Why is the city building Skate Spots?
The City of Newark Parks and Recreation Department is committed to supporting area youth by providing for constructive recreation activities. The city believes that skateboarding is an activity that serves a positive recreational outlet and promotes active and healthy movement for both youth and adults alike.

Newark’s park system provides well designed and safe outdoor basketball, tennis and street hockey courts as well as baseball, softball, and soccer fields, but no skateboard facilities. As a comparison the Newark American Little League, the primary youth baseball program in Newark, (ages 4-18) approximately 400 participants with an adequate number of baseball fields to meet this important need.

Where are they going and why these locations?
Newark Parks and Recreation and the Skate Spot Committee identified these five potential park sites: Handloff, Fairfield, Phillips, Kells, and Lumbrook Parks. Our objective is to build two, perhaps three skate spots that will be geographically located for relative easy access. Some of the criteria used in determining potential locations include; accessibility (walking or biking), and the reuse of an existing area within the park.

How will this be funded?
The City of Newark has secured $160,000 for the Skate Spot project. The city budget has allocated $40,000 in the 2012 Capital Improvements Budget, a private donation of $40,000 and grant funding through the Delaware Land and Water Conservation Trust Fund for $80,000.

Once we have determined which site(s) and how many facilities will be constructed we will secure the services of a professional skate park design firm. The designers will work with city staff and the public to complete a design for each site.

Who will design the Skate Spots?
This process will include meetings to review design concepts and provide input.

How will the Skate Spots be constructed and what size will they be?
They will be constructed of poured in place concrete and be between 2,000-4,000 square feet, about the size of a tennis court. Each will be designed with its own unique features.

Who will maintain the Skate Spots?
Newark Parks and Recreation Department will maintain the Skate Spots.

Is skateboarding a passing fad?
Based on a 2004 Sporting Goods Marketing Association Sports Participation Study (SGMA) there are approximately 11.6 million skateboarders in America. That figure is enough to make skateboarding the third most popular sport for American teenagers. Football ranks first and basketball second. The figures reported by SGMA International indicate that skateboarding is more popular than baseball, tennis and hockey. It is estimated that there are more than 1,300 skateboarders in Newark.

Isn’t skateboarding a dangerous sport?
Contrary to what many see as a dangerous activity, skateboarding is considered one of the safer active recreational sports. The Consumer Product Safety Review reported in its 2003 spring review that participant-based injury rates per 1,000 participants were as follows; skateboarding 8.9%, basketball 21.2%, football 20.7% and bicycling 11.5%.

Will the city increase its liability by constructing new skate spots?
No. Insuring a skate spot will not increase the city’s insurance liability premiums. A skate spot is a recreational facility much the same as a basketball court, playground, or tennis court. Users of skate spots are responsible for their own safety just as they are with park facilities. Those who use skate spots are liable for their own injuries. Signage will recommend that protective gear be worn at all times and to "use at your own risk."

Will skate spots help get skaters out of the streets and off the sidewalks?
By building safe, legal public facilities we hope to offer users a place to practice their sport and not be in conflict with vehicles, pedestrians and the business community. More injuries and deaths occur from collisions between skaters and vehicles and pedestrians than do from skaters in skate spots. We will not make the claim that building skate spots will remove all the kids from skating in the streets, but by providing our youth with a local, public skate spot we give them an option.

Aren’t skateparks noisy and full of graffiti, trash, and vandalism?
Concerns about excessive noise seem to be the number one concern about siting a skatepark near residential areas. Noise studies have found that skaters and skateparks are not the noise generators that some believe. Noise studies conducted during recent skatepark planning procedures found that skateparks produce intermittent noise. This noise occurs occasionally from the ‘popping’ tails and ‘grinding’ of the aluminum trucks on the steel coping surfaces. These sounds are not sustained over long periods of time. The level of noise that is generated at a skatepark is 65 to 71 decibels (dBA Fast) at a distance if fifty feet and drops to 32-49 dBA at 250 feet (Steel Bridge Skatepark Study). This equates to sound levels equivalent to 70 dB busy traffic, vacuum cleaner, 60dB normal conservation, dishwasher and 50 dB moderate rainfall.

The presence of graffiti, trash and vandalism are also issues that typically are mentioned in a skatepark discussion. To remain clean, skateparks do require the presence of trashcan, inspections of the surfacing, and immediate attention to repairs. Once a park begins to receive no maintenance the users begin to feel as though the city no longer cares about this playground and begin to treat it that same way. The parks that appear to have the greatest skater ownership are those that are quality built, skater designed, concrete skateparks.