Despite nearly a decade of neighborhood division and controversy, Santa Rita Park is preparing to open a new skate park that will be free to the public.
Santa Rita Skate Park, 400 E. 22nd St., will be a completely public park compared to other Tucson skate parks that require membership fees much like the Ott Family YMCA, which can cost up to $10 for a non-member adult. The Randolph Center and Purple Heart Skate Parks are also public and operated by the city of Tucson.
Although getting the project underway was a struggle, construction has been on target with the proposed plans. Neighbors slowed the process by opposing the park’s construction because of safety concerns for the children from supposed drug use in the park. Others supported it because it will give kids somewhere to exercise and have an after-school activity to keep them out of trouble. With construction underway neighbors will have to wait and see how the community and kids are affected.
“Everything has been going according to plan since construction started in October,” said Henry Inzunza, the park’s contractor and superintendent for Environmental Strategies Inc. There is no official completion or grand opening date set.
The style of the Santa Rita Skate Park is different from others around town in that parks such as Celestial and Randolph Center are more street-style. These parks consist of ramps strategically set up across a flat expanse of pavement. This set up allows skaters to string a variety of tricks together.
Santa Rita Skate Park strictly has “bowls” which resemble empty swimming pools with pipe lining the rim for grinding tricks on. This affords skateboarders another option rather than going from one street-style park to another.
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