City of Mill Creek 9/10/03

15728 Mill Creek Blvd.

Mill Creek, Washington 98012

Please copy and distribute to all City Council Members

City Council of Mill Creek,

Here’s a quick history of the skatepark in Mill Creek. We (older skaters) went to all the design meetings, and a bowl is what we wanted, and street is what the kids wanted. We knew that the kids hadn’t ridden bowls before, but would love it once they did. So it was decided that two thirds of the park would be street, and one bowl would be made.

Then we heard that the original bowl design (12 feet deep) had to be made shallower because of drainage problems. We suggested that the bowl could be made deeper by building up instead of digging down (which has been done many times before).

This wasn’t acceptable, but we weren’t told why, and then we heard that the bowl would be 7 feet deep with nothing really very steep (no vertical). I was told by Doug Jacobson on August 18th that the sports park is a little league park, so the skatepark is also. Unfortunately, this was never mentioned at any of the design meetings, not by the city, not by the Purkiss Rose architects, no one mentioned this, not even once. This was the first I heard of this. All the meetings were even held at the high school, with many high school age kids in attendance. Never once were the teenagers told that this park was intended to be for little league age, not them.

Then I’m told that a 7-foot bowl is deep enough for 12 year olds. Which I know isn’t true, since I’ve skated with 11 year olds at Aumsville, Oregon. And they really like the 10-foot deep bowl there. A 7 foot deep bowl is what 7 year olds will aspire to, not 12 year olds.

Skateboarding is unlike any other sport. Most people have played basketball or softball, and have some understanding of what those are like. Not with skateboarding, not many have skateboarded and not many understand what skateboarders need or want. However, decisions are being made without this knowledge.

The next thing we learn is that the contractor, hired by the city to build the skatepark, has no experience in skatepark building. The contractor even said, "I wish the skatepark would have been sub-contracted out instead of having us figure it out for the first time."

It’s plain to see that the city really wasn’t interested in building a good skatepark, which wouldn’t have taken any more money, rather is simply interested in easing their conscience by building something completely inadequate and undersized. The City of Mill Creek has become a shinning example of what not to do when building a skatepark. (Hire a designer that doesn’t skate, hold meetings under the pretense of building a park for those in attendance, change the design of the skatepark without any first hand knowledge of skateboarding or knowing the real effects of those changes, hiring a contractor who doesn’t skate and has no experience in skatepark construction.)

In conclusion, I would simply like to point out that as a skater, I was looking forward to skating in this park, along with my buddies. Now, I can only imagine what kind of negative impact these poor decisions will have on the skatepark.

Sincerely,

Dan Hughes

2139 NE 20th Street

Renton, WA 98056

This is 11-year-old Steven, from Aumsville Oregon. He’s riding a 10 foot deep bowl.