TOM FUDGE: I am Tom Fudge, you're listening to Midday Edition. Community activists in City Heights have been lobbying for years to get a skate park in their neighborhood, and now it looks like they have the money to do it. City councilmember Marti Emerald announced that the city has received a $4.5 million grant from the state Department of housing and community development, that will go to build skate parks in City Heights and Linda Vista. The one in City Heights is planned for Park Delacruz, just south of Cherokee Point Elementary School. It is expected to cost $1.75 million. This is a very big deal for the kids in City Heights, who skateboard. You don't, meanwhile, see it as a way for the kids to have fun, get exercise, and stops skateboarding on city infrastructure. Joining me to talk about this are Leslie Renteria and Marnie Purciel-Hill. Thank you very much for being with us today. Leslie, the push for a skate park him out of an incident where a member of your counsel was hit by a car while skateboarding. Can you tell us about that story? LESLIE RENTERIA: About five years ago, one of our members was ran over and injured, for a couple of months, and that sparked interest on attaining a skate park in City Heights. We have more than 100 skaters in City Heights, and most of the time they are skating on city for structure. TOM FUDGE: As a result of this, he is doing okay, right? LESLIE RENTERIA: He is better. TOM FUDGE: This happened a few years ago? LESLIE RENTERIA: About four years ago. TOM FUDGE: So this campaign really came out of that, you could say. You have canvassed the local community with this idea. When you talked to people about creating a skate park in City Heights, what were some of the things that you heard? LESLIE RENTERIA: We usually go and speak about the benefits that the youth will get in City Heights, most of the time, people believe that it will cause a mess in City Heights, and youth will be becoming more violent, or doing graffiti, which most of the time is not true, it's a stereotype with skaters. TOM FUDGE: We will talk with Marnie more about this, Leslie, there are no other skate parks close enough to City Heights for the kids to use them? LESLIE RENTERIA: The closest one is forty-five minutes away. It's at Logan Heights, many skaters go over there to skate. TOM FUDGE: Midcity CAN work with you to get an assessment of this state park, what is a health impact assessment? MARNIE PURCIEL-HILL: HIA is a research and community engagement process, it brings together data, health expertise, and stakeholder input to identify dental health effects of proposed decision, and they can make the conditions that improve policies for health. The health impact assessment is a way for health experts to collaborate with different public and private representatives, to provide health information that helps proponents of decisions and decision-makers to make informed policy decisions. TOM FUDGE: So you looked at the impact on physical activity, right? MARNIE PURCIEL-HILL: That is one of the things that we looked at. TOM FUDGE: What did you find we did the study? MARNIE PURCIEL-HILL: We actually made a production about how many youth in City Heights might get more physical activity because of the skate park, and we looked at national statistics of how many skateboarders there are in the country, and then applied those statistics to City Heights. TOM FUDGE: Leslie told me we have about 100 skateboarders in City Heights. MARNIE PURCIEL-HILL: We predicted more based on the national statistics, but nationally, it's about 6% of the population that you would expect to be skateboarders. And so, just applying those statistics, it's more like 1400, that's what we said, we had a lot more. TOM FUDGE: All right, Leslie, when you talk about skateboarders, you're talking about someone who knows how to do tricks, or somebody who just someone who knows how to get from here to there? LESLIE RENTERIA: We talk about anyone who uses a skate park, but we focus on those who do it as a hobby, who do tricks and use it as a distraction for their space. TOM FUDGE: These are the people you expect to use the skate park. Going back to Marnie, you look at physical activity and came to the conclusion that these 1400 skateboarders would get more exercise if they use the skate park. MARNIE PURCIEL-HILL: We found about one in twelve that could be influenced to get more physical activity, that included core skaters and casual skaters, and also people who could be run over to skating as a result, they would be interested to check it out. TOM FUDGE: Aside from physical activity, what are the other areas in your study? MARNIE PURCIEL-HILL: We looked at youth development, safety from injury, and safety from crime in the community. Youth development and that being the big highlight of what we found. TOM FUDGE: What is youth development? MARNIE PURCIEL-HILL: It includes a bunch of different things, it's the positive side of youth development, it's a sense of self, self-confidence, feeling like you're contributing to the community, feeling socially included, having leadership skills and skills themselves, having social support, and we found that skateboarding would have a positive effect on youth, with the skate park. It improves self-esteem, motivation, and build skills and divide social support systems, and provides opportunities for leadership. TOM FUDGE: Leslie was saying that skateboarders have a reputation of being countercultural, antiestablishment, juvenile delinquents, I think you said you found that is an unfair stigmatization? MARNIE PURCIEL-HILL: We found that skateboarders are no more likely to engage in vandalism, graffiti, drugs, and drinking, then other youth. In fact, our findings indicate that deporting and skate parks could actually keeping youth out of trouble and on the right track. Public evidence shows and youth that we talked to in City Heights confirmed that skateboarding is a source of motivation, learning, and leadership. We had one youth who put it well, he said you learn something new and it shows that you can keep learning and it keeps you moving forward, and he also mentioned to succeed, you have to fail, so it teaches the sense of being able to get back up and try again, and have a sense of satisfaction when you get something that also helps you stay motivated to keep trying. That was one positive thing that was found. TOM FUDGE: Leslie, what are you hearing from other skateboarders? Do you skateboard? LESLIE RENTERIA: I don't, I'm just an advocate for the skate park. TOM FUDGE: What have you heard on the issue of better self-esteem, trying again we fail, have you heard those kinds of things from peers? LESLIE RENTERIA: I have, we actually have various skateboarders within the youth council, they always say that they feel targeted by police, and they feel they need somewhere else to skate. They think if they had a place to skate safely, it would be better for them to improve skills, and they would feel better and safer. TOM FUDGE: I know that the skate park has not been built or designed, I know that you are not a skateboarder, but what goes into a skate