Community / Presented by Think Iowa City
The Old Grind Iowa City’s skatepark is a multigenerational crossroads. But it could use a facelift. BY IZABELA ZALUSKA
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eff Keyser fondly remembers he and his friends riding their skateboards past the Iowa City skatepark as it was being built back in 2002. Keyser was in middle school at the time and had already been skateboarding for a few years. He got into skating in the late ’90s after he and his brother got Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater for the PlayStation 2. He thought it would be cool to learn how to do the tricks that are done in the video game. “We would hop on the bus, and we’d go downtown. We’d get off at the main bus station by the Old Capitol Mall, and we would ride our skateboards down Dubuque Street and check on the progress,” Keyser said. Now in his 30s, Keyser still considers himself a regular at the park. “I just remember being super excited to have a big outdoor concrete park, which when I first started [skateboarding], I wouldn’t have even thought that that was something that we would ever have.” That excitement for the nearly 20-year-old skatepark hasn’t gone away. If anything, it’s only increased as more and more skaters have used the park. Local skaters of all ages who spoke with Little Village expressed enthusiasm for skating’s more socially acceptable status in town and the “home away from home” that has been cultivated at the IC skatepark. But some of the skaters also recognize there might be ways to make the park even better for skaters of all skill levels, and they have started discussions about potential improvements ahead of the City of Iowa City’s slated six-figure renovation of the skatepark.
‘It’s far more than just a skatepark’ While skateboarding was popular in Iowa City a decade ago, it was a different scene before the skatepark was built. Back then, there were wooden ramps with sheet metal coverings on them in the parking lot at Mercer Park. The park is right next to Southeast Junior High School, so after school got out, Keyser would grab his board and meet 44 July 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV296
up with his friends. The group would skate on the ramps and then take the bus to the University of Iowa campus and weave through downtown streets. “It was kind of like the gathering place to hang out, but it was ... just kind of a completely different vibe than when they built the big outdoor concrete park that we have now,” Keyser said. Vince Onel, who grew up in Iowa City and now lives in Los Angeles, said he and his friends skated at Mercer Park from time to time, but it was more difficult to get over there since they lived on the other side of town. Onel started skateboarding in the mid-’90s when he was about 10 years old. Onel mostly skateboarded in his neighborhood with his friends, and it wasn’t until he began taking the bus into downtown Iowa City that he realized how many other kids were also skating. Both Keyser and Onel, who met each other through skateboarding, recalled being chased by police downtown. Other than the ramps at Mercer, there wasn’t really a legal place to go and skate—until the skatepark opened. “I think the city recognized there was a need for a safe and designated place for kids to go ride
their skateboards, and the police wanted somewhere where they could tell people to go skateboard,” Onel said. The Iowa City skatepark opened in October 2002 at Terrell Mill Park. It was built by MBA Concrete Inc. of North Liberty. The initial cost estimate for the park was $300,000, but the final cost was $380,000, the Iowa City Press-Citizen reported in 2002. The park was constructed with concrete along with stainless steel edging and coping. There are a number of bowls, grinding walls and rails, acceleration bumps and other features. There weren’t many concrete skateparks in Iowa at the time, Onel said, adding that Iowa City was “ahead of its time.” “There were few municipalities in Iowa at that time who even recognized a need for a skatepark, so I would say Iowa City was pretty progressive in that sense to even consider building a skatepark,” Onel said. “... When they put in this concrete skatepark, we were all pretty blown away and really excited.” Once the skatepark opened, Onel said he would go every single day up until he left Iowa City to go to college in Los Angeles. Onel now
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