Big Nick Bike Check
Shot this awhile back but have been slacking on doing it so here you go watch away!
Ian Bradley Woodward Edit
Went to Woodward for week 6 this summer and shot this edit with Ian Bradley. Still getting used to my new camera so its not as good as the video could be. Check it out below.
New Soto Skate Park: Where's the challenge? say skateboarders and bikers
Soto Skate Park’s new look with no ramps. “This is a slap in the face,” said Stephen Quigley, 17, of Grant City, a constant presence at the skate park for the past four years. “It’s like taking tackle out of football.” (Staten Island Advance/Virginia N. Sherry)STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – MIDLAND BEACH – Young skateboard and BMX enthusiasts who previously flocked to Benjamin Soto Skate Park from all over Staten Island expressed astonishment and disappointment last week about what they see as the dumbed-down version of the borough’s only skate park. The city’s Parks Department reopened the site on June 16.
“This is terrible – there are no ramps – this place is not a skate park any more,” said Woodrow resident Matt Duffy, 14, who attends Tottenville High School and gets from his South Shore home to the Midland Beach facility via the Staten Island Railway (SIR).
Great Kills resident Chris Nazzaro, 17, a recent graduate of Monsignor Farrell High School who will enter the College of Staten Island (CSI) as a freshman, agreed. “I’ll grind the rails for a little, and then find somewhere else to go,” he said.
“The old park was fine – we had a good and decent park – all it needed was repairs,” said Joshua Ocasio, a 20-year-old engineering major at CSI who lives in Prince’s Bay. “They just tore down everything. It should not have been bulldozed. This is crap.”
The Parks Department told the Advance on Monday that “six steel and concrete benches and multiple steel rails planned for the site are now installed,” and “a low concrete platform and ramp will be installed this summer.”
In a statement, the agency explained that “ramps over three feet require safety equipment and helmets and staff to monitor,” adding that “most of the new skate parks being built have primarily ‘street elements.’
“We hope to add concrete ramps, bowls and other elements when we have funding, but we will not be adding ramps over three feet as has been discussed with the community and elected officials on previous occasions,” the agency said.
“This is a slap in the face,” said Stephen Quigley, 17, of Grant City, a constant presence at the skate park for the past four years. “It’s like taking tackle out of football.”
“It’s a disgrace that it’s come down to this, and there’s only this to show,” said a disgusted Tim Cox, 15, of Bulls Head, a BMX enthusiast who attends McKee High School and sometimes rides his bike from the West Shore to Midland Beach when he cannot catch a car ride.
‘NO VARIETY’
From left to right, skateboarders Rich Rojas of Rosebank, 18; Joshua Ocasio of Prince’s Bay, 20; and Akeim Whylie, 16, also of Rosebank. “They should add quarter-pipes, banks, and ramps,” said Rojas, who used Soto Skate Park for four years before it was shut down and demolished.Skateboarders voiced similar complaints last week, all of them upset about the lack of ramps that allowed them to ride, “get air,” and establish momentum for other tricks. “You can’t fly off any of this stuff – there’s no variety,” one of them said.
“I can’t skate transition and do ‘tranny’ tricks. It’s all rails and street stuff,” another complained.
“It’s the worst thing ever. They should take it back, and put in some real edges,” said Akeim Whylie, 16, who lives in Rosebank and attends Ft. Hamilton High School in Brooklyn. “This is like junkyard welding,” he commented, pointing to the low metal rails. “I know because my dad is a welder. I want to unbolt this stuff, and bring it home for my dad to make better.”
His friend Rich Rojas, 18 – a McKee High School student, also from Rosebank – said that the newly reopened park “is not what I was expecting. I’m a little grateful, but they should add quarter-pipes, banks, and ramps.
“They didn’t consult with us when they made this. There should be fewer rails,” added Rojas, a user of the park for the last four years.
The whole point of skate parks is the availability of infrastructure not easily – and legally – found on the streets, the young riders explained.