park? What are you expecting to see there? LESLIE RENTERIA: We've had many ideas within the council, there are a lot of railings, boomboxes, I'm not a skateboarder, but there are certain little objects in there. TOM FUDGE: Hills and half pipes, that kind of thing? LESLIE RENTERIA: Yeah. TOM FUDGE: What have you heard from focus groups in terms of the skate park, kid saying what they want there, or residents who have concerns about the skate park going in? LESLIE RENTERIA: Many of the youth have had an opportunity to design a smaller version of the skate park, they usually want rails and pipes. TOM FUDGE: I was meaning to put that question to Marnie, I know you've done some focus groups for the health impact assessment, what have you heard from people? MARNIE PURCIEL-HILL: We talk to people more about how the skate park would affect them in terms of health areas that we looked at. We did make recommendations, I'm not sure if that was what you were getting at, about how to design and implement the skate park. We did hear people wanted it to be a collaborative process, so I think adding as much input from members of the community as possible, in terms of design and rules and regulations, and relationships with law enforcement, and we also made recommendations around programming to prevent exclusion, so everyone feels like the skate park is theirs. TOM FUDGE: Did you hear from concerned homeowners? MARNIE PURCIEL-HILL: We did talk to some people about the safety of the area, they actually felt that the skate park, and we saw this with other research, that the skate park would make sure that the area stays active, which is good for public safety to have a well used space. I think having a group of youth that feels protected by the space and feels a sense of ownership, that can be good for safety. TOM FUDGE: Leslie, have you spoken to any homeowners that live near Park Delacruz, that are concerned about this park? LESLIE RENTERIA: We have, we went canvassing last November, and there were areas where homes and parents and community members were against constructing this skate park. They think it would be a place where loitering will happen more, and City Heights is known for kids just hanging around, I think they are against that. TOM FUDGE: Okay, so do you expect that you will have to win over these folks before the skate park goes in? I think it has not been permitted or designed yet, I guess that is something that could stand in the way. LESLIE RENTERIA: We have canvassed more than usual, and there are more supporters, I think we will be able to overcome the people who are against it. TOM FUDGE: Leslie, given how long you have worked on this, what does it feel like now that it looks like it will go ahead? LESLIE RENTERIA: It's a great accomplishment, I think the City Heights youth and the city council should feel proud of what they are getting for the community, to improve youth slides and accomplishing youth needs, because that is something that we struggle to get what you want, in order for them to have a better future. TOM FUDGE: Do you think that the health impact assessment was key for getting the money to do this? LESLIE RENTERIA: I can't really answer that, but I feel it did show support, it was a way for backing up with the youth council has been doing, and it showed data and statistics on how the youth will have benefits from this. TOM FUDGE: Before we are out of time, Marnie, I wanted to ask you about health impact assessment, are they commonly used by city leaders to make decisions like this? MARNIE PURCIEL-HILL: Are getting more and more popular, the youth health impact assessments across the country are exploding. Whether they are common, I think they have not gotten to that point yet. TOM FUDGE: For instance, I think you give one example of the situation in Wisconsin, where health impact assessments helped to create alternatives to incarceration. MARNIE PURCIEL-HILL: They are being done in a variety of sectors, that was in criminal justice policy, that HIA actually informed decision-makers about the benefits of treatment alternatives to incarceration, and resulted in more funding for those programs.
It turns out skateboarding, despite its reputation as an extreme sport, is safer than football and basketball. That's according to a new report commissioned by the community group backing a new skate park in City Heights. The report also takes on concerns about skaters' high rate of contact with law enforcement and how to bolster gender equity in such a male-centered sport.
The deep dive into the health benefits and implications of a potential development is a burgeoning trend in the planning world. The Mid-City CAN Youth Council began working with Human Impact Partners, a group pushing for such reviews for projects in low-income neighborhoods, on the health impact assessment last fall. Their goal was to garner public support and money for the skate park, which has since received full funding through a state grant. But city and regional leaders say they're increasingly widening the scope of their reviews beyond CEQA and its focus on air quality, geology and traffic patterns.
"There are more and more studies linking our built environment with public health," said Colleen Clementson, a principal planner with SANDAG. She said concerns about the role a project could play in an area's obesity rates (by encouraging or discouraging walking) are now as important to planning discussions as whether the development could add carcinogens to the air.
SANDAG has done two pilot health impact assessments this year – one looking at the 47th Street trolley station in Encanto and another looking at border improvements in San Ysidro. Clementson said SANDAG has also trained two staffers to conduct health impact assessments and will include one in its San Diego Forward regional plan, which lays out how the region will grow and how its residents will get around through 2050.
Bill Fulton, the city of San Diego's outgoing planning director, said his staff is working health impact assessments into the community planning process and the city's pending climate action plan. Fulton said the added benefit of using such tools is that they help the city document a broader range of health data and the kinds of projects and infrastructure that move the needle on those health indicators.
Clementson said the new assessments do add costs and time to an already long and cumbersome planning process. The trolley station report cost $80,000, the border report cost $110,000 and SANDAG has set aside $90,000 of its $659,000 environmental review budget to do a health assessment of its big regional plan.
But Clementson and advocates of the health reviews say they could mitigate costly oversights in the planning process. The City Heights report, for example, recommends looking at the sidewalks and streets skaters will use to get to the skate park. While skateboarding may be safer than football, skaters can't avoid the craggy sidewalks and busy streets that cause many of their injuries. That's something that might have been lost on consultants or planners penning a traditional environmental review.
