Skatepark Association cleans up Lincoln Park
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YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown Skatepark Association organized its annual city park cleanup Saturday at Lincoln Park on the East Side.
YSA's park cleanups are part of its overall goal of establishing a permanent public skate park in Youngstown. According to Zack Felger, chairman of YSA's board of directors, YSA believes that Lincoln Park is a suitable location for a permanent skate park.
"We did an event here last year where we helped clean out the park, because we believe this park would be a great home for a recreational asset like a free public skate park," Felger said. "We want to give back, and show the city that we're invested in this."
Along with the cleanup, YSA has begun building its own skate park in an abandoned section of Lincoln Park.
"We're actually constructing a DIY free public skate park here where the old pool used to exist. It's been relatively abandoned for the last 20, 30 years," Felger said. "Now we're sort of reclaiming that space, revitalizing it and turning it into an asset for the community."
YSA's volunteers were assisted in the cleanup by Green Youngstown, the city department that manages recycling and littering prevention. The department provided them with tools to help with environmental beautification in the park
"That was a big part of what we were doing over there today was doing a lot of landscaping, and making it look presentable," Felger said. "When people come down and recreate there, we want them to think it looks nice."
Aside from the benefits of cleaning up the park, Felger believes that Youngstown can benefit from having a safe recreational space like a skate park as a way to improve its reputation among those who view the city negatively.
"There's always a bad stigma with the city of Youngstown unfortunately, and part of that is really trying to change the mindset of those outsiders and bring them in to show them that the stigma's not always true," Felger said.
"That skate park is ultimately gonna provide a space for safe recreation, that healthy active lifestyle I'm talking about. But we got to put in that sweat equity to help make it happen first."
YSA will be holding a pop-up skatepark event in Lincoln Park on Saturday. The event will be open to the public.