By Ian Bauer, Milpitas Post
Mike Griffin from San Jose practices in the deep end of the pit at the Fremont Skate Park, which opened in June 2013. The facility at Fremont’s Central Park is the closest to Milpitas for skaters and BMX riders.
Claiming it’s a matter of public safety for this city’s youth, proponents who want a new Milpitas skate park showed up to last week’s Milpitas City Council meeting armed with some information and a locally-made Youtube video.
On May 6, during the council meeting’s public forum, several youngsters and parents spoke about the importance of having a skate park where the city’s youth can do stunt-like tricks on skateboards, scooters and BMX bicycles in a safe place — away from motorists.
Resident Martha Browne Lamdin, and many youth skaters, appeared to first thank the council for voting to launch a feasibility study for a skate park.
“And since it has been moving at the pace of government I am here to once again advocate for a skate park and I brought some friends with me tonight,” Lamdin said.
She added Milpitas has many city-owned ball fields, tennis courts and pools but still no skate park.
“This is a population that is being overlooked,” Lamdin said. “Not all kids play tennis or soccer or baseball or swim, but they do bike, skateboard or scooter and they currently have nowhere to call their own. These kids are being continuously kicked out of spots that they’ve made for themselves at churches, schools, parking lots, stores and fast food establishments because they are technically trespassing.”
She further noted these kids are also in danger of traffic.
“This is a shame. According to Skateparks.org., 30 skaters lost their lives in 2012, none of them in skate parks,” Lamdin said. —… Roads are a dangerous place for these kids, skate parks are not a dangerous place for them.”
She encouraged City of Milpitas to make “an investment in these groups of kids” for a place to call their own and enjoy their sport for free.
“You can build a nice skate park for less than $100,000,” Lamdin added. —… I really want to encourage you to do this because we really, really need it.”
Resident Daniel Browne said Milpitas is defined by its parks.
“The part that I live in at least is called Parktown,” Browne said. “Our parks are well represented, they’re beautifully kept. It’s a shame that there are no places, as my mom mentioned, for young skaters to skate.”
Brown added it isn’t a crime to be a skater.
“These kids aren’t bad kids, they’re just looking for a place to hang out and be passionate about the sport they’ve chosen to be passionate about,” Browne said. —… We should encourage our young people to be passionate about their skills. Who knows, one of these young people might help establish Milpitas as a place where alternative sports like skateboarding, scootering and BMXing are havens. One of these guys might be the next Tony Hawk, you’ve no idea. And if there’s no place for them to do that in a safe environment we’ll never find out. Our city should stop at nothing to promote a safe environment for these young kids to enjoy the sport they love.”
Others said kids here often skateboard in the middle of the street or that not having a skate park might lead some Milpitas youth toward criminal activities. And some metioned Bay Area cities like Fremont and San Jose had successfully built skate parks, which had become places to promote a healthy outdoor activity for young people.
“Playing on a smart phone or an Xbox might not be an appealing option if they have a skate park,” resident Frank Delgado said.
Later, Milpitas teens who created a minutes-long video posted to Youtube, entitled “Milpitas Rides,” presented it to the council. The video showed skateboarders doing skate tricks at locations around town, including Milpitas public schools.
Vincent Gomez — son of Councilman Armando Gomez — also spoke.
“I believe a skate park will give us a safe place where we can bike, scooter, skate instead of at the parking lots of businesses and schools,” Vincent Gomez said. “And like Ms. Lamdin said, it will keep us from being a nuisance.”
His father would eventually respond to the group as well as to city staff.
“What I took away from that video that you showed earlier … is that we’re skating in a lot of places we probably shouldn’t be skating and it kind of demonstrates a need,” Armando Gomez said, adding the city has built up a lot of park land with most of the park space deemed as passive parks. “They don’t have a lot of amenities; they’re places where people could go to read.”
Gomez said there was an “imbalance” of park space.
“I think we need to kind of change that … to build something that you all can use,” he added.
Soon after, Gomez said he wanted to see city staff bring the feasibility study forward at the budget hearing scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 20.
“So we can get to a point where we can actually make a decision,” he said. “And bring forward a time line so we can keep this thing alive and bring forward a possible budget and get some funding so we can build this thing for the kids in our community.”
Gomez’s comments received applause from skate park supporters.
Last November, some of the same group had urged the council to push forward with a skate park. Councilwoman Carmen Montano ultimately asked for a feasibility study to be undertaken by city staffers. The study may cost $60,000 to $80,000, city leaders estimated at that time. At that same meeting, Councilwoman Debbie Giordano recalled the skate park formerly on Santa Rita Drive near Peter D. Gill Memorial Park failed as it was not popular with nearby residents, due to noise and loitering.
As part of the feasibility study, Montano wanted to see why Milpitas’ skate parks had failed in the past and what the city could do to make them work.
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