In the Palos Verdes community, many people want a skate park in the neighborhood, and there is one organization doing as much as they can to get one.  SkateParkPV is an organization of about eight people dedicated to building a skate park in Palos Verdes.  Their mission is to “provide a safe and welcoming environment for skateboarding on the Peninsula, where skaters can recreate and practice their sport.” The organization has done extremely well, accomplishing many plans; however, none have been approved.

SkateParkPV has several possible locations.  Lance Parker, the son of SkateParkPV’s founder, Jim Parker, said, “There is a community center near Abalone Cove, next to a dog park. That is one of the proposed locations for the skate park.”  Currently, the skate park plan needs the city council members’ approval to become a reality. “We were completely set and ready to go, but something happened and we had to move to another council,” said Parker. The production was halted due to previous mining activity dating back to the mid-twentieth century. Because of this safety hazard, the production of a skate park in this particular location was delayed. Furthermore, the city has no money to fill up the mining, thus bringing the skate park idea back to square one.

To pursue their goal of building a recreational skate park for PV residents and their families, the organization needs more funding, and SkateParkPV has a plan.  With the help of fundraisers, Parker said, “We are going to need to fundraise between $300,000 and $400,000 to make this possible.”  This should be successful, since the reception of building a Palos Verdes skate park has been mostly positive. Several students have also commented on the idea of such a community creation, “I could see how a skate park could help the city,” said Andy Kim, a freshman at Palos Verdes High School. “Although it could cause some trouble, a skate park would certainly help Palos Verdes.” Kim adds. Dillan Malikyar, also a PVHS freshman said that “a skate park here in PV would be awesome.”

Despite the many hurdles that this organization has been faced with, there is still hope for SkateParkPV through community donations and other fundraising efforts. Everyone who supports the organization is encouraged to get involved in its production. SkateParkPV obtains an optimistic outlook in the future of a neighborhood recreational skate park one day.