Ballard skate park may close

06:11 PM PST on Sunday, November 9, 2003

By ARTURO SANTIAGO / KING 5 News

SEATTLE, Wash. - At one Ballard park there are no jungle gyms, no sandboxes and no swing sets. At this park, there are ramps, steel beams and a cement pool, a skate bowl.

This is a skate park, but it may not be one for much longer because when it was built two years ago, the former site of a Safeway was already slated to be a regular park.

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"So they knew this was eventually gonna get torn down and be turned into the Ballard Civic Center, so they said well for a couple of years you can put a skateboard park here," said Chris Hildebrand, Seattle Parks Consultant.

But during that time, the skate park has become very popular, drawing not only local skaters, but those from all over the Puget Sound.

Nate Miller is from west Seattle.

"It's a great bowl ... for young and old ... some guys come from Bellingham or Renton or wherever," said Miller.

The skaters say a clean, orderly, self-policed facility for skaters of all skill levels.

"You'll see people tell people hey pick up your garbage or whatever it's definitely an 'our place' type of atmosphere with the locals," said Brock McCally.

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Arturo Santiago reports

"I don't know ... it'd be a bummer if they did tear it out we'd like to see it stay, you know, it's a lot of fun," said McCally.

A couple of weeks ago the parks department held a public meeting on what to do with the space. Several ideas were given, including keeping it as a skate park, but there was also a call for a more traditional park.

"The parks department needs to weigh all of that and make a decision as to what they want to do here permanently," said Hildebrand.

The public meetings on the issue will be held until January, then the city will decide if it keeps the skate park.