“Kids go pro at 14 years old,” said Quigley of Grant City. “So for those of us trying to go pro, this is wasted time that we can’t get back. This was a place to learn – the only place on Staten Island.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
“We recognize that the current ‘street elements’ may not accommodate all styles of riding, and we are working with the skateboard and BMX community to identify and advocate for either future enhancements to Ben Soto, or the complete rebuild of a new skate park at the same location,” the Parks Department said in its statement. The agency noted, however, that “there is no budget at this time” to reconstruct Soto Skate Park.
BMX bikers at Soto Skate Park — “This is a slap in the face,” said one.“We are also investigating additional skate park opportunities in Staten Island parks,” the agency added. “We are now considering the possibility of adaptively-reusing the old Safari Amusement Park site (at Arthur Kill Road and Richmond Avenue, owned by the Parks Department) as a skate park,” the agency stated, noting that “a Request for Proposal for the operation of the adjacent building facility as a Parks Concession was released on April 20, and the deadline was June 23.
Read the whole story here
http://www.silive.com/eastshore/index.ssf/2011/06/new_soto_skate_park_no_challen.html
CB 2 Meeting on 5-17-2011
Here is the Skate park patrons at another Community board meeting fighting for their skate park.
New Dorp High School protest photos
Commissioner Long Where’s our Park?
Arthur
Crowd
I love BMX
300 Students protesting
Front of New Dorp High school
BenjaminSoto Deserves our Respect.
Sit in.
Skate on the Bull Horn.
Tommy John speaking to the crowd.
Ed Pollio speaking to the crowd.
Protesters tied up.
Charlie, Steve, and Alissa.
Honestly I am amazed by this turn out and all the support for the Benjamin Soto skate park. NYC Parks needs to pay attention to these smart young future voters.
New Dorp High School Students Stage Sit-In
The park was closed because the Parks Department felt that the park was a safety hazard. The park was built only five years ago, but the other four boroughs had skate parks built seven years ago. Also the budget for the SI skate park was half that of all the other four. The SI budget was 500,000 dollars when each other borough received 1 million dollar budgets. Also this past season the Brooklyn skate park received a 200,000 upgrade while Staten Island received a demolition.
Many Staten Island teens feel the demolition of the SI skate park is not only an atrocity and a devastation to the youth of Staten Island but is also a blatant display of disrespect towards US Marine Lance Corporal Benjamin Soto, whom the park is named after.
Ed Pollio Speaks At The New Dorp High School Sit In Agaisnt The Close Of The South Beach Skate Park
“The skating and extreme sports community is growing and the kids need somewhere they can go to stay out of trouble. In East LA the crime rate dropped 60% when a skate park opened up” Pointed out Ed Pollio one of the founders of the skate park and an avid BMX biker.
Thanks to Steven McLoughlin
Read the whole story here
http://newdorpvoice.com/?p=2667
New Dorp Voice And GHB's 1000 Post!
On Monday, April 18 which was the first day of our spring vacation, it started out to be a beautiful day until I arrived at the Benjamin Soto Skate Park. I had all intentions of hanging out with my friends, riding and filming but instead was horrified when I saw a team of twelve parks department employees and bulldozers tearing down the equipment in the skate park. The week before, I had been over at the park in the pouring rain trying to put a film together to send to whoever would listen about the repairs that the different types of ramps needed. Now there were no longer any ramps to make repairs on. I witnessed these men throwing the equipment in the dumpsters instead of trying to fix it.
I know I’ve written about this skate park in the past but what you don’t understand is it’s a place we call home. You can go there and hang out with your friends all day long and never get bored. Now where will the youth of today get to hang out?
Read the whole story here.
http://newdorpvoice.com/?p=2676
Letters to the Advance about the skate park. Did you write one yet?
Here are some letters that were published in the Staten Island Advance. Did you write one yet?
By EDWARD POLLIO
PRINCE’S BAY
My name is Edward Pollio, and I am writing to you on behalf of the 300 kids who utilized the Benjamin Soto Skate Park here on Staten Island and their parents, who have looked to me as a resource in working with the New York City Parks Department to keep the skate park open for the past five years.
