If You Build a Skate Park They Will Come
Written by Daniel Turner, Monday June 21 2010
Marginal Way may be the most appropriately named street in the city of Seattle. Its very existence seems marginal with lots of abandoned buildings and vacant lots. Most of the people you see hanging on Marginal Way also appear to be marginal. At night the place is a meat market for prostitution and drugs and during the day the homeless squat beneath the freeway underpasses, or live in cars parked on the street. Yes, existence is marginal on Marginal Way.
In 2005 some local skaters were looking for a way to replace a downtown skate park that got caught in the urban swell of gentrification. They decided on a spot beneath an underpass on Marginal Way. They didn’t have any permits or licenses to build a park, but they figured that what they were planning was a better alternative to the prostitutes, crack heads and homeless who were using the area.
So, Dan Barnet, Shawn Bishop and Tim Demmon got to work making designs and pouring concrete to create the Marginal Way Skate Park. They fueled their DIY effort with word of mouth that brought out the support of skaters and folks who felt that kids deserve a place to grind. When they announced they were ready to build folks showed up to supply labor, donate money, or drop off bags of concrete. One guy, a local skater named Gary, also works with concrete so he showed them how to prepare and pour cement and helped build many of the ramps and bowls that make up the ever evolving park.
Once the city caught wind of what was happening they showed up and said to either make it legit, or tear it down. Some of the guys were nervous about becoming a real entity. They feared insurance hassles and so forth. However, Seattle recreation centers have a clause that exempts them from liability due to skate boarding injuries, etc.
The boys came up with the name and claimed they are the managers of the park. They don’t know how to design a park, but they know that they like to skate and that’s what makes the park an ever evolving work in progress.
Marginal Way is still seedy, but it has a kick ass skate park and that’s an improvement.
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