After decades of discussion, a new skate park is now in the works for Portland’s Old Town. Advocates have eyed the project since the early 2000s, and Portland Parks and Recreation department recommended it in the 2008 Skatepark System Plan. Parks and Recreation is expected to begin work on the more than 30,000 square feet of skate space in spring 2024. Jessie Burke is the chair of the Old Town Community Association. Howard Weiner is the owner of Cal Skate Skateboards. They both join us to share more on what the new Steel Bridge Skatepark will mean for the skating community and for remaking Old Town itself.
This transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.
Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. After decades of planning, a new skate park will finally be coming to Portland’s Old Town. Advocates have eyed a parcel of land on the west side of the Steel Bridge since the early 2000s, but bureaucracy and a lack of funding have prevented the project from moving forward until now. The city announced recently that it’s going to spend $15 million in parks system development charges to fully fund the new park. Advocates say it won’t just be for skaters. They hope the new park will attract a whole bunch of residents and visitors, and will re-energize a struggling part of town. Jessie Burke is a chair of the Old Town Community Association. She joined the effort to build the park in recent years. Howard Weiner is the owner of Cal Skate Skateboards, he has been a part of the effort from the very beginning. They both join me now. It’s great to have both of you on the show.
Howard Weiner: Thank you for having us.
Miller: So Howard, first. Efforts for a skate park at this site started more than 20 years ago. What do you remember from the beginning of that effort?
Weiner: It started in 1999 in spring. And Richard Harris, who was executive director of Central City Concern, was also a co-chair of the Visions Committee that was looking at revitalizing that area. And he came into my store and walked me down to the area we called the Pit, and asked if I thought a skateboard park would work there. Of course, I said yes. And that was the beginnings. And then I joined the Visions Committee, joined the Neighborhood Association, and became chair of the Neighborhood Association and lobbied for support.
And then, I believe it was 2001, we got our first monies to do a feasibility study. And that was the beginnings of this particular project.
Miller: $50,000 from the city for that study. What came of that?
Weiner: It got dusty, went on the shelf. And then some years later, I was part of the effort to design a system of skate parks, 19 parks within the city, through the Portland Parks and Recreation. And the Steel Bridge Skatepark was identified as the crown jewel.
Miller: What did that phrase mean? I think people understand that basic idea, but in the context of a skate park?
Weiner: We wanted to build, and still will build, a world class skateboard park that would draw up folks from all over the world, and offer an opportunity for competition, but more importantly, for the community. That was our goal. We used the term crown jewel I think because it’s much larger than any of the other skateboard parks. I think we built the four district parks around 10,000 square feet. This particular park will encompass an area of 60,000 square feet. Not all of the park, but plazas and so on. It’s quite substantial.
Miller: Jessie, when did you first get involved?
Jessie Burke: I first got involved, I wanna say 2000 or 2001. And it wasn’t really getting involved in the skate park exactly. You may remember a pretty tough time in Portland through the pandemic, 2020/2021. And the mayor’s office had started a series of Zoom calls, called problem solvers calls. Sam Adams facilitated those. And there would be a hodgepodge of people on these phone calls. My husband, who owns the Society Hotel, was co-chairing the land use committee, and had stumbled upon these drawings of the skate park. There had been renderings done I think 15 years ago. And he said “have you ever seen these before?” And I had no idea what he was talking about. It said the Steel Bridge Skatepark.
On one of these problem solver calls, Sam Adams was talking to the facilities director at the NWEA building, which is right next to the Pit, or the Steel Bridge. And they were having issues with people that were in the Pit shooting bullets through their windows. And they asked if anyone had any suggestions for how to mitigate that. And I had just seen those drawings and I said “what if we did the Steel Bridge Skatepark?” And Sam had been the last mayor that had worked on it. And Tom Miller, who was at the mayor’s office at this time, in 2001, had just come on, had also worked with Sam at that time, was a skateboarder, and had gotten into politics because of the Steel Bridge Skatepark. And so it’s just sort of serendipitous on this call. They were like “How opportune. You have a bunch of people that have actually worked on this before.” My thought was only “let’s put up a fence to say we’re working on something.”
But it sort of brought it back to life a little bit.
