Build Your Own Burnside
Words: Kent Dahlgren
It’s good to hear you are considering working on your own skatepark. We’re happy to answer your questions regarding construction, etc., but we’re more interested in learning your plans to ensure the park doesn’t get dozed when the city inevitably learns of its existence. If you don’t mind, I’d like to quickly share some strategies we used for Burnside.
Obviously, you haven’t been granted permission to use the land you have chosen for your skatepark. Therefore some would consider your idea an “illegal” one, which implies black and white extremes between that which is legal and that which is not. I’m here to report that for DIY projects we skaters fully capitalize upon the fact that for these sorts of projects, a great deal of granularity exists between the extremes.
Let’s be even more specific: there’s almost certainly NOT a law that says you are not allowed to build a skatepark, so at worst you could be charged with trespassing, which is the sort of thing they wave in our faces when we get busted skating backyard bowls, aka: a threat with as many teeth as an infant, relative to other crimes in the area. The success of this effort is all about leveraging context to ensure your activity is better than what which currently exists.
Don’t consider this legal advice. See a lawyer for legal advice. I’m just sharing my experience.
You of anyone knows that the location you’ve selected for your park is a freaking wasteland. While it may be technically illegal for you to build something to skate, the reality is that law enforcement and local business owners are forced to shoulder the responsibility to keep their doorsteps from becoming any worse than it probably already is. So in that regard, the key to our success depends upon you becoming their dream neighbor by converting the wasteland into a good neighbor. Let me say this another way to drive the point home:
Consider your own neighborhood. Imagine an absentee neighbor that leaves the house in near-tatters. Squatters come and go, defecating and urinating around the property, windows are broken. Trash is dumped everywhere, lawn is un-mowed, and unsavory characters come and go all hours of the day. Crime is associated with this crappy neighbor, and yet the property owner doesn’t do a thing about it. For some reason you are expected to accept and be unsurprised by this because this is what one is supposed to expect from the neighbor.
Now let me bring this home:
You are planning to build in an existing neighborhood of businesses, and one of the neighbors is the Department of Transportation. They are usually a terrible neighbor and every business owner knows it, yet they are taxpayers (aka, good citizens) and they are treated with amazement when they raise a stink about how crappy a steward the DOT is. They probably curse the DOT at home at least once a night. Profits equals revenue minus costs, and their costs are unduly high because they have to fund security to cover for their crappy neighbor.
As you build your skatepark you will be introducing yourself as the new neighbor who intends to turn things around. Speak in their terms and you will win friends. You are going to be the person who cleans up that abandoned house; the one who takes responsibility when the proper landowner is unable to.
So, screw it: let’s build the skatepark AND make sure they don’t doze it. Here’s some tips:
1.) As noted earlier, sooner or later someone’s going to raise hell and you’ll get called out for the skatepark. NOW is the time to prepare for that inevitability.
2.) If you are under a highway or a roadway, you are building on land that’s almost certainly owned by the state or city department of transportation (DOT). They don’t really use these spots of land, BUT they like to hold onto them because they can lease the land to nearby business owners or for parking. In other words, the DOT can make money on the land, even if they aren’t doing so now. (Or, they have leased the property to a private party, as was the case with Burnside, who in turn is a crappy neighbor).
3.) Given that, your attack will start from either the DOT, or the business owner that is leasing the land from them. The city won’t chase it down unless one of these two entities force it to make a stink, because their role is simple: respond to the squeakiest wheel.
4.) You need to begin by inquiring a bit about the legal status of the land. Fortunately, a bunch of that info is available on-line, but if not contact the DOT and ask about the land. Again, because they enjoy the revenue that comes from these underused spots of real estate, they will welcome your call. Just don’t be a retard and tell them what you are doing.
5.) Immediately start cleaning up, put on your best shirt, brush your teeth, and boldly introduce yourself to the local businesses. I’m serious: be as bold and as good a neighbor as possible. Your future depends upon the goodwill of these people, and goodwill won’t happen if you are disingenuous in your approach. The myth of Burnside is a BS one: we kissed the asses of every local business, and we earned legitimacy as a consequence. You’ll need to do the same.
6.) Directly approach law enforcement. I’m not kidding. Don’t be a retard and run from the cops. Within the context of this setting, you need to make it clear that you are their friend. Retired Portland Police officer John Larkin said “it was the first time I saw skaters consistently waving at me with more than one finger.” Highlight the manner you are there to mitigate crime, and ask them ways you can be used to help them with “community policing.” Memorize the phrase “community policing.” Cops, politicians, and businesses love it. Use it liberally.
