SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Taylor Thomas is not impressed by the city's skateboard park, which is tucked away behind fences near St. Joseph School.

Taylor Thomas, 22, holds one of the flyers he is posting around town lobbying for a new skate park in the city. - Evan Kiyoshi French/NNSL photo

The 22-year-old skateboarder said he is ready to go "all in" to convince residents that the city's young skaters are not what they're perceived to be, and that investing in a new skate park is worthwhile.

"This is gross," he said sitting on the half-pipe at the skateboard park. "It's not designed the way that a skate park should be designed. I've seen little towns with populations of two or three thousand and they have amazing skate parks. We're the capital of the Northwest Territories and we've got a hunk of junk."

The park was built on asphalt, said Thomas, which is a cardinal sin in permafrost territory. The ground has cracked, ramps have risen away from the ground and it all means the park is of no use to skateboarders, said Thomas. On top of that, he said, the location is not open enough. The park needs to be somewhere in clear view of the public to discourage bad behaviour.

"You do get a lot of kids here doing things that they probably shouldn't be doing," he said. "If this was a nice maintained skate park that was up-to-date, if they didn't fence it in so we feel like we're caged in, it would be a more open part of the community where parents could come and not have to worry about their kids."

Thomas is a member of the Rock, a skateboarding group affiliated with national Christian organization Young Life. He said the Rock has received funding from city council for about nine years for funding to set up temporary indoor skateboard parks at the Multiplex during the summer and Mildred Hall School during the winter. Renting arena space for two nights a week during the summer costs around $400, which has added up to more than $25,000 over the years. With arena space highly coveted, the group has to compete with other athletic organizations for floor time.

"If we just had a real good skate park, we wouldn't be asking for money from the city all the time," he said. "And these other (sports groups) would have the arena way more."

Taylor said he went to a skateboarding convention in Vancouver in May, where he learned that building a skate park in Yellowknife could cost between $40,000 and $80,000.

"I know that some cities have said it's a 10-year process," he said."But if this is the start of the 10-year process then so be it."

During city council budget deliberations in June 2011 for the 2012 budget, moving the skate park was on the table as a possible capital project. According to figures presented to council it would have cost upward of $500,000.

Mayor Mark Heyck said he remembers the motion that would have moved the skate park between Ruth Inch Memorial Pool and the McNiven Beach tennis courts. He voted in favour of the motion but it was voted down by the majority of councillors due to the concerns of tennis players.

"Tennis is a game of concentration," he said. "They felt having a skate park next to the courts would be too noisy for the game of tennis to be played properly."

Heyck said he hasn't heard skate park proposals at council for many years but that he'd be welcome to hearing it brought up again if residents want it considered.

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