Then Tom really took the reins from the city side, and we worked together on advocacy. A coalition was started with skaters. My husband brought together a group of professional skaters, like Kelly Bird from Nike Skate, Peter Yu, who went to the Chinese language school down here as a kid, but was also a skater. Brought Sport Oregon in, DAO architecture, who had done the original renderings. And we got a commitment from Prosper Portland for an initial $250,000 to do whatever we needed to do. But it was supposed to be, I think, 33% design and development.
Miller: Howard, can I ask you, when this project languished for years and years, did you think it was ever going to happen?
Weiner: At times, yes. But in the last 10 to 15 years, no. I thought we had given it our best opportunity. The only issue really was money, funding. We’ve had the support since the very beginning. And detailed plans were actually developed after the feasibility study. We got another $50,000 from Sam Adams when he was mayor and did a development plan. And that’s where DAO Architecture really shined, and in fact, won a national award for the design of the Steel Bridge Skatepark. And of course, a year or nine months ago, Jessie and this coalition group started meeting at Cal Skate. We would have meetings before opening hours and we built up that support and met with Commissioner Dan Ryan’s office.
I’ve always been optimistic that something would happen. You have to be an optimist to be in Old Town in business. But not until not too many weeks ago, I did not think this was gonna happen. And then a little birdie gave me the information that an announcement was coming, and here you go.
Miller: So Jessie, let’s turn to funding then. As I mentioned briefly in my intro, the money for this came from park-specific systems development charges, SDCs. Can you remind us what these are, and under the current laws, what they can be spent on?
Burke: Yes. System development charges are fees that are collected from developers that are seeking permits for development. For example, right now I’m working with another group on a project, and they have a permit fee that’s about $87,000, $40,000 of which is system development charges. And system development charges are just fees that go, in various percents, to all of the different bureaus in the city. So the parks system development charges, the current rules are they can only be used for construction of new parks in the district where the money was collected.
Miller: Meaning, not a lifeguard at an existing pool, not money to fix up a merry-go-round at an existing playground. A new facility in the neighborhood where the once new project that put the money in for that, where that went in.
Burke: Correct.
Miller: How much money is the Portland Parks and Rec Bureau sitting on from these SDCs?
Burke: It’s a good question. I wish I knew the exact number. But it’s significantly more than $15 million. I’ve seen a lot of commentary like “we could use this for so many other things.” I understand that feeling. Personally, I feel like we should modify this policy to allow it to be used for maintenance of parks. Even things like the Lan Su Chinese Gardens are a park that is technically owned by the city. But they have no access to that type of funding.
But, since this is the current rule, this is a really big opportunity. And we sort of found the pool of funds that we’ve been looking for all these years.
Miller: Howard, can you describe - this is always a tricky thing on the radio - the basics of what the design entails?
Weiner: Well, there are skatable elements, street style, meaning like curves and transition. And also there are bowls. If you look at the current skate parks, it’s really gonna be close to that, on steroids. It’ll also have a good size plaza area. It’s really a multi-use. People can go down there and eat their lunch, watch the skating, and just relax. Essentially, the skateboarders are the attraction. And that will draw folks, like I said, from really all over the world.
Miller: All the headlines, and even in my intro, called this a skatepark, and then I guess that’ll be the official name for it, (potentially, who knows what the official name is gonna be.) But the architects, they included in their narrative, their written description with their design, a broader description of what they envision. They say they want to create a “public realm that’s dynamic and challenging for skaters, yet contains safe havens for pedestrians and spectators, blurring the line between a traditional segregated skate park and an urban plaza.” Jessie, how do you hope people will actually use this park?
Burke: I hope that people feel like there is a public space or a public realm that is safe to enjoy all the time. I think that we’re struggling right now in Portland, feeling like there are fewer and fewer spaces that people feel are public, that they feel belong to them and others to enjoy and be outside. And actually, I think it’s a really unique model, this idea. If you’ve seen other skate parks, it’s usually just for skaters because there’s just the built environment for the skate experience. But to allow people to be spectators as well, I think it’s really fascinating. Because when Howard was starting this project, skaters had a different reputation. And that’s never been the case in my lifetime. So to sort of see these worlds be able to meld together and normalize. I know a lot of parents want places for their children to be able to try this new thing, but where would they take them? This could be a multigenerational and multi-access opportunity.
Miller: You’re speaking in some careful ways about the change in the reputation you see towards skaters. But let me see if I, if I actually understand what you’re saying. Is it basically that 28 years ago, you don’t think that non-skaters would have seen a skate park as a mechanism to make a neighborhood safer?
