Skater culture will supplant 'lowrider' era when Portrero Del Sol skatepark opens

By Sarah Bogen

With the Potrero Del Sol skatepark scheduled to open in June, supporters say it will add even more life to the Mission District and put San Francisco back on the map as a skateboarding city.
Tall bushy trees and grassy hills hide most of the 10,000 square feet of concrete ramps, rails, and kidney-shaped bowls that make up the 25th and Utah Streets project, which is still walled off with steel construction fencing. From the nearby James Lick freeway, drivers may be able to spy a few ramps and, if they’re lucky, even see some of the workers trying out the features.
The facility, part of a $2.7 million refurbishing of the community park, has been eagerly anticipated for five years and will symbolize the epic coming together of two underground San Francisco histories.
From the late 1970s to early ‘80s, the Chicano “lowrider” movement flourished in the streets of the Mission. The lowriders would slowly cruise the streets in their elaborately customized cars, which became vehicles of self-expression and culture. Eventually, police banned them from the streets and let them congregate in the park, which the lowriders called “La Raza” park.
Meanwhile, other Bay Area youth were exploring something else new: street skateboarding. The city became their playground and their boards became their means of transportation. They formed a subculture of their own and, in the process, created a new sport.
“I don’t think people in the mainstream know that street skateboarding started here,” said Shawn Connelly, a veteran skateboarder.
Skateboarding in public was often unwelcomed by others, and skateparks tended to be built in dangerous or unpleasant parts of the city. Now, decades later, Potrero Del Sol is going to be their place to hang out. But it’s taken five years of development to make it happen.
In 2000, the city’s Skateboard Task Force recommended the plan, according to Bryan Hornbeck, co-founder of the San Francisco Skate Association. It got funded through the Parks and Recreation Commission.
Connelly said that because San Francisco skate culture has been dead for the past decade, the city became known as the “graveyard of skateboarding.”
Not only was skateboarding in need of a revival but so was the area around the park and under the on-ramp. Before the building of the skatepark, this area was encamped and dirty.
“It was always dark, scary, and not doing much to activate the neighborhood,” said Lynn Valente, who lives very close to the park.
Valente sees the skatepark as a positive use for the area because the people who use it will want to keep it maintained.
“People will come to this park from all over the world.” said Thorin Ryan, owner of Mission Skateboards on 24th and Treat streets.
Ryan opened his shop five months ago partly in anticipation of the new skatepark but also because many youth in the Mission like skateboarding.
“The park will give kids something to do,” said Jeremiah Michaels, a former skateboarder. “Kids go bad because of their environment, not because they choose to ride skateboards for fun.”
Connelly founded the San Francisco Skate Club and is excited to use the new skatepark for some of his lessons. He has been having to take his students outside of the city to use a skatepark.
There are a couple months left of landscaping so that the park will be truly complete, said Sage Bolyard, Project manager for Dreamland Skateparks, the company building Potrero Del Sol skatepark.
Concept designs by Grindline, the company that designed the skatepark, can be found on the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department website.