Renewed opposition to skate park mounts

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA--Earlier this month, Vanessa Cocroft was completely unaware

that a skateboard park was being planned in her West Side neighborhood.

Now, she and a neighbor, Hector Jimenez, are organizing new opposition

to the proposed location at Hamilton and Charle streets.

The city planning and parks commissions approved design plans for the

skateboard park in August. The plans call for ramps, half-pipes and rails

for varying levels of skaters, a shaded area for spectators and restrooms

with compost toilets.

Last year, City Council members approved plans to build the skate park

at Lions Park but later retreated from the plan when neighbors objected.

Cocroft and Jimenez say they support a skateboard park but are opposed

to the location because of safety, space and financial concerns.

Hamilton is such a busy street, Cocroft said, that she thinks people

will get hurt and the city will end up having to close the park because

of the liability and danger.

Jimenez said the site is not big enough to allow parents to watch

their children skate and still have adequate landscaping.

“This is a family-oriented neighborhood,” he said. “If the park is

here, it needs to be family-oriented to be compatible with this

community. And the skate park can’t be family-oriented when all we have

space for is the actual ramps and rails.”

The skateboard park is expected to cost $603,472, “an exorbitant

amount of money” compared with the estimated $250,000 cost of a park at

Lions Park, Jimenez said.

Cocroft and Jimenez said the intent of their campaign is just to

spread awareness of the plan throughout the neighborhood.

“We want people to know what’s going on,” Jimenez said.

The issue has been reviewed extensively at Parks Commission, Planning

Commission and City Council meetings, and the city sent mailers to

immediate neighbors of the proposed site.

But a communication gap has prevented many neighborhood residents from

understanding the issue, Jimenez said.

“We’re a working-class community and, because of that, we don’t have

the time some residents in more affluent neighborhoods might have to keep

up with all the community politics,” he said. “We try to keep up with

what’s going on, but our work and our family obligations bind us.”

In addition, Jimenez said, the neighborhood has a high percentage of

Latino residents who traditionally rely on mediums other than newspapers

or cable television to get information.

To help bridge the communication gap, the city should inform Latino

community leaders of community issues, post information at all churches

in the community and send information home with children at public

schools, he said.

Cocroft, who only subscribes to the Sunday newspaper, does not read

any local news and didn’t find out that the site was being considered so

seriously until she attended a candidates forum last week.

She and Jimenez said they went door-to-door throughout the

neighborhood, which is bordered by Harbor Boulevard, Placentia Avenue,

19th Street and Victoria Street, and found only one person at home who

knew the site was being considered.

Cocroft and Jimenez have been passing out fliers in English and

Spanish with information about the park and the proposed location. As

they stood passing out fliers in front of the site last week, they also

discussed the issue with neighbors.

The skateboard park has been the source of heated debate.

In August, Parks Commissioner Mike Scheafer resigned over his

opposition to it being built at Hamilton and Charle streets.

Scheafer also claims the city attorney pressured him to abstain from

voting after he sent the Daily Pilot a letter to the editor.

Other parks commissioners also questioned the site but decided they

did not want to delay the construction any longer.

Other residents besides Cocroft and Jimenez also protested during a

series of parks and planning commission meetings.

Some neighborhood residents, however, are in favor of the location.

“Having a skateboard park would definitely be better than getting

tickets or getting kicked out from everywhere we try to skate,” said

Corey Newman, a 15-year-old skateboarder and neighborhood resident.

“This is a good location because it’s right down the street from my

house, but anywhere would be fine as long as they make it soon. They said

it would be done last July but then they flaked. It doesn’t matter where

you put it because there’s going to be problems anywhere.”