Mayor Closes Skate Park After He Sees Unacceptable Behavior

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http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=1378691

The Lone Peak Skate Park in Sandy is shut down after the mayor sees unacceptable behavior.

Skateboarder Andrew Thompson says, "It's like a natural reaction: you fall hard, you get hurt, you automatically say a bad word."


Courtesy Mary Richards, KSL Newsradio

But Sandy City says much more than that was going on at the Lone Peak Skate Park. Besides bad language, they've received reports of bullying and smoking at the park, which is just yards from a children's playground.

After receiving complaints about bullying, smoking and fighting, Sandy's mayor took a trip to the park Monday. He said behavior there was so bad he had no choice but to close the park, so he shut it down for the week.


The skaters we talked to were not happy, but the mayor and Parks and Rec say the majority were not following the ten rules, so they closed the park.

Instead of skating in this 28,000 foot skate park, Tigh Smith and Andrew Thompson are rolling around in the parking lot next to it. They, and all skaters, have been kicked out for the week and the park is locked up.


According to skateboarder Tigh Smith, "Nothing's fair. It's not fair." Skateboarder Andrew Thompson adds, "It's National Skateboarding Day so this is like our holiday and they close the park."

Sandy City Mayor Tom Dolan says, "I saw pushing and shoving and yelling, a potential fight." So he called police and shut it down. "I felt it's time for the city to take control of it back," Dolan says.

Director of Sandy Parks and Rec Nancy Shay says, "We need to send a message to the kids who are a little more thug-like and bullies that we don't want bullies in our skate park."


Sandy City Parks and Rec will re-open the park on Monday with a few new additions. They've hired an off-duty police officer to watch the park during the evenings. The park will close an hour earlier than usual and they are installing a new surveillance system. They're also having the entire park power cleaned.

But newly cleaned ramps don't mean anything to Tigh and Andrew. All they want to do is skate. Thompson says, "They weren't even kids we knew. They just come in the park and try to start fights and then we make them leave and these cops come and close the park. What do you expect us to do?"

Sandy isn't the first city to have problems with their skate park. North Salt Lake had similar problems and Taylorsville had problems with graffiti. In both cases, city officials threatened to close the parks down for good if skaters didn't shape up.

[asdf]

I have been out a skating for about 4 years prior to that I skated almost every day from when I was 14 until 24 years old. We would travel any where they built a new skate park and It was pretty rough in the mid 90's with the only park in the state being Lip Trix in St. George after the Lumber Yard in Provo closed. Out of the thousands of hours I have spent at skate parks 90% of the fights, graffiti, smoking, drinking, and other non-acceptable activites I have seen have be preformed by non skaters. Believe it or not meat-heads always seems to be attracted to skate parks to come start shit with skaters.

Its sad that the city shuts the park down due to the inability of skaters to police themselves. Does the city ask public library goes to do the same thing? I go to this park every so ofter on my lunch break. Great mid day stress relief from work, but I guess I wont be able to go for awhile.... it feels like I am being punished.

[Iceaxe]

so he shut it down for the week.

Dang.... I live a couple blocks from the Draper skate park and now all the juvenile delinquents will be hanging around here

If things are getting out of hand I have no prolem with them shutting it down for a week to send a message. I've noticed skate parks seem to work best when the skaters do a good job of policing themselves.

[asdf]

I've noticed skate parks seem to work best when the skaters do a good job of policing themselves.

Burnside


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[Sombeech]

Did I see Queensryche graffiti?

[sparker1]

I don't know much about skaters, like whether they are generally well-behaved or not. I do know they are going to skate somewhere. If they have no approved place, they will skate where they shouldn't. I don't think it is right to expect the skaters to totally police their skate park. To an extent maybe, but not if others come in and cause trouble. So, why punish everyone for the deeds of a few. Police should deal with the troublemakers, thereby sending the message I'd like to send.

[Sombeech]

I don't know much about skaters, like whether they are generally well-behaved or not. I do know they are going to skate somewhere. If they have no approved place, they will skate where they shouldn't. I don't think it is right to expect the skaters to totally police their skate park. To an extent maybe, but not if others come in and cause trouble. So, why punish everyone for the deeds of a few. Police should deal with the troublemakers, thereby sending the message I'd like to send.

This is exactly like closing an ATV area. They're going to ride somewhere....

[shanehadman]

Skate-r-die Bro

[Jaxx]

FIGHT THE MAN!!!

[asdf]

I heard they just opened the Park back up. Lets hope that they all got the message and will take care or their skate park.
Back in my My Day there was only Ms. C's in Sandy, LipTirx in St. George and The Lumber Yard in Provo. All were privately owned and all 3 eventually closed down. With so many parks popping up all over the place its sad to see this younger generation take them for granted.
I am working on getting a quarter pipe built in the back yard, I already have the bosses (wife) approval.

[gonzo]

Heh. I used to skate a Mrs. C's back in early 90s. Except, I was one of those losers on RollerBlades. (Trust me, I sucked). I've been to LipTrix a few times, but it's been awhile since I've paid attention to the skate scene outside of Tony Hawk Pro Skater.

[Rev. Coyote]

I skated from the mid 70s to early 80s, and people seemed to have this crazy hate for our crowd. It always struck me as weird, because we minded our own business. The skater kids I see now are pretty much the same. They're in it for the ride, and not to start shit with people.

FYI: Still have my board. Rockitz 27" warptail deck; ACS 651 Gold trucks; Kryptonics 70 mm blues (1st generation!); and Rad Pads. Someone recently saw it and freaked over my "old chool" ride. Old school?!? Sheeeeet...

[JP]

I heard they just opened the Park back up. Lets hope that they all got the message and will take care or their skate park.

That's what I was thinking, hopefully they will police themselves a little better. It's nice to have public places where people can go to enjoy their themselves.

[asdf]

Lets hope so..... I think all the tight pants I see at the skate parks these days are cutting of the flow of blood to the kids brains.

They just made a really nice skate park in PG and it was open for two months until the city closed it to do landscaping and build a fence around it.... Its been closed for over a month. I drive by the park every day on I-15 and see little progress each day.

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Skate Park Attracting Fewer People

July 6th, 2007 @ 11:30am

Tom Callan, KSL Newsradio

Skaters are returning to Sandy's public skate park, but some of the regulars say there are no where near as many people using the park as there were before Mayor Tom Dolan shut it down.

Some say the reason fewer people come to the park is because of the enhanced security. They say it has scared away more people than it's attracting. One boarder said, "Nobody pretty much comes here though. No one wants to come. I don't know, because there's a cop here all the time."


Others praised Dolan for closing the park until problem kids washed out their mouths. One skateboarder told us, "There was smoking, a lot of swearing. And the kids, you know, this is a kids' park. Us grown-ups are here just to have fun."

One person we spoke to said they would call the police if those cursing and smoking returned.

This story was posted just below a story titled "Triple-Digit Temperatures to Continue Today" hummmmm...