A group of skating advocates is asking the city of Cincinnati to consider putting a skate park underneath the I-471 bridge at Sawyer Point. There's an open spot there after a playground burned down, causing the ongoing closure of the southbound side of the Daniel Carter Beard bridge.
"I think the skate community was always interested in having something down on the waterfront," said Evan Walker, co-founder of the Cincinnati Skatepark Project.
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Walker says they'd discussed the possibility with the Cincinnati Parks Department, but only hypothetically.
"There was no real open space there," Walker said. "But the playground has been aging and was kind of coming to the end of its useful life. That, of course, was accelerated by the fire, but that — to use a pun — reignited the interest in the space down there."
The city's first skate park is in the planning stages for a site in Camp Washington. Walker says they aren't looking for a replacement site, just the location of the next park.
"Our goal all along has been to create neighborhood skate parks and skate spaces — essentially a system of skate parks throughout Cincinnati," he said. "Camp Washington will be a great first project. And we know how long the projects take. We know we want to have other projects in the works."
The Cincinnati Skatepark Project is collecting signatures for an online petition asking the city to consider a Sawyer Point skate park. Walker says they have not yet approached the city with the idea.
WVXU reached out to the Cincinnati Parks Department. Spokesperson Rocky Merz responded with a statement saying the city intends to rehabilitate that section of Sawyer Point, including building a new playground, "though it's hard to imagine anyone proposing a new playground in that location under the bridge," the statement says.
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Merz says Parks will work with the community to determine how these areas should be renovated, and must also work with the agencies responsible for the I-471 bridge: the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
"We hadn't heard about this skate park petition until a few days ago, but do plan to engage with all interested members of the community who have ideas and feedback to share. We don’t want to speculate yet on specifics as it is far too early to know exactly what components the final design will include, what the community wants, how the playground will be laid out, what the cost will be, or when this work will take place. A project like this would be expected to take several months, if not years, depending on factors such as funding availability."Cincinnati Parks Department
Evan Walker says a concrete skate park would be the perfect replacement for a wooden or plastic playground at the site.
"Skate parks are very low maintenance. They are not flammable ... and they are not flood prone," he said. "A lot of skate parks are built on rivers because they're nice spaces for recreation. But they can also get easily washed out if there's silt and mud from a flood."
In the meantime, Walker hopes for an announcement soon on the next steps for the Camp Washington skate park. That information will come from the Cincinnati Recreation Commission, which owns the property.
