The Crescent

On the subject of Bar Beach, I do agree that the street section is a pile of shit but there were a few reasons it ended up that way. Firstly, because the local residents put up a massive fight and the overall area of the park was reduced in somewhat of an attempt to appease said assholes. The bowl was already locked in. This was because the local old bowl guys had been lobbying for it for years. The whole bowl-a-rama image they were pushing is what prompted Newcastle council to apply for the grant. Even though some street skaters were involved though, they still got shafted to an extent with that design.

And the redfern oval idea sounds cool, just be specific about exactly what obstacles you want..........mention the word "unique" to a "designer" and they will start salivating and you'll end up with something stupid like that dish thing at mudgeeraba. I'd really love to see just a cool run of flat block ledges and manny pads with maybe some stairs and hubbas but I guess whatever the people want....

If the council is hoping to achieve something that doesn't look or feel like a skate park, then just make a plaza thing with some standalone ledges and small sets of stairs with out-ledges like that Russel Crowe thing on steroids. Forget tranny, theres glebe mini and that does the job :-)

Sadly when its all said and done, Glebe is a bit of a lame location. Why the hell they can't get budget allocation for Sydney Park is beyond me. I wrote to the planning member there last year and all they said was "we are trying to make the park facilities family friendly for younger children and feel a skate park does not fit that demographic". The park is fricking massive, has heaps of shadowy corners you could chuck a capsule bowl or small plaza like waterloo in without getting in the way of the kids bike school traffic lights, jungle gyms and sand pits.. Most importantly its right across the road from a train station that is 5 minutes from Central..

Sparkes, seeing as your on the front line, has Sydney Park come up in conversations? They seem to have an insane budget and room to burn. Fuck they just ripped up the entire kids training-road system with traffic lights and pedestrian crossings that they ride around on their bikes with to rebuild it 100 feet from the original location.

Hey shutdown,
Yes - Sydney park has been discussed numerous times. To be honest we have never really received negative feedback regarding a facility being constructed there......except council and local residents being concerned about the potential loss of green space. Obviously, we have educated council/residents countless times in regards to "modern skatepark design" and how many projects which are delivered these days encompass the preservation of green space, the use of recycled materials and so on.

Furthermore - The City of Sydney council openly boasts (on their website) to own/maintain over 400 public parks and spaces around Sydney. I'm no genius (obviously)...... but i'm sure you would agree with me that it's slightly suspicious council feel we are unable to share even a small portion of those 400 listed spaces with the greater community ?! Hect...... even sharing 1 of those 400 would be welcomed ! But no......it's all too hard.

To cut a long story short any decision made by the council (and I literally mean ANY) comes down to one persons final say......The Lord Mayor. The lord Mayor is renowned for "feathering her own nest" (so to speak) and generally approves public infrastructure that will only benefit herself, her friends, her associates, her wallet and ultimately her image. The Sydney bike lanes for instance - The millions of dollars put towards those cycleways is astronomical and they continue to be constructed all over town regardless of community sentiment! Í definitely agree the cycleways are needed and quite frankly I think they are great..... but it's more the fact that they are built despite copious amounts of community/local business objection and continue to expand with a "tough titties" attitude plastered all over them. What am I trying to say here? We would have had a city park YEARS AGO if she would somewhat benefit from its construction.

Anyway - i'm ranting but I thought (since you're interested) i'd bring you up to speed. We aren't stopping the fight and the more they push back the harder we go (kinda like doggy style). We already have an overwhelming level of community support from local residents..... much more than anyone attempting to object to the potential city park (this is a fact) and currently have a few things in the works which will really stir the waters in the council chambers. We will get that park (or a multitude of skate spaces/paths in the city) eventually.....even if it kills me.

Thanks for writing into council ! Even one quick email supporting skateboarding in Sydney or in support of more facilities is noted by council and really helps us win the fight. The more support council receive the harder it is for them to say "No". Anyway...... I realise that this is a massive "un-cool"/ Kook post but whatever.....if its not me it would be some other dick head so I guess (for now) i'm the dick head. I'd also just like to note that the Sydney City council staff have been nothing but amazing in helping us get the ball rolling. Don't be mad at them.....they are (for the most part) generally caring/kind people who want to see us finally get what we need.

Meeting went well, I've got high hopes for this park.
Most people seemed to be on the same page of getting a decent plaza, with great input from all who attended.

It really is a great spot, and not far from the light rail station.

Convic and city of Sydney seem to make a great pairing.

Hey pet flies who were you at the meeting? I was the dude with long hair and glasses

I agree pretty much everyone was on the same page and it seems we have at least a few members of council on our side.
Can't wait to see what convic come up with, and those who actually turned up to put forward ideas will probably see them come into the final design.

I do wish I came across this thread earlier, there is some hilarious stuff in there!
Shutdown, you can't really think that having a few beers with a mate who's involved in the park is going to hold any influence on a final design.

Unfortunately to get things done you need to be a salesman of your own cause - not just come up with a cool idea, but convince all stakeholders that this is the right approach. This means actually turning up and making yourself heard in meetings, which in the case of bar beach obviously the guy who wanted the bowl simply campaigned harder for it.

To be honest if a handful of bmxers had turned up to the Glebe meeting wanting a spined snake run they probably would have got it - so the one thing I think can improve is more brothers attending the meetings.

However thank sweet baby jesus our lord and savior we have the voice of the SSA. They are bringing to the table the ideas of the skaters who aren't so inclined to get up and fight for it on their own.

Just hiding in plain sight man... I've got glasses and a beard, but my name's not really peter its Aaron.

You've probably seen me somewhere, I ride some fakie but not switch or nollie.
I've got a few extra pounds but no lightsaber