What is it that finally got me blogging? It has to do with skateboard politics and outgroup homogeneity (my new favourite term that I will work into any sentence or situation; just like I did with "reticular activating system" in 2010).
Calgary has a very progressive Skateboard Amenities Strategy (found here: http://calgaryskateboarding.com/skateboard-amenities-strategy/) and a super active advocacy group (CASE- the Calgary Association of Skateboarding Enthusiasts) that has been working well with the city for years. If you read the strategy document, you'll know that the city is aware that it needs more skateparks and they're actively working to deliver.
The problem is homeowners who don't want noise in their neighbourhoods, who believe that skateboarding is dangerous, who can't shake their tunnel-vision to realize that their anti-skating antics are really calls for kids to stay inactive indoors.
Edgemont was scheduled to have a new park opened. After much consultation and planning, there was sudden pushback when construction was about to begin. A Calgary Herald opinion columnist (isn't it always the opinion columnists) stoked the fires with this unintelligible rambling called "Edgemont Skateboard Park Would be Hell on Wheels": http://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/lakritz-edgemont-skateboard-park-would-be-hell-on-wheels. CASE responded with a letter to the editor called "Skateboard Parks Aren't a Bother": http://calgaryherald.com/opinion/letters/letters-for-monday-march-2. Months of wait-and-see and re-examinations follow . . .
There is a brief flare-up in anti-skate rhetoric when city councilor Evan Woolley proposes that Calgary strike down its anachronistic no-skateboard-ramps-in-backyards bylaw. The Herald Editorial board responds. CASE responds. Things quiet back down . . .
BLAM! A new Edgemont Community Association executive is elected and they immediately cancel the skatepark and impose a three year period of time where potential locations for a new skatepark will not be discussed. That was it. Full of anger I did what people now do, I turned to the internet and started typing.
Below is my letter to the editor of every Calgary newspaper. This is just the beginning. Expect a Skater vs NIMBY article by the end of the summer.
DEATH OF A SKATEPARK
And so it comes to an end. After years of effort and thousands of dollars of planning, the Edgemont Community Association (ECA) has killed its new John Laurie skatepark before shovels could touch dirt.
As has become the norm in our city, progressive pro-citizen ideas have met opposition from regressive NIMBYists. Truthiness, not fact, is the new ground on which political decisions are made. One only has to look at the recent uphill battles fought for bike lanes, secondary suites, and school construction sites to see that skatepark debates fall into an unsettling pattern where vocal citizens (supported by carpetbagging amateur and professional politicians) derail actions that are for the greater public good. Those-who-own-homes lobby against secondary suites which could house those-who-rent because of potential parking issues. They are against bike lanes because it will make their single-occupant-SUV commute to downtown more difficult. They sue the public school board because relocating a centre for children with special needs could result in traffic. Now they shut down a well-planned and much-needed skatepark because of anticipated noise. This isn’t the Yeehaw neighbourly spirit that I grew up with in Calgary. This emerging character is bitter, jaded, and divisive.
After the ECA struck down the new park (and put in place a three year “cooling off” period during which skateparks will not be discussed) did its members go back to their homes feeling good about themselves? Did they smack each other on the backs and congratulate themselves for keeping their kids sitting indoors in front of the TV? Did they pop a bottle of sparkling wine and toast three more years of silence in their neighbourhood’s outdoor spaces?
This is another failure of democracy; another lesson for Calgary’s youth about how politics really works. Over the next three years while the ECA plays Voldemort with “the parks that shall not be named”, I hope pro-skate teachers and students at local schools take this issue up with vigour and really make some noise. Community associations, councillors, and newspapers that contributed to the anti-skate movement should prepare themselves for a storm.
This is about community health. This is about the future Calgary where we want to see our kids grow up.
Disgusted.
Dan Grassick
Teacher
Calgary