Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2003 | 11:19 a.m.
Tired of driving his children and friends 10 to 20 miles from his home just to skateboard, North Las Vegas resident James Ortiz is lobbying for a skate park near his home.
He has done it twice before. He hopes the North Las Vegas City Council will agree with him this time.
"There have been a lot of skate parks built lately and they are all over Las Vegas except North Las Vegas," Ortiz said. "Some kids that live around here don't have money for the bus or their parents don't have time to take them. We want a park here so everyone can skate and go home happy."
North Las Vegas is the only municipality in the Las Vegas Valley with no public skate parks. The closest ones are in Las Vegas city limits and unincorporated Clark County.
Ortiz wants a park that will cater to the many residents living in the fast-growing city, which, according to its website, has 137,691 residents as of January and has become the second-fastest growing city in the nation.
Ortiz, 31, is the owner of the Madland Boardshop on East Lake Mead Boulevard, and he has lived in North Las Vegas for 11 years but skateboarded elsewhere.
He said he skateboards at least four days a week with friends or his son, Alberto, 4, and his stepsons, Abraham Garcia 12, and Jose Garcia, 13.
Four years ago, Ortiz said, he noticed a flier that encouraged anyone interested in building a skate park to attend a North Las Vegas City Council meeting. In support of the cause, Ortiz and his friends showed up.
"We started to notice there were a lot of skateboarders. We had no place to skate because we were getting kicked out from everywhere," Ortiz said.
Ortiz and his friends, ranging from 18 to 30 years old, tried skating through parking lots and shopping centers but when customers and store owners complained, they were quickly kicked out by security guards.
"We'd get frustrated and go home," he said.
Upset the City Council had not taken any action, Ortiz and 30 skateboarders showed up again in August 2002, he said. This time Ortiz spoke, and says he was promised a park would be built within seven months.
"We were excited. It was a matter of waiting and then we would see something in the mail," Ortiz said.
Now, a year later, "not even a letter," Ortiz said. "It's like they put it on the side and forgot about it."
However, Gregory Rose, the acting city manager, said he was not aware of any promise to construct a skate park and the council is not planning to build a skate park in the future.
"Certainly we have parks as a high priority, but not skate parks," Rose said. "It boils down to the need. What is the need here?"
Rose said the council has not looked into whether funding is an issue and recommends the skateboarders bring their issues to the North Las Vegas Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.
Rose said many of the city's parks offer other types of recreation, such as basketball and tennis courts and areas for sand volleyball. The council will "continue to explore the amenities we offer in the parks meeting the needs in our community," he said.
The skateboarding trend has not only grown throughout the country but also in Las Vegas, Clark County Parks and Community Services spokesman Doug Bradford said.
"We think skateboarding is very popular. We see a lot of that activity and we always work with skate shops to create a design that is usable for them," Bradford said.
Bradford said Clark County does not have jurisdiction over North Las Vegas and it is up to that city to decide if skate parks are needed in the area.
Clark County has six skate parks and a seventh under construction at Cambridge Community Center, due to open in October. Las Vegas has 10, and Henderson has one, with another due to open next month as well. Even tiny Boulder City has a skatepark.
Ortiz isn't the first skateboarder to take action. In Philadelphia skateboarders are finding support from local politicians to lift a ban on skateboarding at Love Park in that city's downtown. In Boulder, Colo., skateboarders persuaded police officials to build an expanded park as a way to keep youths out of trouble.
Politicians in Long Beach, Calif., and Louisville, Ky. are also listening. Five skate parks are in the works and one will open next summer in Long Beach. Officials in Louisville spent $2.5 million on the first phase of a skate park that opened last year and will spend another $400,000 on enhancements and renovations for the park.
According to the National Sporting Goods Association, close to 10 million people over the age of 7 participated in skateboarding in 2002 making it more popular than tackle football and ice hockey.
Mike Hanley, North Las Vegas director of the parks and recreation, said there is a need for the parks as skating has become a national trend, but it's unclear how big the demand is in the city.
In addition, roadblocks have kept the skate park idea from going further, Hanley said. They include finding a location, getting funding and overcoming obstacles of operating and maintaining the park.
A master plan of the city's parks and facilities will be reviewed this fall and if the desire and resources are there, the North Las Vegas Park Advisory Board will be compelled to go further, he said.
He added that the skate parks do play a positive role in keeping children occupied after school hours and out of trouble.
"It takes a lot of athleticism and is a very healthy way for kids to blow off steam," Rose said.
Ortiz is getting organized for the Oct. 15 council meeting and is spreading the word to his customers, friends and other skaters to show up for support.
"As long as it involves some positive activity for kids so they are not on the streets," Ortiz said. "We all need a park."
Duane Alexander, a manager of Boardeep on West Craig Road, which sells skateboards, wakeboards and snowboards, agrees.
He said he sees children who lose interest in the sport because "there's not a park they can get to every day."
Many of his customers come in his store asking when a park will be built.
"If we could get them to build one across the street, it would even better," especially for his business, Alexander said.
Marcus Urrabazo, North Las Vegas' chief of housing police, backs Ortiz in his efforts. Also a Las Vegas native, Urrabazo said he wants the neighborhood's children to have a place to go to after school to avoid trouble and enjoy a park close to where they live.
Urrabazo met Ortiz two months ago when he came into Ortiz' shop to talk about his son's skateboard.
He noticed Ortiz gave away free skateboards to children who frequently came by the shop to look but could not afford to buy anything. He knew he wanted to help Ortiz.
"I liked what he was doing," Urrabazo said. "I told him maybe I can get some of my people together."
He said he sometimes takes his family to the skate park near Desert Breeze Park on Spring Mountain and Durango roads, but many children don't have easy access to parks around their neighborhood.
"I'm trying to get whoever I can. The kids really need it," Urrabazo said.
The Associated Press
contributed to this story.
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