Long-awaited skate park breaking ground in Fort Worth’s Near Southside
Fort Worth is getting a skate park in the Near Southside.
The revamped Fire Station Park near Hemphill Street and West Allen Avenue will include a skate plaza and dog park.
“Fire Station Park is a shining example of a community working together, devoted to creating a park that reflects the desires of the residents,” parks department director Richard Zavala wrote in an email.
District 9 council member Elizabeth Beck said the park shows how the city can provide amenities tailored to the needs of communities rather than using what she called a “cookie cutter approach.”
She also joked that her kids asked her if they would finally get the skate park built after she was elected to the city council after the June 2021 runoff.
Plans for the park began in December 2016 when nonprofit Near Southside Inc. sponsored a series of meetings about expanding Fire Station Park. The skateboarding community lobbied for a skate park as the central feature of the expansion.
The construction is expected to cost $1.6 million. Magnolia Skate Shop raised $80,000, and foundations contributed $300,000, which was matched by Fort Worth-based Dickies.
Building the skate park is an opportunity to give back to a skateboard community that’s been growing in the Fairmount neighborhood for the past 10 plus years, Magnolia Skate Shop owner Bobby Wilson wrote in an email to the Star-Telegram.
“For us it’s all about the nature of skateboarding and the narture of community,” Wilson wrote.
The park is expected to open in October.
This story was originally published January 11, 2022 at 11:26 AM.
.jpg)