Santos said “neighborhood Karens” have been claiming that a proposed skate park would be a bad idea, and snookered the area’s park board representative into a private meeting (that she calls an ambush) about the project.
The post by Santos has garnered just over 170 comments about the proposed skate park, about what NIMBYism is and the purpose of neighborhood input (just in case you aren't aware, "NIMBY" stands for "Not In My Back Yard'). Some said they supported the proposed project, a 5,000-to-9,000-square-foot neighborhood skate park in Dallas’ City Council District 14, while others complained that there hadn’t been enough neighborhood involvement.
Rudy Karimi, the park board representative for the district and a staunch supporter of the skate park, has heard it all.
One thing remains true in Karimi’s eyes though: Dallas needs more skate parks. He said that every 10 years, the park department does a comprehensive analysis of its amenities. The last one was done in 2016. It identified several gaps in the city’s parks amenities, including skate parks. At the time, the city only had one skate park. That’s still the case today.
The only skate park in Dallas is the one at Lakeland Hills in District 7. At the time of the last analysis, there were about 1.2 million people in Dallas. Karimi said industry practices call for one skate park for every 75,000 people. Based on that, if the city wanted to keep up with demand, it would have somewhere close to 18 skate parks. Austin operates two public skate parks, while the city of Houston operates five. San Antonio has 16 public skate parks.
Three skate park projects are proposed in the upcoming bond package. One is set for Oak Cliff. Another project would revamp the Lakeland Hills skate park. Lastly, another skate park is being proposed for Glencoe Park, off Central Expressway just south of Mockingbird Lane. This is the park at issue for some neighbors in the area. “There is a significant need,” Karimi said. “It is a quality of life issue. I will say it loud and proud, It’s a city need. It’s a departmental need that we consider as many new skate parks as we can because we’re not going to get to 18.”
At a town hall meeting early this month, the proposed skate park was a hot topic. In an effort to save time at the meeting, Karimi said he would open himself up for a separate meeting with neighbors in the area. That meeting is this Thursday, and it’s open only to residents of the area, with another meeting about the project in early November that will be open to everyone.“Glencoe Park is designated as a neighborhood park and we’re the neighborhood, so we want to make sure that we have a voice.” – Teri Ervin, resident
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Teri Ervin, a resident in the area, helped organize the meeting this week. Ervin wouldn’t say if she supported or opposed the skate park, only that she wanted more community comment. “We’re just meeting to ensure that the neighborhood voice is heard regarding the current and future use of Glencoe Park,” Ervin said. “Glencoe Park is designated as a neighborhood park and we’re the neighborhood, so we want to make sure that we have a voice.
“I have some concerns and some thoughts and some questions,” she added. While she didn’t want to go into specifics, she did say that she was worried not enough people in the neighborhood knew about the proposal.
Karimi said generally he wouldn’t dive too deeply into the specifics of a bond proposal because it’s all so subject to change, but he is willing to do so with this project because some have cited concerns about it.
The skate park would sit on the southwest corner of Glencoe Park where there’s an underused baseball field, one of two baseball fields at Glencoe. The other field, at the northwest corner, is used quite a bit. Why eliminate a ball field? Karimi said in the same amenities analysis back in 2016, it was determined that Dallas has more than enough ball fields.
“Losing one will not impact our citizens’ quality of life since we have such a large abundance of these diamond fields,” he said. Those who might use the baseball field on the southwest corner of Glencoe Park could easily be redirected to another one in the city, including the one at the northwest corner of the park.
There has been some opposition to the proposed project. People are worried about losing grassy areas at the park or aren't thrilled at the idea of more pedestrian and car traffic there. “I get the green-space argument. I respect the green-space argument,” Karimi said. “But the footprint would be the size of the clay infield of this ball field. And I want to remind people, the clay infield is currently not green, so we’re not losing greenspace by replacing the size of the clay infield with a skateable concrete area.”
He said the project could even call for more trees in the area, increasing the overall greenspace.
Another concern is about possible noise coming from a new skate park. But Karimi said the park is located next to a noisy expressway, and there are potentially louder recreational activities going on at some of the city’s parks already. “I also want folks to know that smooth wheels skating on smooth surfaces are significantly quieter than the repeated dinking sound of pickleball, and you and I know how hot pickleball is right now,” he said.
Some are worried about a potential strain on parking. Because one amenity is being replaced by another, there shouldn’t be that many additional cars at the park, and, Karimi added, this would be a problem that regulates itself in a way because skaters who see a crowded skate park will likely just find another place to do their thing. Additionally, he said many skaters are teenagers or young adults who likely don’t have cars to park. He guesses that the possible extra traffic would be equivalent to there being an extra birthday party there.
Karimi said some residents are concerned the skaters may run into other pedestrians at the park, but he noted the skating area would be located away from the walking trails. “There’s really no risk at that point of a skater going into the path and knocking out a pedestrian or a cyclist,” he said.
In case it wasn’t clear, Karimi loves the idea of having a skate park at Glencoe Park. He recommended the location for the skate park.
Karimi said the area is diverse, and Glencoe Park is the biggest in the district. It is intersected by two trails, the Katy Trail and the University Crossing Trail. It is also about a couple of football fields away from the Mockingbird DART rail. “So, now we have micro mobility. We have public transportation,” he said. “And if that’s not enough, Glencoe Park is directly attached adjacent to 75.”
Because of its adjacency to the freeway, the park board rep stated more vehicles drive by Glencoe Park than all of his neighborhood parks in the district combined. The park is also nearly right smack in the middle of the city. “So, it’s a perfect spot, despite what some naysayers might say,” he said.
One thing he wants people to remember is that the project is not set in stone.
“This is a recommendation at best,” Karimi said. “It has so many phases of approval to go through before it actually becomes a real thing. A lot of folks out there think ‘Oh, this is a done deal.’ No, sir. No, ma'am. This is absolutely not a done deal. This thing could pass in the bond and still get shot down in community input down the road.”
