Cathedral Area Community Association Backs Skatepark
Report from Tom Morin, Cathedral Area Community Association President, in the Village Voice, November 2005:"The City of Regina's proposal to build a Skateboarder park in the southern end of Regina was another item that came up in the Spring of 2005. A couple of the proposed locations for the 'Skatepark' fell within the Cathedral neighbourhood. The proposed locations in Les Sherman Park for the Skatepark has both its supporters and its detractors. There is no doubt that an overwhelming number of people support the installation of the Skatepark within the Cathedral Area.
To date the CACA has not had any further correspondence from the City of Regina regarding the proposed Skatepark. At the September board meeting it was decided that the CACA board send a letter to the Mayor indicating that the Cathedral Area Community Association supports the construction of a Skatepark in the Cathedral neighbourhood. The letter also indicates the CACA looks forward to assisting the City in finding the optimum location for the Skatepark within our neighbourhood. We look forward to working with the City on this matter."
posted by Communities 4 Sk8ers @ 1:40 PM
3 Comments:
You are correct in stating that the majority of residents favor a skateboard park in the Cathedral area. You however present no evidence that the residents possibly affected directly by this proposal support it. Most people support virtually anything that is not in their own backyards. In the list of favourable comments about skateparks there is nothing about the problems Saskatoon and Manotic, Ontario(a suburb of Ottaws). The proposed location to the south of the Neil Balkwill Centre is a good one as the building will shelter and lessen the sound. Also, with some cooperation from the Neil Balkwill Centre washrooms, water, and a emergency phone are available. I urge your community to look closely at supervision and safety issues as unsupervised sites can lead to problems, witness Saskatoon. No proposed site is perfect but this site is way better then some of the others that were proposed in the original selections.
Thanks for your comments, Richard, and your support of North Les Sherman. In fact, by "majority of residents" I believe Mr. Morin is referring to the majority of residents in Cathdral, who are in fact the ones most directly affected. Most of the parents lobbying for the skatepark live within one or two blocks of Les Sherman. As for the Saskatoon site, the reason there was trouble there was precisely because people put up such a fuss and shoved the skatepark into an isolated location bordering a rough neighbourhood. The skaters didn't want to skate there because they thought there'd be trouble, and they were right - and keep in mind the skaters were the victims of crimes there, not the perpretrators. I don't know anything about Manotic, never heard about it, but I do know there are hundreds of skateparks operating across Canada without trouble and creating happiness and hours of outdoor summer enjoyment for parents and kids and, yes, even for "affected" residents like myself.
I wouid love to know who in Cathedral (citizens and taxpayers) actually support this proposal. This, I would view as an absolute necessity of any location.
What percentage of people living in Cathedral support this initiative?
I have spoken many people living on my block about the proposal and the 2200 block of King Street is not supportive of the skateboard proposal for Les Sherman Park.
I think that the community needs to know.
I also have questions about the community policing group; who are they? what powers do they have? what resources do they have? what experience do they have?
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