slab and filling the seam.

This type of construction and the street plaza angle allowed Max and Janice Hahn to maneuver outside the regulations of a standard skate park. In so doing, they avoided the unnecessary helmet rules and annoying tranny nannies that plague most of southern California's skate parks. "Because it doesn't have those advanced features [bowls and transition], there are effectively no regulations on the park—no helmets, no pads. There's not even a sign that says it's a skate park," Hays said. "Otherwise, it would be set up that kids go skate the park, cops drive by, see a kid without a helmet, ticket him. It's the exact thing we want to avoid. These kids have enough opportunities to enter the criminal justice system."

While Spohn Ranch, Maxwell Billieon and Janice Hahn worked through the loopholes, P Rod made sure that certain spots were incorporated into the design. He requested a re-creation of LA's Department of Water and Power granite benches, the Fairfield ledges and LA High banks. "It turned out exactly how I expected," Paul explained. "Nothing too over the top, real simple."

So, for most of the kids who see Paul as a representative of their type of skating, it was just as they expected, too. "The demographic was much different than your Northwest pool skater," Hays said. "The average kid there [at the Grand Opening on September 27] was a 13 year old Hispanic kid, who was content standing in line to hit the granite benches over and over, skating the same thing [check the photostream]."

Joshua Brooks

Half moon slant thingy
The discussion of what's most fun to skate—whether to build a plaza or snake run or bowl—is valid. In fact, wondering who builds skate parks, how they could make them better and what their motives are seems like an equally adequate topic in the forum boards. After all, the people building parks must be held to some sort of accountability.

But, if you were one of those 13 year old kids living in a place like Wilmington, an area overrun by gangs, just south of a city that has seen 272 people die in gang related violence and over 1,500 people as victims of gang-related shooting in 2006, those issues may not concern you to the same degree. As people contemplate design flaws or wonder where the bowls are, it's vital to note that this writer's first visit to the park was postponed by a multi-street police blockade and that the kids in Wilmington see P Rod as their type of skater. So, all quibbles aside, a street plaza with recreated spots, especially one in such a troubled area, is a step in the right direction for Wilmington and other low-income communities that far trumps discussion boards about a misplaced bench.