Skateboarders Look for Home in Golden Gate Park

By Alastair Bland

Could skateboarders finally have a place of refuge all their own in western San Francisco?

Possibly.

San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and San Francisco Tomorrow, a local organization dedicated to protecting the city's urban environment, have proposed transforming the horseshoe-tossing grounds at the northeast corner of Golden Gate Park into a paved rink for skateboarders to use.

"Praise the Lord!" says Carol Solan, manager of Skates on Haight. "We've been holding our breath for 30 years waiting for this. Little suburban towns have wonderful skateboarding parks, but, for some reason, San Francisco has never built us one."

Solan acknowledges that there is one designated place in the city for skateboarders to practice.

"There's a teeny little three-bowl park down at Crocker Amazon. It's way out of the way and there's nothing very exciting or inviting about it," she said.

The costs for renovating the two-acre horseshoe pits, which are scarcely used, are estimated to run between $15,000 and $20,000, according to Chris Duderstadt, a Sunset District resident and vice-president of San Francisco Tomorrow.

Duderstadt says that the most significant portion of work to be done is paving over the lot. He compares the projected price of this task to that of the recently completed Crocker Amazon facility, which cost the City approximately $700,000 to complete, and another in the Mission District, already approved for construction by the SF Recreation and Park Department, which the department has estimated to cost $769,000.

Opponents to the Golden Gate Park plan are few, Duderstadt says, yet some city residents have argued that the old horseshoe pits comprise part of the oak woodland and that it should be left as it is. He points out that the horseshoe pits do not host trees or vegetation of any kind, other than patchy grass.

"It's not part of the oak habitat at all. The trees grow off to the side. This is an extremely underutilized space. It was created in 1922, but in the '60s the horseshoe people left and went to Stern Grove," Duderstadt said. "Now it just sits there, fallow."

Solan feels that the efforts of San Francisco Tomorrow and Mirkarimi come at a very appropriate time. She tells of a current trend of 35- to 40-year-olds returning to skateboarding after giving up the sport years ago.

"There's been a shift in the market back toward the simpler boards that they grew up with, and it's getting them to skate again. So skateboarders are now people who pay taxes. This would not only benefit kids, but hundreds and hundreds of adults," Solan said.

"Really, this should have happened long ago. Golden Gate Park has represented rollerskaters and rollerbladers for 25 years, but nothing, nada, zip for skateboarders."

David, an employee at the FTC skateboard shop on Haight Street, speaks of the challenges of life for San Francisco skateboarders.

"It's not totally acceptable anywhere and it's just a matter of getting away with it," he said.

Except for city streets, there are virtually no legal places in San Francisco to ride a skateboard, said Duderstadt.

"Most skateboarders I talk with feel totally disenfranchised. They say they just want a place where they won't be harassed for skating. This city has actively spent money to discourage skateboarding. Why don't we build a place to encourage it? This park is a public space, and I think the more people we can get in it, the better."

David says the skateboarding park at Crocker Amazon is "terrible" and gives one the feeling of being confined in an empty swimming pool. He says he and others would likely utilize a new park.

"As long as it's a good one," he stipulates.

Rose Marie Dennis, spokeswoman for the SF Recreation and Park Department, says that all discussion on this matter is in its preliminary stages.

"This entire conversation is useless at this point. It's still yet to be determined if the patterns of skaters will even change if we build this, and there are other issues that come first, like funding and getting a consensus. Right now, it's just a horseshoe pit, nothing else. That's where we're at, period," Dennis said.

Duderstadt, too, understands that many hurdles and hoops must be negotiated before the proposal takes physical form, yet he approaches the matter with an optimistic outlook.

"All we're doing is running this idea up the flagpole," he said. "We'll see who salutes it."