‘A space where everyone is welcome’
Mother of late skateboarder looks to bring ‘Brooklyn Skate Garden’ to life
BY BEN VERDE
An item on the participatory
budgeting ballot in
Council District 39 could
help one Brooklyn mom
memorialize her son —
and create a new public
greenspace for New Yorkers
just like him.
The Brooklyn Skate
Garden — proposed for
the Council district that
spans from Carroll Gardens
COURIER L 16 IFE, APRIL 9-15, 2021
and Cobble Hill
through Park Slope and
Kensington — would combine
concrete elements
of a skate park with lush
vegetation and accessible
walkways, making it suitable
for everyone, according
to the mother behind
the project.
“The goal would be to
make this a destination,”
said Loren Michelle,
who’s looking to build the
park in memory of her
late son Pablo Ramirez,
a skateboarder who was
killed on his skateboard
while commuting in 2019.
“This is for locals, but this
matters for Brooklyn and
New York City.”
The push to build the
Brooklyn Skate Garden
started in 2019 at a memorial
jazz picnic for
Ramirez in Prospect
Park, where friends and
admirers of Ramirez fi rst
hatched the idea to construct
a skatepark in his
honor. The organizers
have since hosted park
cleanups, mural paintings,
and other arts and
culture events to get the
word out about the initiative.
Now, the city’s Participatory
Budgeting program
could breathe new
life into the project.
Voters in Council District
39 can vote this week
to allocate $300,000 as a
“down payment” for the
Brooklyn Skate Garden,
and get the ball rolling towards
the millions of dollars
that will be needed to
fully fund it.
While the park’s
proponents haven’t yet
nailed down a location for
the greenspace, they are
working with the Park’s
Department to determine
the best location. Michelle
and the Pablo
Ramirez Foundation say
they envision a skatepark
formed in Ramirez’s ethos
that is as welcoming to
beginners as it is to longtime
skaters, and has the
potential to host all kinds
of gatherings.
Like Ramirez — who
was also a jazz drummer,
artist, and poet — the
Brooklyn Skate Garden
would be eclectic, offering
something for everyone.
“It would be a space
where everyone is welcome,”
Michelle said.
“There would be opportunities
to garden, there
would be opportunities
to paint, there would be
workshops, there would
be skate sessions, there
would be community
cleanups, there would be
music, jazz, there would
be poetry readings, there
would be ways that people
could picnic, people could
watch skateboarding. It’s
a skatepark, plus.”
The Brooklyn Skate
Garden would also be well
designed, with greenery
and public seating integrated
into the park, Michelle
said.
“How is it that we have
all these baseball fi elds in
Prospect Park, and soccer
fi elds, and everyone gets
to hang out and sit on the
grass and have a beautiful
picnic, and there’s not one
bench right here?” she
said while seated for an
interview on a concrete
planter in Washington
Skatepark in Park Slope.
Inside Washington
Skatepark, organizers
have been able to memorialize
Ramirez on a smaller
scale. They painted a mural
and planted a small
garden there in the fall, a
small hint at their larger
vision for the Brooklyn
Skate Garden.
With her local Council
district’s Participatory
Budgeting in full
swing, Michelle is working
hard to get out the
vote among local skaters
and their families. The
process, which allows locals
to vote for which capital
projects they’d like to
see receive Council funding,
is open now through
April 14 for constituents
as young as 11.
In the meantime, Michelle
says she’s continuing
to meet with the city’s
Parks Department to determine
the best location
for the garden while continuing
to brainstorm its
design with skatepark designers.
“A big part of what it’s
about is, ‘How do we bring
everyone together?” Michelle
said. “Young kids
could skate, teenagers
could skate, newbies
could skate. How could a
mother learn to skate and
feel comfortable? How
could people that have
never gotten on a skateboard
feel comfortable?
How could families come
and feel like it’s cool for
them to be here with their
eight-year-old?”
Ramirez, who was
born in New York City before
moving to San Francisco,
is remembered by
many for “changing the
way” people see skateboarding.
“Very few skateboarders
change the way we see
skateboarding,” Thrasher
magazine publisher Tony
Vitello told the San Francisco
Examiner at the
time of his death. “Pablo
did just that.”
District 39 residents
can vote for participatory
budgeting online at www.
pbnyc39.com/ballot/ until
April 14.
/