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Help save the Santa Clarita Skatepark!

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Contributed by: Dan Bernardino on 2/19/2008

The city of Santa Clarita has unfortunately decided to close the Santa Clarita Skatepark six months to a year before the new skatepark is built without any kind of formal notice.

Statistically, 4% of the community are skateboarders (Skater's for Public Skateparks). Considering the population Santa Clarita, that could leave 7,000 people, mainly children, without a safe, legal place to participate in thier passion.

There were 42 skateboard-related deaths in the United States last year, and 40 of them were outside on the streets, not in a skateboard park.

This concerns me. Does the city expect all of these kids to just quit doing what they love for the time it takes to have this whole project finished? The skateboarders are going to resort to skating shopping centers and schools, some of which were newly remodeled.

They will be ticketed and harrassed; this is a very risky move from the city. I do however, applaud the city for the existing skatepark and all that they have done to build a bigger, much better one in the future.

I feel that they need to reconsider their plans to demolish the park before the new one is built. We have definite plans on showing up to the city council meeting on Feb. 26 at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

I have also designed a myspace for the skatepark where kids have the the chance to express their feelings on the subject, to gain support and to take a look at parent letters.

For more information, please visit:
myspace.com/santaclaritaskatepark.

We also have physical and online petitions for the kids and parents to sign. We almost have 800 signatures, and we're still moving fast considering that the word is just getting out. You can sign the online petition at:
petitiononline.com/SCVSkate/petition.html

Please help us in our efforts to save the skatepark by posting this story. The kids and the whole community will benefit from it. Thank you for your time!

- Dan Bernardino
local skateboarder and former skate camp director

Skaters for Public Skateparks is a non-profit skatepark advocacy organization, international in reach, dedicated to providing the information necessary to ensure safe, rewarding, freely-accessible skateparks are available to all skateboarders.

You can check out its Web site at skatersforpublicskateparks.com.

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