Burke: Howard can speak more to this than I can because I was like in junior high so I don’t really know. But I think Howard can speak more to what the relationship was between skaters and say politicians or big property owners than I can.
Miller: Howard, what kind of a shift have you seen?
Weiner: Well, let’s go back in history when in 1976 when we opened Cal Skate Skateboards. Within two months, skateboarding became illegal downtown, $100 fine, and a $2,500 fine on bricks. We first had to work to change the perception of skateboarding. My first project was in 1985 to build a skate park, my second one in 1989 in Gabriel Park. And then we opened up with the city, an indoor skate park for a few years, ‘till we lost our insurance. It’s always been an individualistic activity. And it’s much more culture, I think, than really sport in that regard. But skaters were looked at by politicians and the public as a nuisance, I think.
Now I’ve got 48 years in business and there’s over 50 years of skateboarding history. So those perceptions have changed. I’m on my fourth generation of customers. It’s a different world, and a much more positive accepting world for skateboarders.
Miller: Jessie, the press release from the city notes that the Portland Parks and Rec is going to begin work to engage project partners on property acquisition and feasibility, followed by community engagement and design. So the bureaucracy keeps churning. What is the earliest that the park could actually open?
Burke: Well, I’ll have to delve into my development mind here. It’s always taking at least one year to get a permit. And private sector, you could probably build in a year. So fastest, two years. But maybe we’re looking at three.
I will say though that some of the work that we did on the front end with some funding that Prosper gave us and the mayor’s office, we did a lot of the feasibility studies already. And the land ownership issue has already been resolved, because it was jointly owned between ODOT and PBOT. And we just got an update because we’ve been pushing for the land swap to be completed, so ODOT would transfer to PBOT. And that has been approved. So I’ll just let them know, no need to wait.
Miller: That’s all you need to do is just let them know. But this project, it’s taken two-and-a-half decades from conception to funding. And we’re still, even in an expedited fashion, talking about years away from breaking ground, it seems pretty clear. What do you think it would take to speed up these kinds of processes in a city that’s had relatively few new public spaces created in a long time now?
Burke: I’m really glad you asked that question because I’ve been doing an inordinate amount of research on this term called “government sludge,” which is essentially when governments, or any organization, put in too many protections for themselves. The gears essentially grind to a halt, and you are no longer providing a service to your customer. If we are providing revenue and tax, we should be receiving a service of getting to “yes.” What is the thing that is needed, and how quickly can we get there? But governments have to audit themselves to prepare that.
And so I do think that what I see from a lot of leadership is - you might have seen they were gonna make it easier to convert office to housing, they were gonna provide system development charge waivers, and they were going to make the permitting process faster. And when I beg the question of “what is it, because I’m working on a project that is ready,” they didn’t have a policy. And so what I’ve been doing and keep telling people is just write it yourself, and then say “does this work? Can this be the policy?” Just to try and expedite the process. Because we don’t have time to wait for everyone to wring their hands. We need to make a decision so that we can make another decision.
Miller: Howard, in the big picture here, I’m curious what you think makes a city or a neighborhood worth living in, worth keeping a business in, worth investing in, worth loving?
Weiner: Well, it’s really building relationships, and building a sense of community. Old Town is the toughest in the city. My stats are a little off because I’ve been out of the loop, but about 90% of the folks who live in old town Chinatown are in recovery or living in Central City Concern, essentially, subsidized housing. And also a lot of development has not happened in Old Town Chinatown. There’s parking lots that could be developed and so on.
But that said, my goal always, when I was at the helm and Jessie has followed that, is to build those relationships, create a forum, essentially an exchange of ideas, and find the common ground to move forward. And that really is the same in any neighborhood. I shouldn’t editorialize, but the Office of Neighborhood Involvement has 95 neighborhood associations. When the city gutted that bureau, they took away I think a lot of tools that residents could use to build that sense of community. And I miss that.
Miller: Howard Weiner and Jessie Burke, thanks very much.
Burke: Thank you.
Weiner: Thank you.
Miller: Howard Weiner is the owner of Cal Skate Skateboards. Jessie Burke is the board chair of the Old Town Community Association. They joined us to talk about the news recently that the long planned skate park in Old Town is going to be fully funded by the Portland Parks and Recreation Bureau.
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