Since its opening in 2005, Benjamin Soto Skate Park in Midland Beach has been a refuge to Staten Island kids, where they can stay off the streets, off drugs, and out of trouble.
More than just its ramps and rails, this park is the heart and soul of our community – parents, children, and community activists alike have rallied behind the park as a place for neighborhood kids to come together and share in their love of skate sports.
Despite our continued initiatives to bring attention to the Parks Department’s ongoing neglect of the space, which has fallen into disrepair in recent months from its constant use, the park was closed last October due to the unsafe condition of the equipment.
This catalyzed a unified effort from the Staten Island community to get funding from the Parks Department to have the equipment resurfaced and repaired.
You can imagine our shock when a group of neighborhood boys rode over to the park on the first day of their spring break only to find bulldozers tearing apart their favorite hangout.
After all our efforts to get the park cleaned up for the warmer months, how could it have been demolished without warning? The Skate Park community was not given notice, nor the chance to raise funds for the park’s repair.
Moreover, I cannot express our disappointment that this youth community keystone is being torn down to make way for a “streetscape” park.
As it stands, the Parks Department’s future plans for the space are a far cry from what Benjamin Soto Skate Park seeks to provide – a permanent place for Staten Island’s extreme sports community to practice their sport, teach one another and hone their skills.
As the originators of the space’s concept, we would have been more than happy to put in the volunteer labor required to bring the park up to code.
Benjamin Soto Skate Park must be reinstated. Not only to provide the kids with a safe place to ride, but also because it is a pillar of the community, a cherished memorial to Benjamin Soto.
Benjamin always dreamed of returning from his Marine service to open a place just like our skate park, but he didn’t live to see his dream come to fruition.
I hope you won’t let his dream die.
WE NEED YOUR HELP. Please help us keep this safe haven alive.
http://www.silive.com/opinion/letters/index.ssf/2011/04/communitys_support_needed_to_s.html
By RAYMOND RUSINAK
WEST BRIGHTON
Today’s kids are supposedly consumed by video games, TV and the computer. Today’s parents are supposedly over-involved in organizing our children’s lives through a myriad of sports leagues and organizations. This is not the case with at least one group of kids: those involved in skateboarding, BMX biking and other so called extreme sports.
The kids who take part in these activities aren’t tied to their couches, TV’s and computers. Nor do they rely on their parents to organize their activities and games for them. They go to the park and do their own thing. The older kids help the younger ones with tips and encouragement. They share equipment and tools among each other. The kids get along, they teach each other, they learn from each other, they bond with one another. Most importantly they grow as individuals with one another.
For anyone who has spent any time at all at the former Benjamin Soto Skate Park in Midland Beach, you know exactly what I am talking about. Unfortunately, if you have not had the pleasure to have seen these kids skating and riding at Ben Soto you may never have the opportunity to do so again. Last Monday, the Parks Department brought in bull dozers and leveled the park.
It had fallen into a state of disrepair, something the kids themselves have been quite aware of. Many of them pursued the official and proper channels in order to get repairs done. Nothing happened until the bulldozers leveled Ben Soto. “Officially,” the park had become dangerous largely due to vandalism.
Sure there was graffiti on some of the ramps, but the park had become a hazard not due to vandals or misuse. No, the park had become hazardous because it was such a success. Skateboarding and BMX riding can be very rough on its environment. The ramps needed resurfacing, the rails needed work, etc.
The park could very easily have been repaired without destroying what was already in place. But no, the Parks Department felt the need to take it all down. They now say that it will be rebuilt in three weeks time with “modern streetscape elements, including reinforced steel picnic tables, granites steps, cement planters and a single pipe rail.”
Even to the uninitiated, this certainly doesn’t sound much like a skate park. The Benjamin Soto Skate Park should be rebuilt as a skate park with at least the same amenities it had when it was first opened in 2005. The skaters and rider should also be given input in its design.
