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Marginal Way Skate Park Interview
It’s a community of people that have a stake in the park for the skaters of Seattle. We raise the money, we build it, we maintain it. It’s a public skatepark, built by the public. When we get a truck of concrete, everyone is ready to build.
We sat down with Marginal Way founders Dan Barnet, Shawn Bishop & Tim Demmon to get their Perspective.
Photo by Dan Barnet of Max airing a gap that was only around for a few months before it was poured, closing another chapter in the park’s history
What drove you to create a skate park on town property?
Knowing that it had happened before in Portland, San Diego and places like that. Those guys looked at the lack of skateable terrain, went out, found derelict property, and built it themselves. The real impetus here was the city was tearing out existing skate parks in Seattle with no plans of replacing them.
Why did you build it where you did?
We spent a good month trying to find a good location. The spot we found on Marginal Way was city property under an over pass, used as an overflow parking lot by businesses in the area. The reality is though; it wasn’t the kind of place anyone wanted in the area. There were people living in their cars dealing drugs, prostitution, anything we did we figured would be far more positive than anything going on there originally. Despite the fact that what we were doing was illegal, it was illegal in a much more positive way than everything that was already going on down there.
Despite the fact that what we were doing was illegal, it was illegal in a much more positive way
What was the first day of construction like?
Once we identified the spot we thought, are we going to do this or not? Then we said, we’re going to do this next Sunday! If anyone is going to join us, be there. Tim and I got some materials together, cut some plywood forms ahead of time and showed up. We didn’t know if we were going to get arrested or what, but we got away with it, so it was cool. Throughout that first day 20 some odd people came in and out. Some showed up and gave us $20 and left, others just dropped off a bag of concrete. Most people wanted to be there, but didn’t really know if we were going to get away with it. A few days later we were skating it.
Photo by Dan Barnet of the first concrete feature (left) you can still skate today now part of much longer 40’+ wall ride
Did you have a plan to build a legit skatepark?
I don’t know if we set out to build a giant skate park or not, but we knew it was a possibility; we were just going to take it from there. At that time we just had a small quarter against the overpass wall but we sessioned it for a few months before we built another ramp.
How did you know how to build a concrete park?
We all saw enough parks built to have an idea of how things went together but one guy Greg was in the concrete union that skated who we couldn’t have started without. He never built a park but at least he knew how concrete worked. So between his knowledge and what we’d seen we were able to figure it out.
Putting the finishing touches on a truck load of concrete donated by Planet Earth to complete the new bowl
What was the city’s reaction?
Soon after we built the second ramp, the city started poking their nose around and letting us know that they knew what we were up to and if someone didn’t get in touch with them to take responsibility, they were going to tear it all out. At that point, we started with a two prong approach. On one side, we opened communications with the city, on the other side we created an all out media blitz to get the public on your side. It just seemed like thing to do, we had to go from completely under the radar to on the radar and play the sympathy card, “the city won’t give us anywhwere to skate and is going to tear down our only spot.” In my experience, a little shame goes a long way, so we shamed the city to let us keep going.
How did the media help you?
There was an article in the Stranger, and people started rooting us on. There was a really sympathetic article on TV one night so even the way the media was portraying the story was slanted against the city. One of the things we did during media blitz is register marginal way www.skatepark.org. Even though it definitely wasn’t a skatepark, it showed we wanted to make it one, and made people think of it more legitimately. Once we called it a skatepark it sounded grander than it was.
Did you officially get permission to build on city property?
Initially their concern was liability but I educated them on the fact that in the state of Washington there was a recreational sports law that says “any public or private entity is not responsible for injuries as a result of recreational activities such as skateboarding etc. on their property.” Seattle has a long history of skateboard advocacy so we worked with those people that were already in with the city and once they realized they were talking with responsible tax paying adults, they were much more open to listen. So we did eventually get a letter of permission from city to build the park on their property. One of the things we asked them for is mitigating the prostitution, homeless problem, so they gave us a row jersey barriers to keep people from parking there. The jersey barriers were a skateble feature and later became a foundation to build bigger walls on top of and are still under there.
Photo by Dan Barnet of Tim hand mixing concrete from the days before the concrete & pump trucks
Who’s responsible for building and managing the park today?
One of the rad things about marginal way is we take credit for getting the ball rolling, but it’s since built it’s own community that continues to pick up speed, now with it’s own life force that’s bigger than just us or any one person involved. It’s a community of people built up around the park, that have a stake in the park for the city, the skaters of Seattle and those that want to work to make it bigger and better. We raise the money, we build it, we maintain it, we do everything. It’s a public skatepark, built by the public.
We build it as we can afford to, one concrete truck load at a time.
How much time & money does it take?
It’s not like a public park where an engineer draws it all out and then you build it all at once and it’s done. The fact that each part of each section is built separately at a different point of time, often by different people is what makes skating it so unique. Each section has a different look and feel so the park as a whole is constantly evolving. We’ve been at it for over five years now and spent close to $30,000 to create the 10,000 square feet we’ve got so far. We build it as we can afford to, one concrete truck load at a time. We raise the money by holding events, barbeques, concerts, selling tee shirts, and receiving all size donations online and from companies, it all adds up. One section was paid for by a members of Pearl Jam that skates, another by Redbull when they needed a large flat area to hold a comp and more recently we just finished the shallow bowl thanks to a concrete truck load of cement donated by you guys at Planet Earth Clothing.
What’s marginal Way’s future?
Right now we’re still trying to expand into more areas of the parking lot. Its like an art project, it will probably never be complete, we can always change or redo something or repair a section that can be improved. It’s not like a city skatepark where it’s done, this is going to be forever evolving.
Photo by Dan Barnet of the before and after shallow bowl construction
What would like to tell other skaters?
Its great in this day and age to create something to the scale of marginal way without any city or business or government financial backing. You don’t have to wait for the government to give you a hand out. Anybody can do this, all you have to do is start building and see what happens. Sometimes you’re going to get a way with it and if you do get away with it, and build one thing at a time, you’ll have a skatepark.
Max testing the new bowl’s freshly cured concrete. Photo by Dan Barnet looking through the same gap seen earlier in this interview now finished
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Tags: DIY skatepark, Marginal Way Skatepark, Seattle, skate park, skateboarding
