Wilson vs. Grant: The City has Already Decided Who has Won
The map I have created is more a map of location, because this investigation goes much deeper than what I could describe on a 2-dimensional map. The investigation being the treatment of skateparks in correlation with their surrounding communities. Being a skateboarder, I often find myself traveling to new parts of the city in order to go to a new skate spot or skatepark, and I have come to find that the area in which the skateparks are located are often very good previews of what the park is going to look like. In this investigation I use the two skateparks closest to DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus: Wilson Skatepark and Grant Park.
The map above shows, with large yellow stars and lettering, where the two parks are located, along with what the neighborhoods the parks are in are referred to, the neighborhoods that surround them, a general observation of wealth based off of conditions viewable from the street, and the general amount of people that are at each park at a given time. Also included on the map is a compass rose, in which the directions are directly pointed out, the reference points of the map mainly being the neighborhoods along with the highway systems surrounding the neighborhoods, and a gun, in quotations, to represent where people consider violence to be, since violence is usually associated with the South side of the city.
In this specific investigation of the city, I contest that idea of violence and poverty being thought of as a South side thing. This video shown below includes the typical journey from Fullerton to Wilson skatepark. Try to notice the broken and run down buildings, the homeless people and gang members loitering on the street, and the students from the high school, who can cause plenty of trouble for people walking along the sidewalk alone like me, loitering as well.
It is evident, when talking about Wilson Skatepark, that the park is not taken care of much by the city at all. The only reason the leaves are pushed off to the side of the park is because the skateboarders themselves did it. I believe this mistreatment of a park the city had built in the first place also shows how much the city cares about the area surrounding it. Since Uptown and Wilson Skatepark are away from the main attractions of the city, the city of Chicago doesn’t seem to worry too much about how it looks, nor do they take the time to maintain it.
It would be one thing if the park was just not taken care of day to day, such is the case with the leaves being left all over the park, trash being left all over the place, mainly from the homeless that come through there at all hours of the day, drinking or smoking (amongst other things). But the park is old, it wears down from being used. In other cities, and even in Chicago at other parks, the fact that a skatepark is wearing down and could become hazardous to those who use it would be enough for the city to fund, at the very least, some renovations to the park, which could include recementing the park or replacing obstacles that do not work the way they are supposed to. But Wilson skatepark is an exception for some reason. A lot of the upkeep is left to the Wilson locals. A lot of the events held there are run by the Wilson locals. This, I believe, has lead to the community at Wilson skatepark being one of the tightest communities I have met thus far in the city, as well as anywhere else. For example, my friend had his board stolen some weeks ago. He is a Wilson skatepark local and the people are very tight with him and his family. The community heard that his board was stolen, and they came together and bought him a brand new skateboard.
So on one hand, the Wilson locals suffers from the skatepark being worn down a bit, the bowls not having a smooth transition, and the park not being upkept daily without their own help. But on the other hand these issues have created a unity within the community at Wilson.
On the other end of this argument is Grant Park. Grant park is a skatepark that was professionally created recently for a professional skateboarding competition, known as the Street League. The park was then left, even after the competition, for the city skaters to use. This park is downtown, past the loop by two stops, technically in the “bad” part of town, the Southside. I argue that this is not a bad part of town, that I actually feel way safer walking to this park on my own compared to walking to Wilson on my own. The trip to Grant is simple, you take the redline South when coming from Lincoln Park and get off at the Roosevelt stop. Then you walk not even a full two blocks and then you are safely at Grant park, where you can look at the public art, watch skateboarding from one of the may elevated viewing spots around the park or on the bridge, or even play ping pong on a public ping pong table.
It is obvious that the city takes a lot of pride in Grant park, since it is so close to a lot of attractions in the city along with the fact that they can boast about the fact that they have a Street League skatepark. This is apparent in how they clean the park and maintain the obstacles daily, it is even closed sometimes to the public so they can maintain it. It is in an excellent location, and the lines of people on the bridge watching seem to never end on some days. The park even had a new installation last night while the park was closed, as it opened with a brand new sculpture in the morning.
The smooth concrete has no cracks in it, there is not trash thrown in the way of the skaters’ lines, and the lights are in good condition at the park. But what is the trade off? Personally, I believe that Grant suffers from a lack of community compared to Wilson. The skaters are not as connected with each other, they are far more aggressive, and if you accidentally get in another skater’s way you are bound to have some verbal abuse thrown your way. The community at the skatepark is a direct product of the neighborhood it is in too, being so close to the loop it has that impersonal city feel, where nobody really bothers with each other, rather it is almost an “every man for himself” type environment.
So ultimately, the neighborhoods these parks lay in are good precursors for what the skateparks are going to look like, as shown in the contrast between the park in Uptown and the park closer to downtown. But in a study deeper than just the park itself, I have found that there is also a correlation between these parks and how tightly nit the communities are. When people are forced to work together, their communities are happier with each other, and for this reason I am able to feel safer at Wilson skating and more content, even if the neighborhood is a little sketchier to get through.
My map is connected to this in the sense that the amount of people is smaller at Wilson, yet there is less wealth in this area. Using this evidence, I am able to conclude that where there is less money in the city, where there is a tighter nit group of people in the city, is where the skateboarding experience will feel more like a family than anywhere that has large amounts of both money and people, because the experience is far more personal. Why is this helpful to know? Because when you need people to help you with learning new tricks, when you want to be in a comfortable environment where people aren’t going to yell at you for getting in their way, you will be able to know where to go. Grant skatepark is a great park, it is incredibly well built and fun to ride. But if one is looking for a comfortable community to skate with, Wilson park is the rider’s park.