It is a shame that all of this had to come to pass because it could very easily have been avoided and as such could have saved the city a good amount of money. But that moment has passed and it is time to move on. Let’s just hope that the powers that be don’t forget that this small amount of space was and should still be about the kids.
http://www.silive.com/opinion/letters/index.ssf/2011/04/rebuild_skate_park_demolished.html
By CAROLINE BJORLING
GRANT CITY
First we get a clueless New York City schools chancellor, Cathie Black
Now it’s a clueless Borough Parks Commissioner, Adena Long.
Her authorized destruction (instead of repair) of the Benjamin Soto Skate Park shows she is unaware (or uncaring) of the importance of this only skate park on Staten Island.
The teen years go quickly, and a couple of years make a huge difference in development of skills needed in this sport.
Ms. Long, in effect, has stolen that time from our teens for the sake of a few picnic tables and planters which she claims are “what kids like to play on.”
Oh, really?
http://www.silive.com/opinion/letters/index.ssf/2011/04/demolition_of_skate_park_shows.html
By KIMBERLY PAPANIER
NEW DORP
I just wanted to thank the Parks Department and Staten Island politicians for keeping up the trend of making empty promises.
That was a stellar job Monday of dismantling the Ben Soto Skate Park in a matter of hours. How quickly you can get things done when it suits you.
For the last two years, the kids who use the park have been asking for the park to be renovated, but there hasn’t been money for it.
What was the point of all the civic meetings, then? The Parks Department went about things in a sneaky way and I refuse to believe the Staten Island politicians had no knowledge.
Once again, the other four boroughs can provide better services to the people who live there while we remain the “forgotten borough.” Thanks for nothing!
http://www.silive.com/opinion/letters/index.ssf/2011/04/surprise_dismantling_of_popula.html
Here are some other address’s you may want to email also.
James Oddo: NYC Councilman
District Office Phone - 718-980-1017
Legislative Office Phone - 212-788-7159
Phone - 718-980-1045
Email - oddo@council.nyc.ny.us
Adrian Benepe: NYC Parks Dept. Commissioner
Phone 212-360-1305
Email - adrian.benepe@parks.nyc.gov
Adena Long: Staten Island Parks Commissioner
Phone – 718-390-8004
Email - adena.long@parks.nyc.gov
Mayor Bloomberg: NYC Mayor
Email - http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html
Fax – (212) 312-0700
Michael Schnall: Sten Island Director of Government.
Email - michael.schnall@parks.nyc.gov
Please sign this petition - http://www.change.org/petitions/restore-and-rebuild-benjamin-soto-skate-park
Benjamin Soto skate park petition on Ride BMX site.
Steve Quigly, a Staten Islander, hit me up with this email…
‘On Monday, April 18th, 2011, the New York City Parks Department tore down Staten Island’s only skatepark, “Ben Soto Skatepark”, named after a BMX rider who passed away serving his country in 2001. The Park Department said that park was torn down due to hazardous conditions of the ramps, however, the ramps needed very little maintenance to get them into brand new shape (IE: re-sheeting of main layers, tightening and replacing screws). This beautiful skatepark was torn down, and is said to be replaced with “streetscape elements” consisting of 1 rail, planters and stairs. This is not what the BMX community wants, but Parks does not seem to care to much about what we think. We started this petition to show the Parks Department that the Ben Soto Skatepark is truly missed, and we need a park of equal or better structure, not 1 single rail and a few stairs. It will really be appreciated if you sign this petition and join the facebook group! The larger amount of people that sign and join, the better we look and the better chance we have of getting a great skatepark in Staten Island! Thanks a lot!!’
Sign the petition, and join the Facebook group below and show your support for Shaolin!
Petition link:
http://www.change.org/petitions/restore-and-rebuild-benjamin-soto-skate-park
Facebook link:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_140181056053194&ap=1
http://bmx.transworld.net/1000127612/news/ben-soto-skatepark-petition/
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