Skateboarders have mixed emotions about design of new skate park in Riverside

JACKSONVILLE, Florida. – Some local skateboarders are concerned about changes to the design of a skate park in Riverside. The park will be in a section of the Artist Walk under the Fuller Warren Bridge, across from the Riverside Arts Market.

The original renders for the park had bowls and after working with F-DOT they had to push the columns back. Some say the new design is disappointing and the original design was better.

California Skate Parks designed the skate park to stand out from Artist Walk. They designated the championship national park in the United Arab Emirates. In the new renderings of the Riverside project, the letters JAX are in different places and are embedded in the concrete.

Skateboarders we spoke to in Jacksonville Beach weren’t too thrilled with the design of the skate park coming to Riverside, it’s different from the beach skate park, with no bowls or ramps.

RELATED LINK: New skate park renderings

We found a skater who is excited. When asked if he could see himself using the park, Noah Pulaski, a skateboarder and photographer, said: “I’ve been skating for quite a while, so it would be pretty nice if there was a skate park around. of the city for all the kids to come out and enjoy instead of riding on the street.It’s safer.

Pulaski went on to say, “This is actually going to help my photography. Capturing moments of people’s experiences there.

A representative from Jacksonville City Parks said there was a reason for the change from the original renderings.

“The skate park is a bit different from the previous plan due to F-DOT constraints – so we had to back off all the ten foot columns and there is also a large underground infrastructure where we couldn’t dig into the ground and doing bowls and things like that,” Jill Enz said. “This skate park was reviewed and we worked on it with F-DOT.

News4JAX received an email saying that some people in the skateboarding community were upset with the changes, mainly because there were no bowls.

A comment on the Facebook page Build Up Downtown, an organization that facilitates information about new developments, reads “no skatepark buildings dig bowls in Florida, the ground is built.”

We received this statement from F-DOT: “Whenever possible, F-DOT works with communities to achieve their goals. Whenever a project is permitted beside or under a structure, in this case the Fuller Warren Bridge, the integrity of the structure cannot be compromised. This includes long-term maintenance of infrastructure and protection of critical components underground or underwater as permitted.

It might not be what some skaters are used to, but for others like Kyle Jackson he said: “I think it looks great and it’s a great opportunity for young people to get out and skate and have fun in downtown Jax.”

The project should be completed by the end of the year.