Insurance Article

Found this great article about insurance and skateparks. It says a "majority of cities wrap their skatepark liability coverage into their municipal liability policies, often with a $1 million deductible. A standalone policy for a skatepark allows municipalities to insure skateparks for $1 million in liability with a much lower deductible and eliminates the need to dip into their larger deductible for skatepark claims."

so... this just goes to show that the insurance issue is not one that can be used against the development of a skatepark. As with anything else, you just need to know what you're looking at and get underwriters that can assess the true risk involved with an activity.

Orangetown Skate Night

Come out and show your support for the skateboard community by packing out the temporary skatepark that will be setup at Veterans Park tomorrow night, August 2, 2011. From 4pm to 9pm (followed by fireworks) there will be some temporary, modular ramps that will be open to skate for the night.

Get a t-shirt and a marker and write on the back of it:
"Orangetown Needs A Skatepark" and let our voices be heard that we need a free, public skatepark in our town and county that we can all enjoy!

Sk8 Night info on the Orangetown website.

Insurance and Liability

A (not so) short bit of info from Who Skates? about insurance and liability and why using that to not build a skatepark should be a non-issue. Snipped from the Skatepark.org forum:

I agree ... regarding the fence creating more of a hazard. In Massachusetts a kid climbed an 8' fence to skate a park (after hours) only to break his leg inside the locked fence. The fence, like many others, did nothing to stop this kid from climbing it to skate nor would a supervisor have prevented the injury. Kids can scale an 8'er as easily as a 4'er and the only difference being the danger of the climb. And, of course, the perception by the kids that they are criminals."

The real question, however, is what other uses of public land are locked, require pads and helmets, waivers and a fee? Not playgrounds where very young kids can EASILY fall 6 feet or more. Not ball fields, walking paths which may be situated adjacent to rivers or steep embankments and not even bike paths where motorists whiz by only inches from riders. Kids are not required to wear helmets let alone sign in to Town hall to ride their bikes on publicly-improved and funded paths and they certainly aren't fenced and monitored. The irony is that all of this bureaucracy not only fails to keep our kids safe it actually INCREASES the municipality's liability..."

So, my questions to every city attorney and fear-teacher who wants skaters treated like criminals-in-the-making;

A.) Please cite specific examples of any other use within the municipality with such strict rules and safety requirements and please cite examples where these measures have had a statistically positive impact.

B.) Has the municipality ever had any calls for an ambulance at any other sporting field or public place. This would be important to prove that although most cities receive daily or weekly calls for the ambulance there are no similar rules or supervision in place which would have prevented that injury.

C.) Has the municipality EVER had a claim of negligence brought against them by a participant in any other sport.

D.) Please give a statistical reason for such rules. The reason should not be based on speculation or conjecture and should be backed by statistical data showing children are at an elevated risk of harm if these measures are not in place.

E.) Please provide detailed analysis showing that a paid supervisor, generally an untrained teen or young intern, will keep kids from injuring themselves or others. We all know teens do NOT react well to peer supervision and history has shown us that the pad nanny will actually increase tension and problems at the park. History has shown that when a pad nanny is at a skatepark they spend all of their time on their cel phone or reading, NOT watching the kids. Further, the nanny is not going to run out and catch a kid who is in the process of falling.

F.) Statistically, skate injuries come in the form of broken wrists and arms, sprained ankles and bloodied faces (chins, noses, teeth) none of which are a common source of litigation. Because skate injuries are generally self-inflicted it is all but impossible to prove negligence on the part of the municipality in an injury claim.

G.) The aforementioned list of common injuries suffered by skaters is NOT preventable by pads or a pad nanny. No fence, supervision or rules are going to stop kids from rolling their ankles, breaking their wrists (statistics show that wrist guards cause breaks of the Radius and Ulna) on a little tiny 2-set or landing on the tail of their board and breaking a tooth. Parents need to raise their children, even the stupid ones, and leave the Cities to the task of balancing their budgets.

We built parks in Yonkers, Saugerties, Queens and the Bronx in 2010 and NONE of those parks have pad rules or nannies. Saugerties and Yonkers have small ornamental fences and are closed during the winter and Yonkers is locked at night. The NYC parks are wide open, 24 hours a day and have no rules... I think if the inner-city skaters can handle it the 'burbs should be pretty safe...

Over and out...

Still seeking ideas for potential locations for the park.  Not a lot of room at the Cedar Hill/Franklin park in South Nyack for a park, and open space is planned for other uses.  We are seeking more locations.  Some possible places include:

Memorial Park in Nyack:
- Largest area in Nyack
- best central location
- undergoing renovation process at this time.  Plans are fairly far along, but as it's not built yet, there may be hope, with enough popular support, to lobby for a park to be included in the renovations.


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Undeveloped land by waterfront in Nyack:
- privately held
- would need to secure property by town/village
- long shot...


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Property for sale (Acker Holdings):
- privately held
- would need to secure property by town/village
- long shot...


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Hill by Middle School:
- don't know status of this. Just drove past today and saw it.

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Small undeveloped area at Depew and 9W
- two houses just built on this property, but still undeveloped space.
- owned by ???  close to thruway...

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Old High School / Boces:
- finding room there with the other ballfields could be a challenge.
(They skatestopped the ledges here at one point, but hope springs eternal...)


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...anyone got other ideas? Our goal is to have something within Nyack Village/ South Nyack/ Upper Nyack so that it would be skateable for anyone that lives in the area. Please send them to us at  nyackskatepark@gmail.com
We are always interested in getting more people involved.

Awesome park just "officially" opened in Astoria. 12 parks now in the 5 boroughs. Parks Dept estimates a Million skaters in NYC. Skateboarding is not underground anymore, people! http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2010/10/26/2010-10-26_skateboarders_paradise_as_new_skate_park_opens_in_astoria_park.html

South Nyack planning committee

Met with the South Nyack planning committee tonight and opened a couple eyes to the skateboard community that is circulating outside of their radar. Floated the possibility of building something small that could fit into an existing park, maybe on Franklin and Cedar Hill. Talked about the many options, big and small, that are out there now in the world of Skatepark design. Concerns were mainly about the space needed for a spot/park and with liability. But, some very interested people in that room. Definitely giving me hope for the future.

On a related note, can we get a statewide law that says skateboarding is dangerous to lift the liability issue? Please?!!? Yes, we know we can get hurt doing this! Its our choice! Lets free up the people that want to let parks happen from the worry of liability!

facebook page

For those of you on facebook, our group page is listed here Nyack Needs A Skatepark.  Please "Like" us and show your support here as well.  Any ideas you have about the park can posted there or via e-mail to us at nyackskatepark@gmail.com

We have had some preliminary contact with the village halls of Nyack and South Nyack and some other local organizations to see about potential locations.  Also been talking it up around town, floating the idea of the park for the locals.  The response has been pretty good so far.  Petitions are out a local shops and online.  If you haven't signed, please show your support! 

If you live in the area, come to town and don't walk, SKATE!  Show people that there is a population of skaters in their midst!