Meeting summary notes with 2022 action items here.

Personal notes prepared going into the meeting

Story

• First thank you for being here. I can’t tell you how much this means to me. I’ve been telling almost everyone I talk to about the city’s interest to help with this project! What would you like to see from the project?

• Let me start by acknowledging that this is a very difficult systems problem that I don’t have the answer to, but I hope provide a new angle to consider.

• From the area, moved away for a few years, had the opportunity to work remote in 2018 (even more common now, let’s take advantage) and wanted to move back close to family.

• Pittsburgh is a tech hub, but living near pittsburgh is expensive.

• meadville is close to pittsburgh, erie, NYC (weekend road trip)

• But people like me want things to do where they live. They care about schools and activities for their kids. People want to live in unique places. When I travel, I don’t remember the Starbucks, I remember the unique coffee shops.

• My vision

  • A “community park”. Not a “skate park”. Today when my wife comes to watch me skate, there is 1.5 picnic tables and absolutely no shade. I’d love to see this be a place where families go for the day, and kids play on a playground while their older siblings learn to skate. Where parents take yoga classes or walk laps. I’d love for folks to enjoy long summer nights with cookouts under the skatepark lights. Where we host local music talent and food vendors. I want this place to be something that kids remember for the rest of their lives and what keeps them tied to meadville. I think the events that we host are what will make wherever we choose to invest. We could build ramps for relatively cheap anywhere that has a decent parking lot (roach park, huidekooper, etc.)
    • And for the kids that don’t have supportive families, I hope the other families at the community park welcome those kids into their families. Supporting them.
    • My mom loved inviting the kids who didn’t have a good home over.
    • Think if families like Patrick Jackson, a professor at the college whose kid is learning to skate got to know the familiar faces at the park. He’s already got to meet a few.
    • I’m thinking of starting with free Pizza at the Park once a month on Friday during the summer. See if maninos (local family-owned business) would donate a pizza and I’ll buy a couple. See if this event grows the community. You have to have a board, bike, scooter, rollerblades or something (football, baseball, etc.)
  • Allegheny is a hub for this city. Also they help establish new family ties to meadville.
    • I think we get a student to paint a big mural that inspires young kids.
    • And I think we leave a majority of the park as a blank canvas for the next generation of artists. And host a “paint the park” event every year where we “reset” the canvas back. If the park becomes something big enough maybe there could be sponsorships from local business for signs or murals (we might have to expand the canvas) “Donate a ramp” campaign where you get to choose the theme for that year.
      • I think this event could attract folks from the surrounding areas.
  • We could “reset” the canvas annually for more people to get involved and feel part of the project.

• So what about the park?

  • Let’s align. What’s realistic?
  • I’d love to see it expanded, but just from looking at the 2022 budget, I dont see much investment in parks, so I don’t know what is realistic. It appears that we depend primarily on donations for park budgets.
    • In addition to the Skatepark Project Foundation, where else could we look for grants with this more generalized vision of a “community park”?
  • Minimally, we need to rebuild a couple of the smaller obstacles, resurface others and maybe rebuild the foundation on others.