Crews poured concrete into forms Tuesday morning as part of a skate park project in Sunset Dunes near Sloat Boulevard. An additional pour is planned for Thursday, according to workers at the site.
"For too long, skaters on this side of the city had nowhere to call home. Now, they’ve got one, and it’s at a beautiful community park right by the ocean," wrote Eliza Panike, volunteer with Friends of Sunset Dunes, in an email to Streetsblog. "Thank you to SF Rec and Park for making this a reality for our neighborhood.”
The skate area is part of the "Sloat Gateway" of the park, which includes an octopus sculpture and steel quick-build ramps for skateboarders and kids on scooters and bikes. Up until now, park features were made of materials that could be quickly installed and, in theory, also quickly removed. The concrete pour for the large ramp marks the first permanent infrastructure.
In other words, the status of Sunset Dunes is now enshrined in reinforced concrete.
This fact has not gone unnoticed, according to a recent story in the San Francisco Standard entitled "The latest outrage on the Great Highway: A new skate park." From the story, written by Max Harrison-Caldwell and David Sjostedt:
Anti-park factions were already angry about the swift transformation of the two-mile stretch of road, but the skate park’s construction this week has enraged them further.
The story explains that proponents of overriding the will of the voters and returning cars to the stretch of asphalt formerly known as the Upper Great Highway were particularly maddened by the rebar and concrete forms.
That said, even without the new concrete ramp, the skate park is already popular with children on scooters and bikes, learning to ride.
"Kids of all ages are loving the new bike play area at Sloat," wrote Lucas Lux, president of Friends of Sunset Dunes Park, in a text to Streetsblog. "It's been getting rave reviews from brand new bikers to more experienced ones, and it's bringing families together to enjoy our amazing new park. Just know that once you visit, you can expect your kid to demand multiple return trips–mine definitely has."
