Here is a link to the petition to save the skate park:
http://www.change.org/petitions/restore-and-rebuild-benjamin-soto-skate-park
And Facebook link to save the skate park:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_140181056053194&ap=1
On April 18, 2011 the NYC Parks Department decided to ignore the cries for help by the user’s of the Benjamin Soto skate park; on that day a staff of 20 Parks Department employees tore down the whole skate park. If you follow this website you would have seen that for the past few months user’s of the Benjamin Soto skate park have been going to civic meetings, community board meetings, town hall meetings, and lobbying their local politicians to get the park re-layered with new plywood and skatelite. Parks seems to have had a hidden agenda to punish the users for reaching out to the media and civic groups. According to the Staten Island Advance, Parks says, that they plan to install “modern streetscape elements,” including reinforced steel picnic tables, granites steps, cement planters and a single pipe rail. They go on to quote Staten Island’s new Parks Dept. Commissioner Adena Long stating that, “These are in things you would generally see in any public plaza or public park, and quite frankly, is what the kids like to play on anyway,”
But the truth is that none of the BMX and Skate community have seen the design, or have been contacted to help with the design. This skate park cost NYC over $500,000.00 in 2004, and now there’s no other skate park on Staten Island.
Kids riding the park in protest.
The staff tearing the railings down. …
A quiet skate park don’t get fixed. That is the new saying. The old one was, the quiet hinge don’t get oil.
So these dedicated riders won’t give up. And keep going to the civic meetings and Community board meetings and here is proof its working.
On March 15, 2011 the Benjamin Soto skate park users went to the Community Board 2 meeting and asked for help with the repairs at the skate park.
Below is a link to the article about Community Board 2 possibly allocating some funds to the park.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The skate park in Midland Beach could receive some upgrades, and new recycling receptacles may appear in North Shore city parks, thanks to giant checks (printed on 100 percent recycled paper, for the photo op) presented yesterday to Community Boards 1 and 2 by Pratt Industries, during the first award ceremony for the Staten Island Paper Challenge, at the South Fin Grill in South Beach.
$4,000.00 that could go to the skate park because of some dedicated riders.
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/04/pratts_the_ticket_for_parks_in.html
Benjamin Soto skate park users at the South Beach Civic Association Meeting March 23, 2011. The Meeting went well.
NYC Parks Department told the South Beach Civic that they will open the park by spring. And they plan to work with the South Beach Civic to remodel the Benjamin Soto skate park in the fall.
Steve Quigley became a member of the South Beach Civic Association tonight.
Steve Said ”Even after the skate park gets fixed I am still going to come to these meetings ”
It amazes me that a ramp in the woods led to the Benjamin Soto skate park being built in 2005. Then 6 years later hundreds of riders and skaters going to civic meetings and Community Board meetings to save their skate park.
It hit me tonight that they are the future voters and politicians.
It reminds me of this report I heard on NPR.
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=134738530&m=134738513
Here are the photos
The Steve Quigley was in the Staten Island Advance on March 3rd 2011 (as well as another article on the Ben Soto Skatepark) and had this to say:
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – We met up with Steve Quigley, 17, at the playground in Midland Beach on Feb. 18, when the afternoon temperature reached an unseasonably mild 67 degrees. He was hanging out with a dozen other fellow BMX and scooter riders, and the closure of Benjamin Soto Skate Park was on his mind.
“This is the only place where we can legally ride without getting into trouble,” he said, explaining that this is the reason why teenagers from all over Staten Island congregate at the park to practice and enjoy their sport.
“My best friend, Chris, comes here from Great Kills, and my friend Nick comes all the way from Mariners Harbor. Other friends come from Woodrow and Westerleigh,” said Quigley, a junior at Petrides.
“They [the city's Department of Parks and Recreation] closed the skate park [for repairs] at the end of last summer, with promises that it would be renovated by the beginning of this spring.
“Then they said that they could not begin repairs because of all the snow, so we came and cleared the snow away [on Sunday, Feb. 13] for them.”
He’s afraid that the repairs may be delayed, and frustrated action-sports fans will continue to cut holes in the chain-link fence, clip the locks on entry gates, and scale the fence to get inside and ride on the deteriorated, dangerous ramps.
Check out Virginia Sherry’s article here.
From The Staten Island Advance:
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – MIDLAND BEACH – For 14-year-old Robert O’Brien, the balmy 67-degree weather on Feb. 18 was nothing more than an invitation to ride his scooter at Benjamin Soto Skate Park. But none had been issued. In fact, the entry gates were padlocked. The park has been temporarily closed since Oct. 25, waiting for the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation to repair its dangerously deteriorated ramps.
The Port Richmond High School ninth-grader, looking to RSVP, decided to make a run for it anyway and scale the anchor fence with his scooter.
As he started to climb, a green-uniformed male Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP) officer “came running, grabbed me, and held my hands behind my back,” according to Robert.
The officer then “put me up against the van, and patted me down like I was a criminal,” he alleged, as about a dozen fellow riders of scooters and BMX bicycles watched, taking photos and videos with their cell-phones.
The officer “put his hands in my pocket, and took out my wallet, cell phone, and Chap Stick,” continued Robert.
It was about 3:50 p.m.
A female officer then approached Robert. “The lady said for me to give her a good reason to not put me in handcuffs and take me to the (police) precinct,” he said.
Benjamin Soto skate park users at the South Beach Civic Association Meeting. 13 of them went to the meeting on Wednesday 2-23-2011.
Here are some photos below.
Plaque presented to Edward Dixon in Memory of Donna Dixon
Ed Pollio clapping. …
On February 17th there was a Town Hall Meeting at Brighton Heights Reformed Church in Staten Island. Comptroller John C. Liu was there along with Assembly Matthew Titone and Council member Debi Rose. Joe McAllister, Jack Ryan, and I spoke up about the Ben Soto Skate Park and its need of repairs that still has not been done. Here are some photos.
Joe McAllister speaking up for the Benjamin Soto Skate park and other East shore related issues. …
Some would say crazy or obsessed, I would say passion or love. Today 5 people started to clean snow off the ramps and flat ground at the Ben Soto skate park. This happened for 2 reasons: the first is that we have nowhere to go, and an indoor skate park is nonexistent. All we have on Staten Island is the Benjamin Soto skate park, which is currently in terrible condition. Secondly, Marie Carmody-LaFrancesca from Councilmen Oddo’s office has contacted the Parks Department and they stated that they planned to repair the ramps, but due to the weather conditions (snow on the ramps) they cannot. 5 of us started at12:30 PM, 5 turned into 8, then 10, then 15, and then 20. At the end of the day there were 25 bikers, skateboarders, scooter riders and mountain bikers cleaning the snow and ice off the ramps. 5 hours later, almost the whole park was cleaned off. I would like to say thanks to Nick for bringing an extra snow blower, and thanks to all the people who braved the wet snow and ice in 40-degree weather to clean the skate park. I have never seen a sport so bonded.
Ed Pollio
