It's hard to imagine kids in New York City complaining they don't have a good street-oriented skatepark when the entire damn city is one big skatepark. But like any major metropolitan area whose architects inadvertently made everything with marble and begging to be skated, the owners of said spots don't want you skating them (they pay very big men with batons to make sure you don't). It's not unheard of to spend an entire day skating around Manhattan without getting more than a couple tries at any given spot. Sometimes you just want to actually skate when you go skating and so I can understand a need for a good skatepark in Manhattan.
Luckily, Manhattan has New Jersey native and owner of 5Boro Skateboards, Steve Rodriguez, as the city's guardian angel of skateboarding. Most everything positive that has happened in NYC skateboarding in the last few years is thanks to Rodriguez. He organized the "Wild In The Streets" jams at the Brooklyn Banks for years until he realized the shadow cast by the bridge was bad for filming, so he had the city rebuild the bridge (which should be completed in two years). He also helped in the planning of the Queens Skatepark for the Maloof Money Cup and most recently he was awarded a GameChangers grant, with help from Nike, to reface the dilapidated Coleman Skatepark under the Manhattan Bridge in the Lower East Side.
Last month, on June 20, the most solemn day in skateboarding (Go Skateboarding Day -- skateboarding's answer to Valentines Day and Secretaries Day), the Coleman Park was finally reopened and christened with a session by Nike's heaviest hitters including: Paul Rodriguez, Ishod Wair, Eric Koston, Alex Olson and a slew of others.
When you watch the video or go visit Coleman Skatepark you'll quickly realize Rodriguez created the best skatepark in all of New York City, which is unbelievably important in this day and age. If we don't have training facilities for kids to practice then how is anyone ever going to beat Nyjah Huston? And that is why we all got into skating right? For Lil Wayne and to win Street League!
