Parent demands even playing field for skateboard parks
Avid boarder asks why other activities have received the go-ahead to restart
A skateboarder who is also a parent of a skateboarder and a property owner doesn’t understand why Vancouver hasn’t opened its skate parks.
Jeffry Lee said the continued closure of skate parks in Vancouver has sent skateboarders into nearby municipalities such as Burnaby, North Vancouver and West Vancouver, where skateboard parks opened earlier this month.
“I don’t believe there’s any reason to keep skate parks closed as long as, like city parks and beaches, we follow the same rules set out for other sports facilities,” he said.
Lee, 44, skateboards with his sixyear-old daughter. He lives across from Clark Park in Vancouver.
Lee said the fact that the park board has already opened tennis courts but not skate parks tells him that the city doesn’t consider them as sports facilities but as playgrounds, which remain closed.
Lee sent an email Friday to the park board about the closure of the city’s skate parks. On Monday, he received a response that acknowledged the frustration of skateboarders, but said reopening of skate parks is “based on the cautious and thoughtful consideration” of the park board and city. It said skate parks would be opened in the next phase, but did not give a date.
“I didn’t find it particularly helpful,” he said about the response. “I could have guessed that they would eventually open.”
The Vancouver park board reopened two city-owned golf courses on May 1 and 53 tennis and pickleball courts on May 9.
West Vancouver reopened skate parks at Gleneagles and Ambleside on May 8, while Burnaby reopened skate parks at Metrotown and Confederation Park on May 13.
Donna Powers, director of community relations and communications for West Vancouver,
said the province never ordered playgrounds, skate parks and tennis courts closed because of COVID -19.
She said in the early days of the pandemic, outdoor sports fields and playgrounds were closed by West Vancouver and other cities and municipalities “out of an abundance of caution.
“As we move forward and work with the provincial health officer, we know that the province is not asking municipalities to close these facilities,” she said.
The skate parks in West Vancouver, she said, have signs that ask people to take their turn and to remember to maintain good hygiene and safe physical distancing.
She said it’s up to users to try to stay two metres away from each other. Skate parks were reopened in West Vancouver, she said, out of an awareness that there weren’t a lot of options available for youths.
“We know that we’re in this for the long run,” she said. “We are going to have to learn how to use outdoor facilities safely.”