By Mayor Jeff Jacobs, St. Louis Park, MN
1998 – Several youth approach the city council and make a presentation in front of a regular council meeting asking the city to rent a mobile skatepark so kids in St. Louis Park can use it. The kids make a very compelling case and have all of their facts and information very well organized to submit to the city. The Council agrees to the request and rents skatepark equipment. For a period of several months, one ice skating rink is drained at the Rec. Center to make room for a skatepark. Response is overwhelming. It becomes obvious that skate boarding is a much larger sport than the adults had realized.
After the success of the mobile skatepark, the Mayor and various city officials get continued requests for a permanent skatepark in the city. At the same time, the Children First initiative continues to grow, with community members understanding that to make a Children First community, they must be involved in asset building. Several people hit upon the idea of a youth summit in St. Louis Park and it is planned by the Youth Development Committee (YDC). YDC is a group of 4-12th graders staffed by the school district’s Community Education Department.
Spring 2001. The first youth summit is held. The kids pick the topics, kids, run the meetings, kids facilitate the meetings and kids keep track of what the ideas are. The rule is simple – kids talk and the adults listen. Adults from all over the city attend along with about 100 kids. There are city council people, school board members, county board members, state representatives, social workers, police, public works staff, and school staff of all kinds along with parents. One of the main topics is the desire for a permanent skatepark in St. Louis Park.
2001 – 2002. The Mayor and Council in their infinite wisdom push for a skatepark. The Council also believes it is a valuable thing to have and asks the park and rec. staff to find a site and plan one. Staff finds a location in a somewhat underutilized park along a regional trail near a school. Neighborhood meetings are held, plans are drawn up and they even get so far as to do soil borings in this park to determine the technical feasibility of this location. Staff begins interviewing designers of skateparks.
Spring of 2002. The second youth summit is held. The main topic of discussion along with several others is the continued need for skatepark. This is one of the biggest sessions. There is some desire to “roll out” the skatepark as a way to show the kids “we are listening.” Park and Rec. Director Cindy Walsh, however, advises some caution and gently points out to the Mayor who is a little overzealous about this undertaking that we need to do a reality check. She further advises that the one constituency group we have not talked to yet is the kids themselves. Fortunately, the Mayor is smart enough to heed this advice and not act too hastily here.
2nd Youth Summit. Dozens of skateboard skating enthusiasts show up at the youth summit to again talk about the need for a skatepark. The kids blow the adults away that night by talking about what they would like in a skatepark and why they would use it. They talk about their level of social responsibility and acknowledge that they know that some business owners are uncomfortable having a lot of kids skating outside their establishments. They don’t want to be trouble. They just want to hang out with their friends doing something they like. The adults realize that they are on the track to building the exact skatepark the kids DON’T want. To their credit they stop the presses. Most of the kids there never know how much they changed history that night.
The next day Cindy and the rec. staff find some kids skating outside and call them into a meeting to talk more about designing a skatepark. There are perhaps 4 or 5 of them that do. Staff also go out to places in the community where the kids are skating (schools, Rec Center, area businesses) and survey them about what they want in a skate park. The point of the survey is twofold. First, to find out what type of facility the kids would use.. Second, to get the kids involved and encourage them to help design the park. Through the survey it becomes obvious that skaters want a Tier 1 park, which is free and doesn’t require supervision – based on the height of the ramps. (Unlike a Tier 2 park which has higher ramps, needs more City insurance, and requires supervision and therefore, the need to charge for use). The kids definitely do not want to pay to use the skatepark.
A second meeting is set and many more kids show up there. The kids and the adults work as a team over the course of several meetings and months to pick the location and the design of the skatepark. After several meetings, they pick a site next to the Rec. Center. It is a very visible site near the water park and fits much better with the desired outcomes as set by the kids themselves.
2002-03. The City finds some funding for the skatepark. Walser Ford helps fund the park and donates over $20,000.00 toward its construction. Two local Rotary clubs also donate $3,000.00 each to fully fund the project. Ground breaking is held in late summer of 2003. The park is actually completed in late fall. Ribbon cutting is held in June of 2004.
The kids at last have their park and it is a huge hit. Kids from all over use it for inline skating, boarding and biking.
Lesson Learned. This story has become one of the hallmark stories for Children First and what it’s really about in St. Louis Park. It is also a hallmark for public process in general and about how simply listening to the stakeholders can make all the difference. Many of the kids who use this park were part of the design team that made it a reality. Most of them never knew how close we came to building a park that would not have met their needs and would likely have been a failure. It is now one of the templates we use in all of our decision making not just for youth but for the public in general to determine whether the decisions we make are justifiable to a 9th grade civics class.
Photo courtesy of Karen Atkinson
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