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Redeveloping the northwest quadrant of Safety Harbor City Park in Pinellas County, Fla., to meet the needs of thrill-seeking skateboarders was no easy project. During the past four decades, skateboarders have been shocking crowds with extreme tricks that most people would not dream of doing. Today, kids in the county--and across the country--want to show off extreme acrobatic stunts, ollies, rail slides, truck grinders and more. The challenge for the city and its design partners was to create a safe place where skaters of all levels could grow and perform.
“Why can’t we find a safe spot for skaters to ride?” Pinellas County Commissioner Neil Brickfield wondered. “When I saw that Gulfport converted basketball courts into a skate park and saw Dunedin’s new skate park, I felt that was the way to go.”
In 2003, the 6,000-square-foot skate park project received a major boost from the Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program, which provided an $180,000 grant to build the skate park--a 50-percent match to go toward construction costs.
