Thursday, July 12, 2007

Help Create a Bike Park in Grass Valley!

As you may know, I have been advocating on behalf of a bike skills park in Grass Valley for several years now. This facility could include dirt jumps, teeter totters, a pump track and more. The Grass Valley Parks and Recreation Commission has generally been supportive, but they need to hear from you. We need to convey that there is significant community interest in this project. If enough of us speak up, I have no doubt that this facility will become a reality.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

Please submitting a letter the Parks and Recreation Commission using the following sample letter as a template (see below). Also consider forwarding this email:

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Parks and Recreation Commission
City of Grass Valley
123 East Main St.
Grass Valley, CA 95945

Dear Commissioners:

This letter is intended to express my support for a bicycle skills facility in Grass Valley, preferably in Condon Park.

Such a facility would terrific recreational asset for the City.
A bicycle skills park serves similar functions to a skatepark, as it enables both young and old riders the chance to use and improve their skills. Kids love to expand their abilities on dirt jumps and obstacles at these parks. Such a facility provides a vital opportunity for children to get away from the TV and go get some fresh air and exercise.

Such facilities have been successfully implemented elsewhere in Northern California on municipal land, including Pleasanton, San Jose and Folsom. With proper construction, appropriate layout and compliance with environmental standards , these examples have proven that liability and risk can be reasonably managed. It is possible to use supplemental volunteer labor to construct such a park for a very reasonable cost as compared to other public recreational assets.

Thank you for your consideration.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

where are these other skills parks?
if they are legal the general public would want to know....
as a forestry rep i could help but i need to see these other places for comparison, i would only anonomously observe until such time as i may choose to get involved. i do support the cause
signed.....
---low key---

John said...

Thank you for the comments. In NorCal, there are bike skill parks in Folsom, San Jose and Pleasanton. Mountain View is planning for one.

Any help you can provide would be great!

Anonymous said...

heak yeah! my bike crew and I have been trying to build bmx jumps everywhere but people keep tearing them down. so we have to go in the skate park for any good riding and we get kicked out a lot! So a public bike area would be fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know if there has been any progress on sanctioned dirt jumps in Grass Valley? Is there a city council meeting or something coming up soon? I just want to build jumps without them getting torn down.

John said...

The City of Grass Valley has been very hard to work with. I am also trying to get things going in Nevada City, which has expressed some interest.

Unknown said...

what can i do to help? anything besides the letter?

Anonymous said...

i completetly support you on this, i just got a dirt jumper and dont know any places to ride. word on the street, there might be a skills park popping up in nevada city in that dirt patch behind SPD