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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Sunday, June 22, 2008 Everett's skate parks really need an adult presence By Julie Muhlstein, Herald Columnist As the crow flies or the bicyclist rides, the new Wiggums Hollow Skate Park is a quick trip from my north Everett home. As the mom of a boy with a Plan B skateboard poster on his wall and scrapes on his knees, I'd like to say my 9-year-old has a fun new place to go. School is out, and word is out. My son's neighborhood buddy has been talking for months about the long-awaited Wiggums Skate Park. Its completion took nearly a year longer than expected because of design work and an underground spring. It's open at last. On Friday, kids on boards, bikes and skates were soaking up sun and trying out gravity-defying tricks. From everything I saw, I'd like to say I wanted to bring my boy to Wiggums Hollow at the first opportunity. I'm sorry to say, that's not entirely true. Within a few minutes of sitting on a bench to watch skaters, I heard -- loudly -- the F-word spewed in an astonishing number of ways. I watched a preteen girl, wearing a pink shirt, a ponytail and inline skates, make her way up 10th Street and cautiously enter the park. She left a few minutes after getting there. The worst thing wasn't what I saw, but what -- make that who -- I didn't see. With all those kids, some as young as 5 or 6, there wasn't one parent at the Wiggums Skate Park Friday morning. That's a shame. It wouldn't take many adult observers to tone down the nasty language. Andrew Brown, 23, loves the new Wiggums Hollow Skate Park, just blocks from his Everett home. "I come every sunny day," said Brown. "There are places to grind and a lot of low stuff. It's a good place to learn." Even so, he's reluctant to bring his 4-year-old son to the park. "I don't want him coming down here with people talking like that," Brown said. He's seen a few sights since the skate park opened that raised his suspicions of gang activity. "There were four guys dressed in the same colors, with no bikes and no skateboards," he said. Just over a week ago, 30-year-old Sarah Black was arrested in an investigation of a gang-related shooting in south Everett. Black, who has a felony conviction related to a 2003 drive-by shooting, allegedly told police she is a leader in a violent gang, MS-13. Before her recent arrest, she lived in public housing on Fir Street, not far from Wiggums Hollow Skate Park. An incident such as Black's arrest shouldn't taint an entire neighborhood that works hard to build a safe community. What the specter of gangs should do is put a place on watch. Here's what I really wish I'd seen Friday at Wiggums Skate Park: an Everett police officer. Since my son became interested in skateboarding two summers ago, I've become a skate park hanger-on. I've put in hours on benches, with magazines and coffee, while my boy has tried out his wheels on ramps, rails, banked areas and other skate park features. I've never seen him wound much except pride, when he was too timid to drop in a bowl with a bunch of big guys looking on. Two years ago, I was taking him to the skate park at Everett's Walter E. Hall Park on W. Casino Road. After a 2007 shooting at that park left two men injured, we never went back. For the past year, I've been taking him to skate at Mill Creek Sports Park. Most every time we go, we see not only parents, but a Mill Creek police officer on a bike. The bicycle cop isn't a constant presence -- the place doesn't feel like a police state. The officer stops by often enough that kids expect to see him. I've seen the Mill Creek officer enforce park rules, like the time he told a friend of my son's that scooters aren't allowed in the skate park. On Friday, Veronica Bowman was at the Mill Creek skate park keeping an eye on her 11-year-old, Sean. "I think here, the city of Mill Creek stays on top of it and watches over it," Bowman said. Sean Bowman was wearing his helmet. At Wiggums Skate Park Friday, there wasn't a helmet in sight. I know what you're thinking. Mill Creek versus northeast Everett. Of course one is rougher, right? Perhaps, but that shouldn't mean giving up before the Wiggums Hollow Skate Park has a chance to be the fun place I'd want for my child. Sgt. Robert Goetz, a spokesman with the Everett Police Department, said the Walter E. Hall and Wiggums skate parks aren't specifically targeted for patrols, but are visited routinely as part of officers' beats. "They make themselves visible in those areas when they can," Goetz said. He is encouraged by Everett Parks and Recreation Department's plans to hold teen concerts at Wiggums Hollow on several Saturdays this summer. "That's part of changing the atmosphere, having community activities in a park," Goetz said. "The reality is, if we have community involvement out at the parks, those parks will not be attractive to people who want to use them for nefarious things." On Saturday at noon, the city of Everett will dedicate its new skate park. It will take more than ceremony to make it a place worth celebrating. Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlstein@heraldnet.com. Wiggums Hollow Skate Park A grand opening ceremony for the new Wiggums Hollow Skate Park is scheduled for noon Saturday at the park at Poplar and 10th streets in Everett. Wiggums Hollow Park will also host a teen music series this summer, from 2 to 4 p.m. on several Saturdays. June 28: Eclectic Approach; July 12: Handful of Luvin'; July 26: Left Hand Smoke.

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