Losing our court?

Submitted by liamg on Apr 14 2010 2:48pm

Courts

the new skatepark plan, with no roller rink

well, the city is planning to redevelop part of the waterfront park that currently contains our roller rink / polo court. Under the current plan, we're part of the skatepark (although we are not fenced in like they are, and we have lights). You can check out a quick video from our court here:

http://vimeo.com/10589214

In the new plan, the skatepark expands and gets a new street skating area, and the roller rink goes away. They have plans for a temporary ice rink in the winter that is more plaza style (not hockey rink, no nets). We're heading to a meeting with the city today about this new development plan, but it seems they're pretty far down the road already.

Has anybody else dealt with an issue like this? Do we have any stats on participation numbers for polo compared to other sports (tennis/basketball courts seem to be everywhere, not really getting used much).

Our current location is pretty awesome, right on the bike path in the waterfront park. Looks like this fall we'll be looking for a new home...

polojoel

You look pretty hosed to me. Someone wants parking lots and a sailing center. Does this someone have a last name of Moran? Welcome to community planning of the '80s. More parking for more driving, with a happy air conditioned center at the end.

Honestly, I'm being very presumptuous from a couple pictures and very little background. I have no idea what's really going on in the planning process.

My best recommendation: find allies in city planning or in elected officials. There may be federal dollars to support the cause, but you have to convince park officials to go after them. Argue in favor of positive adult recreational activities, in a fight against our common mortal enemy: obesity. Offer to do programs for children towards the same end. Say practically nothing about bike polo other than the large and rapidly growing number of people doing it.

Finish laughing. It may sound silly but it's an angle that resonates with people who have a budget needing allocations. Budgets large enough to redesign parks type of budgets. At least in California this is the case...cities actually thinking hard about how to reduce driving and increase alternatives like walking, bicycling and public transit.

Now go find as many people as you can who will be supportive and go to the meeting.

Good luck!

Dingo

Melbourne

Lisa in Vancouver would be a great person to comment on this.

I just found this:
http://www.cedoburlington.org/waterfront/moran_plant/moran_plant_redevel...

Seems the development has alot of momentum.

I would try to meet and get to know as many people involved in the city and planning/sports and recreation areas as you can to try and find allies. It would be strange for the city to remove a facility that is being used and not replace it with something that is just as good at a mimimum. They may have an alternative in mind that is not suitable, you need to flag this to them.

Good luck and keep us in the loop!

Damon

--
bikepolo.com.au
urbanbicyclist.org

sauls

PENSACOLA BIKE POLO

if there is no looking back see if yall can relocate the boards and lights.

liamg

Burlington Hardcourt Bike Polo

after meeting with the city, and the parks and rec people, we're definitely a bit hosed. I guess they did a usage study about 5 years ago when the Moran Plant development was just starting, and decided that not enough people used the roller rink. The current plan has it being torn down, but obviously there is no space for a new one (the space allocation is pretty much a done deal, not going to change). We're looking at potentially moving to a tennis court or basketball court style space, but none of the existing ones are ideal (our current setup just has the best location, right downtown on the waterfront)...

Best case scenario is a new roller rink in a different city park. Reality is probably something closer to a retrofitted tennis court (somewhere that they have 3-4 courts, we'd get access to one maybe). Will keep you posted...

If you want to come play on our current court, this summer will be the last one we'll have to play there. Thinking about putting together a small New England tourney to draw some attention to our situation and maybe do some fundraising for the new spot

Dingo

Melbourne

5 year old data is pretty poor to be working with in any aspect of city planning...
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--
bikepolo.com.au
urbanbicyclist.org

emerson

Man, that's rough. Dingo's on that, too- 5 year old data? This thing has obviously been rolling for a while. Hope you're able to bounce to a new location.

You should present some 11 year old data that says a) This Y2K thing is gonna mess with your mainframes and b) Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1999.