Community Real Estate Sports

Skatepark Under Zakim Bridge Takes Step Forward

The Charles River Skatepark will be located under the Zakim Bridge. (Source: Charles River Conservancy)

As dog owners work to create a dog park in the North End, another group is moving closer to the creation of a nearby skatepark under the Zakim Bridge. The Charles River Conservancy has announced that a Memorandum of Agreement has been signed between CRC and the State’s Department of Conservation and Recreation. With the agreement, the CRC will detail the preliminary design and move forward with construction.

After extensive delays and more than 10 years in the making, the estimated opening date is now toward the end of 2013. The skatepark will be located under the Zakim Bridge and most accessible to the North End via Paul Revere Park and the newly opened North Point Park pedestrian bridge that dramatically reduces walking time to the other side of the Charles River Basin and Cambridge. (Read how the bridge was built.)

Skateboarders are hotly anticipating the opening of the park that will be the largest of its kind in New England. It is expected to draw boarders from all over Boston and Cambridge. Non-skateboarders are also hopeful the new skatepark will give passive neighborhood parks a break from infrastructure wear related to skateboarding. Many skateboarders currently travel from the suburbs to skate in downtown Boston.

The CRC has raised $2.5 million for the construction of the skatepark including a $600,000 contribution by the Lynch Foundation. Ongoing maintenance is expected to be covered by DCR and funding from special events. A restaurant and small building facility are also part of the preliminary plans. CRC/DCR will also hold public meetings on the project.

3 Replies to “Skatepark Under Zakim Bridge Takes Step Forward

  1. This Sounds like a great idea on the surface but, I would love to hear a follow up story after it has been built and running for 6-12 months. My feeling is that it would draw skaters there initially, then due to their short attention span and lack of responsibility continue to deface public area around the city. The city of Boston had spent thousand of dollars on the beautiful stone work to later spend more installing guard in the stone to prevent the distruction from the skaters and bikers. Stiffer penalties and active patrols are needed to prevent the distruction of public property.

    1. Lack of attention span and responsibility? Well, to counter your ill-formed point, how did skaters raise over a million dollars for the park? The reason for the 'defacement' is that we were promised one about 10 years ago when the money was initially raised, and got a decade of a wait while given halfassed excuses. I'm sorry, but we're not going to stop skating because of the lack of a park. Would a baseball player that truly loved the game play without an actual baseball field? Yup. Would people say the same thing if you made a baseball diamond in a vacant lot? Yup. But now with the charles river skatepark finally underway, and the possibility of a skatepark in Brookline, it seems as though your generation will have to get used to it.

      Said money has been sitting in a bank account for damn near a decade. At this point, the interest alone would be enough to fix all this 'DESTRUCTION of public property', build a second, smaller skatepark, and still clear the initial cost of the skatepark. Furthermore…..where do stiffer penalties come into play in ANY part of this article? This is about the actual skatepark itself, although your creative, and informed mind has seemed to transform it into something entirely different. I applaud your colorful, and misguided comment, and consider it as a reason why we need this skatepark. You're the crotchety old man that screams at skaters regardless of what we're doing. It's obvious that your snapshot of an entire culture is misinformed, ill-developed, and uneducated (as your misspelled comment illustrates).

      Also, skatestoppers drilled into stone cost about 5-10 dollars per hunk of pre-cast metal, and about 25 an hour for the overinflated city worker to install it. Thousands is a blatant lie. The stone looked fine before, Now you've got a giant chunk of metal in it. Ahh, progress.

      Please, better educate yourself on the cultures of this city, and furthermore, spelling. I'm sure you'll find that you're lacking in both departments, sir.

  2. I resent the generalization that all skateboarders have short attention spans and lack responsibility. Being the proud mother of a semi pro skateboarder who is a Jr. at the Art Institute of California majoring in Graphic Design with a 3.9 GPA I am thrilled that there will finally be a place for kids to go with a love of skateboarding. I do understand, that there are always a certain few that want to ruin it for the rest and my suggestion would be to make part of the design include a graffiti wall. These kids, for the most part, are not thugs, as they are sometimes perceived…THEY ARE ATHLETES!!
    Can you jump off 20 steps on a skateboard, flip it, and land it and roll off?? I think not. I do agree that to keep it safe, especially for the younger children there should be regular patrolling of the area (as I would recommend on any play area where there are children). It would be nice if it were patrolled by some of the younger officers who may have skateboarded themselves and understand the culture. It would be a great way for the kids to learn respect of the police and the police to learn respect of these kids who just want to skate.

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