Skate Park Plan Pivots To Final Vote

The full Board of Alders is scheduled to vote Monday night on a controversial proposal to build a skate park in Scantlebury Park, following a packed public hearing on the idea.

A dozen Dixwell neighbors and skateboard enthusiasts testified the hearing, held this past Thursday night in City Hall by the Board of Alders City Services and Environmental Policy Committee. The alders ultimately discharged the item from committee without recommending approval or denial, so that the full board can vote on the matter this Monday.

Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison and city Parks, Recreation, and Trees Director Rebecca Bombero presented the proposal, seeking permission to accept an outside grant from Yale’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Center to fund the new skate park.

In total, the project is slated to receive a $50,000 grant from the Could Be Fund , a $25,000 grant from Yale’s Schwarzman Center, and $25,000 from the city parks department, according to Elm City Innovations Collaborative Director Michael Harris.

“There was a fair amount of engagement — more so than any other grant the parks department has received,” Bombero told the alders about the project. Morrison had held multiple community meetings this summer to hear neighbors’ input on the project, in which detractors and supporters of the park shared passionate feedback. (Read about those past meetings here and here.) The park has received overwhelming support from readers in an Independent ​“True Vote” poll.

Bombero said that discussion about the placement and design of the skate park will continue with community input.

“Two young people from our community wanted to give a gift to my side of town,” Morrison said. She argued that skateboarding provides a healthful, positive activity for youth.

“Young people are gonna put down electronics. They’re gonna go outside; they’re gonna sweat,” she said. ​“You don’t see kids outside anymore.”

The skate park, which Bombero said would occupy around 2 percent of the park (around the size of a basketball court), could also function as a stage for outdoor concerts and events.

A letter from the Schwarzman Center that Morrison read aloud expressed support for the connections between New Haven youth and Yale students that the skate park could foster. As part of the grant, the Schwarzman Center will provide design and planning support for the project.

After Morrison and Bombero pitched the park, skateboarders and community members offered passionate and occasionally heated testimony both for and against the project. Six testifiers shared their support for the project, while six argued against it. Still others came to the hearing without testifying.

Steven Roberts, who first pitched the skate park project to Morrison alongside J. Joseph, spoke to his personal experience skateboarding since he was a teenager.

“Hip hop and skateboarding culture encourage improvisation and cooperation,” he said, arguing that ​“building the skate park in the neighborhood where the Ashmun Street Projects once stood” would be symbolic.

Local artist Susan Clinard said her 14-year-old son goes to the Edgewood Park skate park almost daily.

“I have never seen a more supportive, nurturing, really beautiful community,” she said. ​“I went in with my own stereotypes of what a skate park is and they were blown out of the park.”

Yasmin Ramadan, who lives right by Scantlebury Park and attended a community meeting on the skate park earlier in the summer, expressed concern about the noise that a skate park could bring.

“We often call the police for the noise in this park,” she said. ​“We don’t understand why such a big project is being built in a residential neighborhood.”

Ramadan added that the Edgewood Park skate park is not located next to people’s homes.

Joy Dunston said she is worried about the park’s possible impact on traffic and parking, as well as gentrification in the neighborhood.

“I want to know how many of the people here in support of the skate park actually live in the neighborhood,” Dunston said. ​“I’m just a little tired of Yale and all these other developers coming into the city and, in my opinion, taking it over.”

Others said they feel that Dixwell residents’ input hadn’t been adequately solicited or listened to, a complaint that had been raised frequently in past community meetings on the subject. Opponents of the skate park presented pages of signatures from neighbors against the park to the committee.

Alders on the committee were supportive of the project as they asked Bombero and Morrison questions.

“I am so grateful that this is happening in your ward,” Newhallville Alder Delphine Clyburn told Morrison. She said the skate park would be an opportunity for youth to ​“learn who’s on your street, who lives there.”

Westville Alder Adam Marchand said he regularly goes to the Edgewood Park skate park with his kids. He suggested that the proposed new skate park’s proximity to the Farmington Canal Trail would enable people to ride their skateboards to the park.

Bombero responded that this could decrease the number of people riding cars to get to the park and encourage eco-friendly travel.

“So young people — and middle-aged folks like me — could ride it next summer?” Marchand asked, to a chuckle from the room.

Likely yes, Bombero said. She said she anticipates that the park could be ready by Spring 2020.