Council Agrees to Focus on Skate Park

After listening to the pleas of merchants, parents and skateboarders, the Ventura City Council has agreed to place a renewed emphasis on building a skate park and banning skateboards, bicycles and in-line skates from parts of the city.

The council instructed city staff members Monday night to come back in three months with a proposed site and recommendations for construction of a skate park.

As part of its budget deliberations Monday, the council set aside more than $200,000 for construction of such as facility.

Public Works Director Ron Calkins warned that identifying a site has not been easy. Plans to put a skate park at Mission Park in downtown Ventura were shot down by neighboring businesses, and finding city-owned property near existing services such as restrooms has been difficult.

“There seems to be an irreconcilable difference between skaters who want to be in a high-profile area and those who would tuck them away,” Calkins told the council.

But Ventura skateboarding youths, who sat through a four-hour budget hearing for a two-minute turn at the podium, said they don’t care where city officials put the park--so long as they agree to build one.

“What they want is a skate park,” 18-year-old Dylan Buli said. “They don’t care where it is or whether it has restrooms.”

Merchants in downtown Ventura asked the council to ban skateboarding, bicycling and in-line skating in parts of the city, saying those activities have created wear and tear on new sidewalks while threatening the safety of downtown shoppers.

“Somebody is going to get seriously hurt,” warned Frank Parong, owner of California 66 restaurant, which is next to a small city park and popular hangout spot for local skaters.