When I was in junior high, some high school kids from the cul de sac just across from my house had gotten together and built basically an entire skatepark in the empty lot across the street behind my house.
The city tore it down after a month saying bullshit about fights breaking out and people causing a nuisance despite it being pretty far from the nearest houses (which at the time were the ones on the same street as mine; even with the windows open and someone having their stereo out there at full volume you couldn’t hear it from the house) and everyone being chill as fuck never fighting or causing problems; just kids skating and hanging out.
Similar projects have been torn down by cities for doing it. In some cases, yeah, fuck that homeowner for encroaching on public land. In others, it was just fixing a stairway that was degraded, in which case fuck that city for being dicks.
There are some local kids fixing the BMX track at the council “maintained” park near us. There are also some other locals who maintain the bench at the top of the park under the trees, with a wonderful view.
The two council-installed benches are out in the open; one has a view of a bunch of houses which face the park and the other has a view of a large tree-trunk.
No shit. I had the same thought yesterday. Driving by some old derelict public wall and thought that, if I was the neighbour, I’d fix up for my own sake. Property value and just general appearance. Then I thought more about it and figured that I’d better call the municipality and hear if they had plans with it before wasting my time.
I never considered turning it into skate spot though. That would be a lot more work and I’m already involved in building a proper skatepark elsewhere.
Anyway, if this was close to my house, I’d totally do it.
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