Carlsbad’s last public skateboard park had some issues from the very beginning. While fun to roll, it never has had much flow and some of the sections were just plain wrong. Thankfully, that won’t be the case with the new Alga Norte Skatepark thanks to the involvement of former pro skateboarder Kanten Russell, according to a story in the U-T San Deigo.
Earlier this week, Russell walked the construction site at one of his projects, a 25,000 square-foot facility being built as part of Alga Norte Community Park in Carlsbad. It’s scheduled to open in September, he said. . . Carlsbad is where the first modern skatepark went up in 1976 — it no longer exists — and Russell sees the new one as paying homage to that history while making its own mark as a “crown jewel.” . . “I’ve done public meetings all across the country to talk about various projects, and every time I show anybody a picture of this park they say, ‘Where is this again and when will it open?’ They will definitely be flying in for this.”
We haven’t been out to check it out in a while, but once they start pouring the walls things go pretty fast. Meaning, it could be a great skate summer at Alga Norte, finally. Seems like it’s taken forever, doesn’t it?
Thanks to some proposed budget cutting by the City of Carlsbad the Alga Norte Skateboard Park and Swim complex may be put off until 2014 in a plan that includes trimming as much as $4.5 million, according to Barbara Henry story in the North County Times.
The proposed spending reductions will be submitted to the City Council in January as the city begins its process of putting together next year’s budget, Elliott said. . . . Among other things, the city may stop filling vacant positions and hold off on new equipment purchases. It also might delay the long-sought Alga Norte swim complex. Instead of opening in 2012, that complex might not open until 2014, Elliott said. A new city public works center and renovations at the Leo Carrillo Ranch Historic Park also may be postponed.
Equipment purchase and hiring freezes are fine, but let’s not stall out on Alga Norte. This city needs a respectable skateboard park and it would be nice if today’s kids could get in there before they’re not kids anymore.
Are your kids tired of skating Carlsbad’s newest skateboard park at Alga Norte? This mini-session from pro skateboarder Chris Cole should give them a few ideas on some new lines to take. Pretty smooth, huh? He makes this skatepark look even better than it is and gives away a couple pairs of Thunder Trucks in the process.
The new City of Carlsbad, CA Skate Park is ready for 2012 ! ASD was selected to completely re-design the park before construction. Thanks for all the input from Pro Skater Andy Mac on the bowls and the entire ASD team for their hard work.
This skateboard park has been in the planning stages so long that it’s good that it gets a little update. And it looks good. The bowls look fun and the street section looks like the latest in skate plaza goodness. This should be good.
This is getting to the point of absurdity. Last night the Carlsbad City Council voted to stall the proposed $50 million Alga Norte Park, Aquatic Center and Skateboard Park and not put it out to bid because as the Mayor said we’re having hard economic times, according to the San Diego Union Tribune.
Mayor Bud Lewis recalled when his family lost its home when he was a youngster during the Great Depression, and said it was not good for the city to spend millions on a project during hard economic times.
Council voted to reconsidered the park in October. What they failed to mention is that this means Carlsbad will be without a skateboard park for even longer now as the Orion park will be destroyed so the city can build a police and fire training facility.
Note to Mayor Lewis: when economic times are hard it’s all the more important that kids and families have local, free recreational options. Not less.
Carlsbad city officials were surprised when they saw the Alga Norte Park project bid from Consolidated Contracting Services of San Clemente because at $29.3 million it was $10 million lower than the next closest bid, according to a story in the North County Times.
The park, which will include a “multi-pool swim complex,” ballfields, playgrounds for kids, and most importantly a skatepark, sits on 33 acres at the corner of Poinsettia and El Camino Real. But why was Consolidated’s bid so low?
. . . an official with the architectural firm that drew up the park plans attributed the low construction bids to a variety of factors. Everything from having good plans to work with to a slumping construction industry helped, said Joniene Swick of Wimmer Yamada & Caughey. . . . The economy could be playing a part, others said. Bids for several recent government projects in San Diego County, including a Highway 52 proposal, have come in lower than expected, said a representative for Associated General Contractors —- a national organization that represents some 1,400 contractors who bid on government projects in the San Diego region.
Hey, as long as the cost savings doesn’t come at the skatepark’s expense (as usually is the case) then we’re all good. We’ll be watching you Consolidated.
More proof that the North County Times has its head way up it’s own . . . well, you know: In a “roses and raspberries” piece they gave the City of Carlsbad a “raspberry” for “its attempt to use the proposed $1 trillion federal economic stimulus to build a skate park.” Here’s what they said:
Funny, we are under the impression that this money is supposed to go toward infrastructure projects. You know, things like interstate highways, ports, bridges, airports. Projects that might actually benefit the country as a whole, not just serve parochial —- and comparatively insignificant —- interests.
Since it appears the editors of the paper don’t understand much of anything: The Alga Skatepark (swim complex and park) is Carlsbad’s number one project and any money the City Council can find should be used to build it as soon as possible. To say that skateboarding and a place for kids to learn to swim is a “comparatively insignificant interest” in North County is just plain ignorant.
Then again, with the way the newspaper business is going currently, we probably won’t have the North County Times to worry about for much longer.
Tomorrow evening (April 21, 2009) is officially “Pack The City Council Chambers” night as City Council will be reconsidered something they’ve reconsidered several times already: the fate of the Alga Norte Park something we like to call it the Alga Norte Skatepark. (AB#19.780)
City Councilman Keith Blackburn is so interested in all of us attending that he’s reportedly calling 40,000 people, according to a story in the The Times.
For about $2,000, Blackburn has taken the unprecedented step of hiring a company that operates an electronic “phone tree” to reach as many of Carlsbad’s 40,000 households as possible today with a 30-second, recorded message from the councilman. . .Blackburn is urging residents to show up at a council meeting, set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, at which the proposed park will be discussed.
The fact that the citizens have to show up to remind the City Council that we need a new swim complex and skateboard park is crazy in our opinion, but looks like we’re all going to have to go anyway as it apparently is the only way members of the City Council ever hear anything.
Building parks should be the one thing that the City Council does on their own, but apparently, they need our help. Be there Tuesday evening at 6 PM.
Thanks to a planned public works center and police and fire training facility (that will be built on the land currently occupied by the Carlsbad Skateboard park) there is some worry that skateboarders will have no park at all until the new park at the Alga Norte is completed, according to a Barbara Henry story in the North County Times. But don’t expect the Carlsbad City Council to care.
The City Council unanimously decided Tuesday that it does not want to find an alternate location for the Orion Way skatepark, since Alga Norte is opening soon. The council will revisit whether the city needs two skateparks —- as some skateboarding enthusiasts have suggested —- after Alga Norte opens.
When a location in the Calavera Hills Park site was suggested for a possible interim or second skateboard park Council member Ann Kulchin threw this idiotic line into the discussion: “There’s a lot of residences there,” she said. “I’m not sure they would welcome a skatepark.”
Carlsbad was the home of the world’s first concrete skatepark, it is the birthplace of modern skateboarding (and the industry that surrounds it) and yet this is the kind of response we get from our City Council. It’s pathetic. Truly.
If you have a Carlsbad news story, press release, event, rumor, or scandal that we'd be interested in (and there are a lot of them), please click the link to send them to The Editors.
Or just search the site to see if we've mentioned it before, right here.
RSS Feed-Posts