Politics & Government

Tony Hawk Opposes City Plan to Give Skate Park to YMCA

The San Diego skate legend said he is against plans to hand the skate park to the YMCA and called the plan a betrayal of an agreement made between his foundation and the city.

KUSI's Turko Files caught up with skate legend Tony Hawk earlier this week to ask him about plans to hand management of the Imperial Beach Skate Park over to the South Bay Family YMCA along with the rest of the Sports Park and Recreation Center complex.

"It's not something we're backing and we hope that they keep the skate park in the hands of the community and the kids," Hawk told Michael Turko.

As part of the city's plan, instead of using the park for free, skaters would be required to pay an annual membership fee or day use fee. In exchange for handing over management of the Sports Park complex the city expects to save more than $100,000.

Find out what's happening in Imperial Beachwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Tony Hawk Foundation gave the city a $10,000 grant to help build the park but told the city to keep the park free and public property.

"Our foundation is all about supporting public skate parks in low income areas, in places where kids can feel like they're part of the community, not some place that's going to keep them out or encourage them to go skate elsewhere on private property," he said.

Find out what's happening in Imperial Beachwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Click here to see the full video and story on KUSI.

Tony Hawk Foundation Executive Director Miki Vukovich spoke to IB Patch last month and echoed Hawk's comments made Monday.

If the city goes forward with the plan the foundation may ask for its money back, Vukovich said.

Assistant City Manager Greg Wade said the city wants to include the skate park in a potential YMCA deal to make sure it is supervised and to keep incidents that keep nearby residents from calling the sheriff's department.

Lt. Marco Garmo told IB Patch incidents at the skate park are no longer an issue since a fence was installed last year.

Ciick here to read more about how the skate park figures into the potential Sports Park complex deal.

A community forum to discuss the Sports Park's future will be held April 11.


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