AQUA ADVENTURE WATERPARK - CONCERNS

Many Fremont residents are not aware that two million taxpayer dollars are being spent developing a free Skateboard Park to border the new paid Aqua Adventure Waterpark. This one-acre project is expected to be completed as early as next August.

This new permanent skateboard park has now been moved a mile away from the nearest police station, so this arrangement is ideal for the skateboarders who choose to hangout and access drugs. Word will quickly get around on the Web and the presence of BART will bring more of this element to this new skateboard park from all around the Bay Area.

Skateboard parks are known for inviting in a criminal element. Even the Tony Hawk Foundation which makes money on skateboard sales inadvertently revealed that:
   <> major crimes are committed in skateboard parks
   <> a majority of police officers reported that once a skate park is built, there was either no difference or that it actually resulted in an overall increase in youth crime in their community.

The Livermore City Council thought they knew what they were doing when they allowed a skateboard park in their city. After the element that skateboard parks attract moved in and created havoc, the city council unanimously wanted to take back their previous approvals and were at a loss as to how to salvage the situation. This local lesson revealed that a skateboard park has to be located near a police station, otherwise it becomes a money pit. (check out the facts reported in the Livermore Times at www.skateparkcentral.com/News/Print%20Valley%20Times%203-31-2002.pdf ).
(Also note Golden Gate Park residents concerns in the San Francisco Examiner April 25, 2010 => www.sfexaminer.com/local/Polemic-skate-park-rolls-along-91977939.html  .)

While one can argue that anyone should be allowed to do what they want provided that it doesn't interfere with others, no one can argue that vandalism doesn't impact others. Cities waste millions of taxpayer dollars in cleaning up graffiti every year, again and again. Unlike other crimes, taggers want their efforts to be seen by as many as possible and for as long as possible. Choice spots are highly visible areas that many see each day, such as freeway overpasses and areas along train routes. (Note: BART going under Central Park eliminates the recurring cost of cleaning up visible graffiti that adds up over the years.) A prime spot, where over a thousand people a day would see graffiti is the new Waterpark. That site's visibility to easily see any police cars coming, will make for a field day for taggers during off-hours. It is a given that highly visible areas which include the towering waterslides will be covered with graffiti as each group marks its territory. Installing cameras to capture such activity would be of little use during off-hours, because taggers with any common sense would don a simple disguise and easy escape routes would prevent them from ever being caught by any alarms triggered a mile away at the nearest police station. Groups with any intelligence can also make use of cell phones to give warnings of police cars coming from a mile away.

The City of Fremont can't come up with even one reason why the Waterpark site benefits the activity of skateboarding or one reason why it benefits the residents of Fremont. (Apparently, it only makes a one-time job of a few city employees easier who don't even reside in Fremont.) It is irresponsible for the City of Fremont to even allow an unsupervised skateboard park to be located next to the Aqua Adventures Waterpark in a fragile area so distant from a police station, relying only on a superficial passing of patrol cars in what will be a futile attempt to keep crime at bay. The isolation from the nearest police station a mile away is going to make the new Waterpark an easy continuing target. It is no different than the isolated area of Livermore and history will likely repeat itself. The Waterpark won't have a chance in the off-hours and taxpayers will be stuck with forever footing the bills. Whatever revenue is coming in from the Waterpark will be substantially reduced after the Skateboard Park takes over and makes the Waterpark undesirable in so many ways. Like a juggler adding one item too many, everything may be lost.

Many residents are very concerned and only see an eventual "lose-lose" in this pending situation from all perspectives. The Waterpark cannot possibly get any benefit from putting the Skateboard Park nearby and the Skateboard Park would be bombarded with endless complaints from all of its neighbors. If the Skateboard Park were to remain near the site that it occupied for years next to the police station (where many if not most of the residents in Fremont believe that it still exists) it could be made a "win-win" (under proper supervision which includes WebCams) by attracting only those who intend to pursue skateboarding activity while discouraging illegal activities.

The time to do something about this is now, before the damage is done, rather than afterward, when it may be regretted by all. A major meeting is going to be held on Wednesday, July 21 at 7 p.m. in Building A of the City Council Chambers at 3300 Capital Avenue just off Paseo Padre Parkway to hear a presentation on developing this new one acre Skateboard Park next to the Waterpark. Please plan to attend and bring your concerns. In the meantime, email your concerns to mayor Bob Wasserman (bwasserman@fremont.gov), the city Council members (bwieckowski@fremont.gov, anatarajan@fremont.gov, bharrison@fremont.gov, schan@fremont.gov), the City Manager (fdiaz@fremont.gov), Parks and Recreation Director (aholland@fremont.gov). Write to the newspapers, post on the Fremont Citizens Network, voice your concerns at a Fremont City Council meeting (held most Tuesdays at 7 p.m.), or at least help spread the word in our community. If you attend the Waterpark, state your concerns to all those around you. In these trying times of major cutbacks, Two Million Dollars is especially a lot to waste and to allow it to be spent on inviting vandalism to the Waterpark is unconscionable. At the very least, let's get together to put the Skateboard Park back where it belongs, next to the police station where it was for years, rather than a mile away from the nearest police station which puts the Waterpark in such obvious jeopardy.
 
 
Please help to circulate this to taxpaying residents of Fremont ...