CINCINNATI — As Cincinnati city leaders continue to evaluate how to plan out spending for the next fiscal year, one spending request from the public has been voiced on multiple occasions: funding for a skate park.
Two different local organizations advocating for skating-related projects are asking Cincinnati to provide funding in the 2024-2025 budget.
Evan Walker is the founder of the Cincinnati Skatepark Project. He grew up skateboarding and at 40, he's still doing what he loves.
"I grew up playing other sports, baseball, but skateboarding stuck with me," he said. "I've also seen it really build communities where they're kids who didn't fit into other sports, couldn't afford other sports."
He wants this generation of Cincinnati kids to have easier access to somewhere safe they can go to skateboard, so he started the Cincinnati Skatepark Project, fundraising and advocating for a skate park within the city.
If the funding is included in the final budget, Walker said next steps include fundraising to match the city's proposed contribution. Then, he said they'll continue to work with the Cincinnati Recreation Commission to find a location for the skate park.
"We want to put it in a city site that already exists, make use of maybe a grass space that's not being utilized so that we're not having to build something completely from scratch," Walker said.
He said one location his group has considered is in Camp Washington.
"And have skateboarders involved but also rollerskaters, inline skaters," Walker said.
A separate group is focusing on those rollerskaters.
"We are asking the city to come on board and match the $100,000 we've already raised to refurbish the riverfront rink at Sawyer Point," said Morgan Rigaud, the leader of Skate Downtown Cincinnati said.
They partnered with the Cincinnati Parks Foundation and want to resurface the roller rink to fix cracks in the ground and refurbish the building attached to the rink, as well as build a dome so the rink can be used year-round.
It's a movement that started with Rigaud during the pandemic.
"I was skating down here by myself with a speaker and met absolute strangers in the park doing the same thing," she said.
The two groups started holding free events at the rink and working with a group of volunteers to clean it up. Now, they're asking the city for funding. It's something not currently included in the proposed budget.
These advocates aren't the only ones voicing their opinions in favor of a safe space to skate. During the final public input session about the city budget Monday night, residents brought it up as well.
"You know the crime rate, if these kids could have somewhere to go for just a few hours of the day, you never know, that could change their minds to become a skater," said Maurice Jenkins.
Mayor Aftab Pureval has recommended $250,000 for the project in in the proposed 2024-2025 budget for a skate park, but those recommendations don't elaborate on which project he may be eyeing.
"At this point, right, it's the recommended budget and so Council, we are still looking at options, even options that are outside of the recommended budget," said Budget and Finance Committee Chair, Reggie Harris. "The folks from the roller rink down at Sawyer Point have made a really compelling argument around support for the roller rink. And so I know that's something that I am personally looking at and considering supporting because of the positive impact that it was had on the community."
City Council plans to vote on the final budget by June 14.
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