Big day, small park

Jenny Marder

Small wheels glide, grind and flip under the sneakers of neighborhood

youngsters as they skate over the curved concrete rim and the four

sets of small stairs that make up the Oak View neighborhood’s new

skate park.

A first glance reveals nothing but feverish excitement over the

long-awaited skate park, which opened Thursday.

Tucked between a basketball court, a children’s playground and a

parking lot at the Oak View Family and Community Center, the

1,650-square-foot skate park contains a flurry of energy.

But a closer look reveals a lingering disappointment in the air, a

longing for something bigger and more challenging.

“This is tiny,” said James McKnight, a 21-year-old Costa Mesa

resident, who participated in a skater’s presentation Thursday. “It

doesn’t seem skater planned.”

His head is overflowing with visions of his ideal skate park, the

ultimate skaters utopia.

“It would be awesome,” he said, describing a park brimming with

hand rails, vertical ramps and larger, steeper stairs. “It would be

more accessible and you’d be able to come at it from more angles.”

But it would be too costly an endeavor in a city that cut 37 jobs

and several programs last year to cover an $11.5-million shortfall

caused by state losses, increasing mandates and a sluggish economy,

city leaders said.

Construction of the skate park as it is was a landmark move in a

time of dire straits, Assistant City Administrator Bill Workman said.

What’s more, future expansion of the park is anticipated -- as soon

as funds allow. Original designs for the skate park were more grand.

Early plans sketched a park that was twice the size and featured more

rails, ramps and stairs, said Luann Brunson, who coordinates

community block grant funding for the city.

“It looked more challenging than this,” Brunson said.

But the bids came in higher than expected and the park had to be

downsized.

“The project was cut to fit in with the amount of money

available,” Brunson said.

The Oak View Skate Park is a true grass-roots project, conceived

and spearheaded by a group of community teenagers, who came forward

in January 2001 to asked the city to use block grant funds, which are

set aside for community projects, to build the skate park.

Their pleas were heard.

“We listened to the community and really built what they wanted to

see,” said Community Services Director Jim Engle, who called the park

long overdue.

City officials have worked hard to provide activities to bolster

the Oak View neighborhood, a largely Latino, predominantly low-income

area, with a history of gangs and crime, Engle said.

“You need to give kids and young adults a positive place to

release their energies,” he said.

Francisco Talavera, 13, was one of the teens who fought for the

park in 2001. He too, was expecting handrails, a ledge and higher

stairs. But, he said, it’s better than nothing.

Francisco and his friends used to try and skate on school grounds,

he said, but were kicked off by administrators.

“They usually kept us from skating,” he said. “It’s good that we

got [a park] so we won’t bother with the schools.”

Skaters are making the best of what they’ve got. Officials at the

community center estimate more than 100 skaters use the park daily.

It remains to be seen if the park will be expanded, but the

possibility is good, Brunson said.

“We’re going to wait and see if this serves the community,” she

said. “There’s no application at this time to fund the other phase of

it, so I think [expansion] will happen after it’s been in use for a

while.”