Who's Who in Your Community?

A great initial step in community involvement is figuring out how public works gain support and funding in your area. Every state and city is different, so what may be a reasonable strategy in one area may not work in another.

The three primary entities in most US metropolitan areas are the city government (City Council), community groups (Neighborhood Councils), and Parks Bureaus. All three will need to come together to support your project, though solely aligning with only one of the three will probably lead to more resistance than hoped for. City governments will generally be the entity to approve your project and sign the checks. As a result, they’ll be most interested in keeping costs down. If you have your eyes on a premium skatepark, you’ll want to emphasize to this group the long-term savings and value of your particular design. The city wants a popular, inexpensive public facility.

Community councils will be your vehicle for choosing an appropriate site and, to some degree, adjacent amenities. They’ll probably be most concerned with security, noise, parking, and so on. They’ll respond well to the need of young adults to have access to positive, healthy choices for inexpensive activities. The community wants a safe and comfortable park.

The Parks Department will manage the bureaucratic processes of seeing the project through. Parks departments tend to be most concerned with maintenance, identifying and meeting the needs of the community, and budgeting. They’ll respond favorably to demonstrations of strong community support for skateparks and skateboarding events (especially if the Parks Department gets to share in the positive press). Parks departments want successful parks because their charter is the recreation of their community’s citizens.