Petition to Get a Skate Park in Your Town
This has worked
for hundreds of kids and can work for you too!
1. Organize
a group of skaters, the larger the better. If you can include
bikers and inline skaters you increase your numbers which makes
a big difference to the City.
2. Talk to
your local skate shop / BMX shop and see if they will help you
organize and have meetings in their shop. If you are under 18
you will probably need an adult to help you organize everything.
Good sources are a local skate shop owner, pro skater, local businessman,
Police Officer or a parent.
3. Take petition
forms to your local skate, bike & surf shops and ask the managers
if you can leave the petitions for people to sign. Pick them up
in about 2 or 3 weeks. Take petitions to your schools and get
more signatures. Have your friends & family help you by taking
them to work. When you get the petitions signed make copies of
them. Cities have a way of losing paper work that does not interest
them.
4. Call your
local newspaper and tell them you are trying to get a skate park.
Ask them if they will cover the story. Invite the reporter to
all your meetings and especially Parks & Recreation and City Council
meetings. They will probably want to get some photos of you street
skating. Try and have a diverse group for this and it helps to
have some young skaters too. Readers really feel for the cute
little 6 year old with no safe place to "skate".
5. Organize
as many skaters & bikers as you can to go to a parks & recreation
meeting and city council meeting. You will need to call city hall
to find out where & when the meetings are. When you get there
you will need to fill out a "chit", a small piece of paper with
your name on it, so that you can speak. If you are a good speaker,
go for it, if not just get up and say that you want a skate park.
Get as many speakers as you can; if you don't speak there is no
record of you being there. Give them a copy of your petition and
other facts that we have provided you with. See if you can get
any police to speak on your behalf. Sometimes there is a youth
Officer who will help. Let the newspaper know when you are going
to a meeting and beg for coverage. Press coverage will help you
and it will make it difficult for them to ignore your request.
6. Follow
up! Call the city and ask to speak with the parks & rec director.
Remind them of the meeting and ask what is happening. You will
have to attend other meetings. The city has a lot to do and a
skate park is just 1 more thing. They will need your support and
help as much as you need theirs.
7. You should
have a good idea of what is happening now. Hopefully the city
will have assigned someone to work on this project but if you
think that you are in trouble, getting the run around, or just
being played you might want to consider.
° staging
a protest - a good place is outside the city hall you will need
to get lots of skaters & friends call your local radio & TV
station and ask them to cover it. It is your 1st amendment right
to assemble.
° call
us 310.261.2816 or email heidi@spausa.org
and we will help you
It is the
city council¹s job to carry out the wishes of the people in the
community. When we first started it was always a battle to get
a park. Now 16 years later many cities are the ones asking for
information to build a park, expand an existing park or develop
a series of "spots" parks and programs.
Considerations
for Building a Public Park
Growth
and Trends in Skate Parks 
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