Verdugo Park lights up

Gary Moskowitz

For 38-year-old Richard White, this weekend’s grand opening of the

new Glendale Skate Park was like a childhood dream come true.

White was born and raised in Glendale, and as a child he spent

countless hours skateboarding at the Boogie Bowl, which was

Glendale’s first concrete skateboarding park. The Boogie Bowl was

located at the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Moore Street in north

Glendale between 1977 and 1981.

More than 100 people attended a grand opening ceremony Saturday

morning for the new skateboarding park, which is located at the south

end of Verdugo Park, 1621 Canada Blvd. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Glendale),

City Council members city officials, families and skateboarders

attended Saturday’s grand opening.

The city spent about $450,000 in capital improvement funds to

build the skate park, which was designed by Site Design Group Inc.

The Boogie Bowl was a lot of fun, but the new, 15,000- square-foot

facility is “completely awesome,” and Glendale needed a new skate

park, White said.

“About five of us friends were all born in Glendale and lived here

and went to school and skated the Boogie Bowl back in the ‘70s, and

now here’s five guys still rippin’ and still friends,” White said.

“This park kind of brings it all around full circle.”

Angie Nazarian, a Wilson Middle School seventh-grader and avid

skateboarder, led the crowd in saying the Pledge of Allegiance at

Saturday’s event.

“This is really cool,” Angie said. “It’s so awesome and it looks

really fun to skate.”

The new park will be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily and will

be supervised by city staff.

Rain on Saturday morning kept many in attendance from skating at

the park, but the dreary morning weather didn’t prevent about 1,000

people from attending an Earth Day 2004 event at the north end of

Verdugo Park at the same time as the skate park opening.

Residents were encouraged to trade in their old halogen floor

lamps for new, free fluorescent lamps during the Earth Day 2004

event, which was sponsored by the City of Glendale Public Works

Department, Glendale Water & Power, Parks, Recreation & Community

Services and Glendale Fire and Police departments.

A sign that read “Investing in Glendale’s Future” greeted Earth

Day participants.

The 50-watt fluorescent lamps are more efficient, because they can

produce as much light as a 250-watt halogen bulb, said Herbert

Garcia, public education coordinator for the city.

The fluorescent bulbs are also less of a fire hazard because they

don’t get nearly as hot the halogen bulbs, which can get as hot as

1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, Garcia said.

“We’ve never done this before, but even with the rain, we had

people lined up and waiting first thing this morning,” Garcia said.

“This is a great turnout.”

City officials gave out 1,000 free fluorescent-bulb lamps in the

first hour of Saturday’s event, Garcia said.

The Earth Day event also included fire-safety activities, stream

clean up, tree planting, guided nature hikes and a climbing wall for

children.