7.) When talking to the businesses, be direct: you are a new neighbor and intend to mitigate the crime in the area through your presence. You can leverage the Burnside experience, which features letters of support from local businesses, police, etc. supporting your assertions that a DIY skatepark is an industrial-strength crime deterrent. Give them your number, make yourself accountable. Offer to meet with them and the local business community. Be professional.
8.) In the meantime, BUILD LIKE HELL. The more you build, the more expensive it will be to tear out. The more expensive it is, the longer it will take to build a case to destruct it. Time and money occupy the same place in this universe; come to understand that with every yard you pour, you add time and money to the expense of destructing it, and therefore the more time you have to enrich the relationships with those around you.
9.) Collect numbers of business owners, and call regularly, checking in on them. Tell them when you have called the police on lawbreakers who were doing ill adjacent to their property. It’s self-aggrandizing, and most skaters aren’t into that, but it’s necessary. Face to face beats phone calls every single time.
10.) Work your way towards advocating for a meeting with a collection of local businesses (such as business association). Introduce them to the fact that eventually the DOT will raise holy hell. Tell them what you expect from them: support, but also expect some to raise hell about local skaters. Take responsibility, but warm them to the fact that because the city has failed to provide a recreational outlet, they have pushed the skateboarding problem onto business owners. Make it clear that you are merely addressing this inequity.
11.) In a pinch: drop a hint to the local businesses: talk about “Dignity Village.” In Portland, Oregon, the local city government wants to create semi-permanent housing for homeless, and talk about how you are sympathetic to the homeless, but comment that while in principle the creation of a skatepark could be considered akin to a Dignity Village, the key difference is that skaters are extremely industrious, employed, and law-abiding (your DIY park notwithstanding). Further, as the park becomes more established, you’ll see kids in there rather than just older dudes; the park is being built for these kids. Consider it: if you are a business owner who do you want in your backyard: homeless peeps or kids? Use this one with care, because in essence you are telling them “better us than a bunch of homeless dudes who are legally allowed to chill here.” You’ll know your local political situation to know if this sometimes powerful tool works.
12.) One you are reasonably confident you have collected support from local businesses, start fishing around with the media. It’s far better you begin with good public relations (PR) than to be forced to leverage PR in a defensive posture. The story is a simple one that highlights the recreational inequity we all know exists: there’s lots of skaters, average age 14, and too few skateparks, or skateparks that totally suck, placed there by a Parks department that sought easy solutions from playground manufacturers. Talk about how you are a good neighbor, and get some local business people to talk about this as well. Get kids in there for photos/video. Guidelines: one kid is = 10 older skaters, and one kid + their mom is worth 15 older skaters. Lakewood, Ohio’s skatepark association achieved maximum leverage by using dozens of early teens in this context. Think about it.
13.) Either because you raised the issue, or because someone freaked, eventually you will be called to account. This typically comes in the form of a cease and desist order from the DOT (such as what happened to the DIY in Oakland). Hope to hell you have already organized a resistance in conjunction with your business neighbors.
14.) Understand that within government an effort will be in place to push your issue to the lowest tiers and OUT of the eyes of the media. A typical city response is “we’re working on your issue, and what will make it easier is you keeping this out of the media.” I call BS. Do you think dogpark people get permission to convert city parks into feces-filled wastelands by being meek? Need I remind you that there are 10,600,000 skaters, or about 4 times as many skaters as there are soldiers in the entire US military? Keep your smile, stay pro, but don’t let them bottle you up, and keep pushing this until you get something formally granting permission for your activity, i.e., something in writing from something with authority to keep the DOT at bay.
15.) In Portland we were granted legitimacy by the City Council. Portland’s not a very big town, so for your area this may not be appropriate. Burnside is literally in existence not due to the Council ruling, but rather: something called a Community Policing Agreement. It’s literally an agreement brokered by the local police precinct between skaters, business owners, Portland Parks and Recreation, and the cops. Each party agrees to give a little, and each agrees to take a little. In Portland’s case, Portland Parks pays for porta-potties and a dumpster (about $4,000 a year). Local businesses gift a little parking, law enforcement supports our efforts at self-policing, and skaters are expected to be good neighbors. The agreement is reviewed and updated every few years. People are very warm to this, and it’s an extremely effective tool, due to its accountability.
16.) Finally: expect the physical boundary of your project to end at a tax boundary that begins to touch that which is owned by a local business owner. Burnside had to destruct about ¼ of the park because we extended onto neighbors’ land, which within Oregon they pay taxes on. Again: tax boundaries are available publicly and often, on-line. A general rule-of-thumb is that the DOT owns land under the direct shadow of the overpass or bridge. That’s fine for most of us, who wanted a covered place anyhow.
Share what you learn so others can benefit from your work.
VIDEO:
Burnside Turns Ten
SEQUENCES:
Bam Lofts over another DIY hump at FDR
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