The Votes Are In!
2024 Readers' Choice is back, bigger and better than ever!
View Winners → Community Aug 19, 2022
A bowl at the Channel Street Skatepark. | Photo courtesy of CBS News
by
share with
Channel Street, a popular skate park in San Pedro, will reopen Sunday eight years after it was closed.
The park was constructed in the early 2000s under the Harbor (110) Freeway without a permit and quickly became a hub for local skaters. But it was closed in 2014 after Caltrans began work on expanding the freeway.
Councilman Joe Buscaino said he helped the San Pedro Skate Park Association work to “overcome heavy bureaucracy” to reopen the park legally.
“This reopening will be a historic day in San Pedro,” Buscaino wrote on Facebook. “Skaters have often in movies and popular culture been depicted as slackers. But these skaters who originally built, and now saved Channel Street, are some of the best people in our society. They should be the envy of every neighborhood group hoping to accomplish something for the greater good of community.”
With help from architects, planners and others in the community, the association received a final permit from the city to resume operations, according to Buscaino.
A documentary about the process will debut at the next SXSW Film Festival in Austin.
Buscaino will attend the reopening ceremony Sunday, which begins at 12 p.m. at 600-620 W. Channel St.
Edit: Buscaino’s office now states that the documentary shot and produced by April Jones is not scheduled to debut at SXSW Film Festival in Austin. It is being submitted to various film festivals.
